China’s Oceanwide Holdings, which has made a series of major U.S. real estate acquisitions in the past three years, has partnered with Kerzner International to develop a Atlantis resort on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Oceanside acquired the land in two separate transactions last year.
The agreement was reportedly arranged by Colony Capital chairman Tom Barrack Jr., whose investment management firm also holds a major stake in Kerzner.
“Following the success of the Atlantis concept in Dubai and the Bahamas, and with Oceanwide’s interest in the resort sector, we thought it was a conversation that needed to happen,” Scott Barrack, Colony’s China representative told Mingtiandi.
The two groups began discussing the potential cooperation last year in Beijing, with Oceanwide agreeing to spend a total of $290 million on two separate land purchases over the winter. Oceanwide closed on its acquisition of the sites on Sept. 15, according to a statement by the company to the Hong Kong stock exchange.
The Atlantis project in Hawaii will be close to Disney’s Aulani resort and spa in the master-planned 642-acre Ko Olina Resort in West Oahu.
Kerzner signed a cooperation deal with China’s Fosun International to build an Atlantis resort in Sanya, Hainan province (pictured above), in 2013. The $1.7-billion project topped off this summer and is expected to open in the second half of 2017.