In
the press, Larry Ellison, founder and CEO of Oracle, claims that he plans
substantial investment in Lanai Island (Hawaii’s 6th largest island)
and support to create jobs and stimulate tourism. We wonder if he will bring
technology companies to Hawaii, move Oracle or one of his other Silicon Valley corporations to the island, or just use the island as a getaway and reward
destination for his top sales people?
Lanai
Island has been owned by billionaire David Murdock since 1985 and he apparently
plans to continue to maintain a home there. Ellison purchased the island
for about $600 million and takes on its annual losses of about $20 million a
year. The sale includes the island's two hotels, the Four Seasons at
Manele Bay and the Four Seasons Lodge at Koele, two golf courses, and more than
88,000 acres of land. The 88,000 acres include the Koele and Manele
residential properties, Lanai City, stables, a shooting range, two water
companies, a transportation company, and part of a solar farm that sells power to Maui Electric Company. Lanai
Island is in Maui County along with the islands of Maui and Molokai and the
state, county of Maui, and a few private property owners retain the remaining 2%
of the island. The island is said to be down to less than 2000 residents
since the slowdown in tourism to the island.
We
live on the island of Hawaii, which has its share of billionaires who hide deep
within the tripled gated Kukio complex and dine at the Four Seasons where the
staff use code names to protect their identities. We drive by their
private jets parked in rows at the Kona airport. The purchase of Lanai
Island by Ellison is a whole new game in the rise of software billionaires and
their private retreats. Will he create an even more secure location for
billionaires and their collections of private jets or will he use his
substantial wealth to invest in the infrastructure required to resolve the
barriers Hawaii has to becoming a major technology center in the Pacific?
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