b'Front Rowto HistoryHotelier Gordon HentschelIn the mid- to late-1980s, Hawai`is economy was booming. Fueled by both residential and commercial real estate sales, and strong demand from both Japan and the Mainland U.S., prices skyrocketed. Stories of Japanese investors knocking on doors in Honolulus Kahala district with suitcases filled with cash looking to buy homes were not uncommon. Resorts were opening seemingly one per month somewhere in the state. Development was afoot in every corner of paradise and visionaries dreamed big dreams. Anything and everything was possibleand in some cases, anything and everything happened.Forexample,tellshotelierGordonHentschel,People were ready for this kind of resort, Hentschel remarked in the time that developer Chris Hemmeter bought 105 draft1983. You cant lose sight of the fact that the deluxe traveler is looking horses in CaliforniaClydesdales, Belgians, and Percheronsfor a fantasy, and the ultimate is a hotel with international flavor andloaded them on a 747, and flew them to Kauai to pull themaximum pampering.carriages at the opening of Kauai Lagoons! At Waikoloa, Hentschel, Hemmeter, and Hyatt took the fantasy to the next level with the 1,240-room Hyatt Regency Waikoloa (now the Hilton Waikoloa Village), which opened in 1988. Here, guests were thrilledwalkingunderwaterfalls,swimmingwithdolphins,riding Disney-esque transportationyou get to your room either by monorail or mahogany launchenjoying internationally themed restaurants, and being awed by oversized Asian and Pacific artwork the likes of which had never been seen in a hotel before. Ive got to hand it to Chris, Hentschel says. He created the fan-tasy resort concept and everyone else mimicked.Hentschel also played an instrumental role in the early development of Waikoloa Village, co-developing the construction and sale of the Waikoloa Highland Shopping Center with another Waikoloa Resort visionary, Ron Boeddeker. Boedekker and Hemmeter had similar personalities, he muses. Indeed, they were both big dreamers, and at that time in Hawai`i, big dreamers could be very successful.5 0'