In the story of the "Three Bears," as anyone who ever heard a fairy tale may recall, Goldilocks walks into the bear family’s empty house, where she samples their food and their accommodations. She learns that she doesn’t care for the extremes (too hot, too cold, too big, too soft), but she keeps managing to find a choice that’s just right.
"Kauai, to me, is like the Goldilocks story," says Brent Herrington, president of Kukui’ula Development Co., whose private residential community is the first new luxury development on the island of Kauai in more than 20 years. Herrington encapsulates the Kauai difference by comparing it to other Hawaiian islands. He reminds us that tourism in Hawaii began only about 50 years ago, when Oahu was developed, and "Don Ho and grass skirts seemed exotic to Americans on the mainland," he says. "In the ’60s, the perception was indistinguishable from Tahiti and Bali." He mentions how the building boom moved to Maui in the 1970s and ’80s, and that the Big Island also has large pockets of development.
In contrast to these islands that may represent "too much" to some, "at the other end of the spectrum are Lanai and Molokai, with virtually no development," says Herrington. "They’re very beautiful but sleepy; there’s not a lot to do."
Then there’s Kauai. With its stunning beaches and rain forest interior, and ringed by a collection of small towns that dot the coast and date to the plantation era, when agriculture was the island’s biggest industry, Kauai is relaxed yet has a sense of culture. Herrington recalls the first time he saw the thousand-acre parcel that was being presented to his employer, DMB Associates, and he describes it as an "aha" moment. The land was on the south shore of Kauai, near Poipu Beach. "It was the ideal site for a community," he says. "Magnificent views, the right topography, accessible by air. You could check off every box. Everything lined up."
After devoting about four years to building infrastructure, the private Kukui’ula community opened in June 2011, when it unveiled a $100 million club facility that includes a plantation-style clubhouse, a Tom Weiskopf championship golf course and golf clubhouse, a 20,000-square-foot spa, a collection of swimming pools that cascade from one to another, and a village with shops, galleries, and restaurants, and which is the site of a weekly farmers’ market and a monthly Art Walk, among other events.
All these facilities were finished by the time the first homes were ready for their owners. Currently the number of homes completed or under construction is about two dozen, but Herrington says the company has entitlements to build as many as 1,500 homes, and his outlook is for gradual but steady growth over the next 20 years. And although the past few years were what he describes as "a terrible market," the company’s successful founders program, in which buyers had their first pick of homesites, was closed after $100 million worth of real estate was sold.
Residences are clustered in three groupings, with the smallest neighborhood consisting of 15 Club Cottages, which are adjacent to the Plantation House and are about 2,200 square feet each. The plantation-style architectural features include a split-pitched roof, screened lanai, dark ipe wood flooring, and outdoor garden showers, and owners can opt for a guest cottage or a garage. The cottages are designed for LEED certification, and they start at $2.35 million, fully furnished.
Cottages in the Makai neighborhood can range from 1,500 to 3,800 square feet. The location borders the first four holes of the golf course, equidistant from the Plantation House and the village. Options can include such niceties as tropical gardens, gas torch outdoor lighting, and infinity or plunge pools. The Makai cottages start at $2.2 million; homesites are one-quarter to one-third acre and start at $1 million.
Finally, the Mauka neighborhood consists of estate lots and custom homes, individually designed for the owners, with homesites starting at $800,000.
Founding members Terry and Cindie McMahon were among the first to move into the Mauka neighborhood, and they had no trouble envisioning Kukui’ula as home. "We’ve been coming to [Kauai] with our kids and extended family for more than 25 years, to the Poipu area," says Terry, who is a trial lawyer in Northern California. "We stayed on other islands first, but they were too crowded. But every time we would come to this island, we wanted to buy." So in 2007, the McMahons met with a Realtor who told them about something new—Kukui’ula. As Terry recalls, "It was the roughest of construction sites. There was no golf course. But you could see it could be exceptional, and that there never would be another community like it."
Now the McMahons can sit on their lanai and see humpback whales and schools of dolphins cavorting in the Pacific, or gaze up at mountains behind them, or at a coffee plantation to the west, or at the fairways of the now-finished golf course, which winds through 216 acres of orchards and gardens, besides offering ocean views. They are enamored with the course (though Cindie describes hole number seven as "evil"), but they also take advantage of other sporty offerings.
Kukui’ula’s Island Pursuits program is led by a staff that guides members in diverse adventures that can be strenuous or relaxing. The concierge-like service can arrange lessons in stand-up paddle boarding or outrigger canoeing, or a day of sea kayaking with a picnic lunch, or a session on making leis.
The feature that most directly references Kauai’s agricultural heritage is the Kukui’ula community farm, which Herrington describes as the amenity that residents cherish most. The farm belongs to the members, and they can harvest the fruits and vegetables for their daily meals, anytime they want. "We’re standing in God’s greenhouse—no matter what you put in the ground, it will grow," says Herrington. At any given time, the harvest from the red soil might include vegetables and fruits of all kinds: papaya, citrus, pineapple, bananas, chard, herbs, and other fresh ingredients that show up on the residents’ tables or in the restaurant at the Plantation House, in what chef Ben Takahashi dubs "red earth epicure cuisine."
The farm also has a lake stocked with peacock bass for catch-and-release fishing. For many residents, a visit to the farm is the first thing they do when they arrive at Kukui’ula. The staff puts up notices of what’s ripe and where to find it. And if it’s a spur-of-the-moment stop for someone who’s not attired for digging, no worries. "If you drive up and aren’t dressed for digging in the dirt, there are Crocs, aprons, and baskets," says Herrington. "The members are attuned to farm etiquette; they take only what they need for the day’s meal."
The McMahons describe a farm day as a highlight of a visit last summer with their extended family, ages 11 to 82, when they all picked fruits and vegetables, had a picnic, and fished. As Cindie recalls, "everyone caught a fish, but my 82-year-old mother caught the biggest."
Though Terry McMahon is still busy practicing law, eventually the couple plans to spend more than half the year at Kukui’ula. "The features are amazing," he says. "And we’re not overstating. We’re understating."
