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> One of every 25 Maui residents is in the real estate business. Says Teney Takahashi, 40, the energetic. Oahu-born president of Amfac Communities—Maui, the island's first bigtime real estate developer: "I'm not kidding you, we just can't build 'em fast enough." Francis Blackwell, 54, Boston-born executive director of the Maui County Visitors Association, boasts: "We have more millionaires per capita than any other place in the country, including Palm Springs." To which Kapalua Land Co.'s Oregon-born vice president, Michael Gallagher, 36, adds: "How many more rich people can there be in the world? Where can they be? It's frightening."
There is little likelihood that Maui will be another South Sea Bubble. A brake on runaway development is the island's limited water supply, to which agriculture has first claim. Moreover, a real estate developer is compelled to divert equivalent acreage to cropland for every acre he takes out of production. Mayor Cravalho foresees a maximum future growth of 35% in hotel and condominium construction. Meanwhile, Maui has the lowest real property tax rate and bonded indebtedness in all of Hawaii. Its pricey real estate is bolstered in value by such intangibles as ambience and climate, but also by solid surroundings: beaches, swimming pools, stores, arts and crafts centers, restaurants, a tennis stadium there are already eight golf courses, almost back to back, at least one of international caliber, and two more are abuilding. Ekahi condo owners alone have access to two golf courses, four swimming pools and eleven (soon to be 24) tennis courts. When not in use by its owners, a three-bedroom town house can rent for up to $260 a night; if shared by two visiting couples with children, the rental can provide cheaper lodgings than a hotel, and greater independence (they can wear swimsuits for a home-cooked dinner).
The first and still biggest pleasure complex to sprout in the wilderness, in 1962, was the Kaanapali Beach Resort on Maui's west coast, overlooking the cloud-capped, green-velvet islands of Molokai and Lanai. On 470 acres girdled by three miles of wide white sand beach, Kaanapali has more than 2,200 rooms divided among the Sheraton-Maui, Royal Lahaina (the island's largest), Kaanapali Beach and Maui Surf hotels. Other Kaanapalitan lures include two championship golf courses (several couples each year get married on the 18th hole); 20 tennis courts; Whaler's Village, a 30 store shopping complex; and an airstrip from which Royal Hawaiian Air Service whisks the visitor in Cessna luxury to and from Honolulu. Henry A. Walker Jr., chairman and president of Amfac, Inc., owners of the resort, is developing a $4 million, seven-acre Hawaiian Sea Village, ressurrecting the islands' ancient arts and crafts. A few miles to the north is Kapalua, whose Bay Hotel opened last October. Operated by Rockresorts, the 196-room hotel has a superb golf course (the 334-yd. 13th green is framed by two beaches); another course is under construction. On the southwest coast is the charming 350-room Wailea Beach Hotel and its two golf courses, which also opened in 1978. The adjoining, three-year-old, 600-room Inter-Continental Maui is perhaps the chain's most elegant hostelry; it put up 2,500 honeymoon couples last year.