Source: Maui Time, Maui News, Best of Maui, Maui Activities

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Who's the county's most powerful player?

by Anthony Pignataro

October 25, 2007

MAUI PRINCE NOT "UPSCALE"? ENOUGH FOR DOWLING

It takes an especially powerful man—one not at all encumbered by our middle-class notions of tradition, modesty and history—to look at a 310-room luxury hotel on the Makena coast, with its expensive restaurants, golf courses and magnificent, jungle-like atrium that's full of trees, birds, rushing streams, waterfalls and even a nature trail (all built a scant 21 years ago) and see a veritable poverty pocket that needs to be knocked down so he could build an entirely new hotel that's, in the words of one union official, "more upscale."? But that's exactly what Everett Dowling is considering doing to the Maui Prince Hotel, according to the Oct. 17 Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Did I mention that the Maui Prince is just 21 years old? That's right—built way back in 1986. It was a magical time: the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded shortly after lifting off, Ferdinand Marcos decided to go into exile here in Hawai"˜i after two decades of ruling the Philippines and President Ronald Reagan effortlessly cruised into the Iran-Contra constitutional scandal. If it all seems like yesterday, it's because, well, it was.



RANK PREVIOUS COMPANY

1 1 Tesoro Hawai`i 

2 3 Monsanto Hawai`i

3 2 Alexander & Baldwin

4 7 Dowling Co. 

5 4 Maui Land & Pineapple Co. 

6 5 Weinberg Foundation

7 6 Wailuku Water Co.

8 8 Goodfellow Brothers

9 9 Maui Electric Co.

10 10 Hawaiian Telcom



GOING TO SEED CROP

New estimates from the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS, to its close friends and relatives) says our state's seed crops will be worth nearly $100 million this year, according to the Oct. 15 Pacific Business News. And naturally—the use of the word "naturally"? is, naturally, meant to be ironic—this is great news for Monsanto, which is one of the state's most prolific producers of seed corn that's genetically modified to resist Monsanto-produced herbicides. According to PBN, this new estimate shows a "five-fold increase since the 1997-98 growing season."? MTW