The Waikiki Biltmore Hotel was a

resort hotel A resort hotel is a hotel which often contains full-sized luxury facilities with full-service accommodations and amenities. These hotels may attract both business conferences and vacationing tourists and offer more than a convenient place to sta ...

Waikīkī Waikiki (; haw, Waikīkī; ; also known as Waikiki Beach) is a neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii, Honolulu on the south shore of the island of Oahu, Oahu in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Waikiki is most famous for Waikiki Beach, which is one of six ...

Honolulu Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...

, Hawaiʻi, that operated from 1955 to 1974. The Biltmore was the first high-rise hotel on Waikīkī but operated for only 19 years, after which it was demolished and replaced with the

Hyatt Regency Hyatt Hotels Corporation, commonly known as Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, is an American multinational hospitality company headquartered in the Riverside Plaza area of Chicago that manages and franchises luxury and business hotels, resorts, and vacat ...

History

Permits were filed for an eight-story hotel in March 1953, with

groundbreaking Groundbreaking, also known as cutting, sod-cutting, turning the first sod, or a sod-turning ceremony, is a traditional ceremony in many cultures that celebrates the first day of construction for a building or other project. Such ceremonies are o ...

taking place in November of that year. Joseph Greenbach constructed the building, which opened on February 19, 1955. Construction cost $4 million. The hotel was built on the site of Canlis Charcoal Broiler, the first restaurant opened by Peter Canlis, which opened in 1947. The opening was met with great fanfare, including a flight from California chartered by Greenbach. The hotel opened with 247 rooms, featuring amenities such as the Top of the Isle club on the 11th floor, the Kiki Room, and the Luau Lounge. D.N. Ivanitsky and R.G. Wanabe were the architects of record. In late 1955, Greenbach sold the hotel to Massaglia Hotels, Inc. The hotel was sold again to the Kimi chain, operator of the

Hukilau A hukilau is a way of fishing invented by the ancient Hawaiians. The word comes from ''huki'', meaning pull, and ''lau'', meaning leaves. A large number of people, usually family and friends, would work together in casting the net from shore and th ...

hotels, in 1966 for $2.5 million. The Kimi owners spent $100,000 on a renovation, but a planned renaming never occurred. In 1973, a man fired a shot at a woman sitting at an adjacent hotel from a room at the Biltmore. The hotel suffered a small fire on the 10th floor in August 1973 caused by a discarded cigarette, and a larger fire in November 1973 that destroyed the second-story Port O' Paradise nightclub.

Closure and demolition

The King's Alley shopping center opened near the hotel in 1972, and after the hotel's purchase by developer Charles Hemmeter there were plans to renovate the hotel as part of a $20 million area rejuvenation. In 1973, the hotel began offering monthly rentals due to an oversupply of hotel rooms. By 1974, the plans had changed to redevelop the hotel as two 40-story towers, which became the

. The hotel was imploded at 8 a.m. on May 28, 1974.

References

{{Ref-list 1955 establishments in Hawaii 1974 disestablishments in Hawaii Buildings and structures demolished by controlled implosion Buildings and structures demolished in 1974 Demolished hotels in the United States Demolished buildings and structures in Hawaii Hotel buildings completed in 1955 Waikiki