Turtle Bay owner restructures debt, names Stanford Carr as top manager

The owner of the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu has reached a settlement with its lenders and has named prominent Hawaii developer Stanford Carr as its new top manager.

Kuilima Resort Co. announced Friday that it has reached an agreement with its lenders Credit Suisse and Wells Fargo to restructure a more than $400 million loan that had been backed by the assets of the resort. A $283 million mortgage foreclosure lawsuit was filed by Credit Suisse against Kuilima Resort last December.

The settlement will allow Kuilima to seek an investor or buyer for the property, which includes hundreds of undeveloped beachfront acres.

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Carr has been chosen by the lenders to serve as the interim management officer to oversee the operations of Kuilima Resort Co. and seek an investor. He replaces Nicola Jones, CEO of Kuilima.

"We're very pleased that a settlement has been reached as this now reopens the door to a wide range of prospective investors," said Jones said in a statement. She served as CEO of Kuilima since May 2006.

Carr is CEO of Honolulu-based Stanford Carr Development, which has resort and residential projects on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island. He also owns Pacific Island Realty, the exclusive broker for his developments.

Kuilima will continue to hold the title to the 858-acre property, the company said. An affiliate of Los Angeles-based Oaktree Capital Management, which owns Kuilima, will continue to hold the title to the 470 acres of agricultural property near the resort.

It's not clear what the settlement of the foreclosure action may mean for Gov. Linda Lingle's plan to buy Turtle Bay and the surrounding area to prevent it from being developed but settling the lawsuit would be an obvious first step in marketing the resort to prospective buyers, presumably including the state.