Peaks and Valleys

A history of Girdwood and Alyeska

Chapter 10

By Chris von Imhof
Special to the Turnagain Times

After the purchase of the 80 acres of land from the Municipality of Anchorage, the planning and design process for the new Prince Hotel and the Tramway and upper terminal really started to happen.

After I moved to Hawaii, the company selected several Japanese General Managers and Mr. Michio Kobayashi was the official in charge when the hotel project got started.

Larry Daniels was project manager and had a big job ahead of him. It was a big and challenging project and took several years to get the necessary approvals from the MOA for the structural and building design.

Alyeska worked closely with DOWL Engineers and RIM Architects and also had a Boston Architect firm, Sasaki and Associates, that were part of the design team.

I must admit since I was busy working on my Hotel and Resort operations in Hawaii I was not actively involved, even though Mr. Tsutsumi scheduled several of the meetings in Hawaii with the Alyeska team.

In 1986 we opened the the grand 310 room Maui Prince Hotel at Makena Resort.

It was at that time one of the finest resort hotels on the Islands, with all rooms facing the ocean right on Makena Beach, elegant restaurants, tropical landscaping and our scenic Makena golf course.

At that time, the economy was booming in Japan and everything was built first-class.

Our company at that time also purchased the world famous Mauna Kea Beach Hotel and Resort on the Kona Coast of the Big Island.

In 1987, Prince Hotels also purchased a choice piece of property in Waikiki overlooking the sail boat harbor where the old Kaiser Hospital was located.

The old building was imploded and the general contractor, Hawiian Dredging, started with construction of a spectacular new 550-room Hawaii Prince Hotel, Waikiki.

In 1989, I transfered from Maui to Honolulu and was appointed as president and general manager of both the Maui Prince Hotel and the Hawaii Prince Hotel, Waikiki.

The hotel was designed and built with two towers, each 33 floors, all rooms facing the ocean, glass elevators and a grand five floor center core with all the restaurants,lobby, shops and outdoor pool on the fifth floor. We had our grand opening on April 20, 1990 and it was like the social event of the year.

Back home at Alyeska construction of the new Alyeska Prince Hotel and the Alyeska Tramway got started in 1991/92. It was a beautifully designed 310 room deluxe hotel with four restaurants, banquet facilities, shops and a separate building attached with a beautiful and big indoor swimming pool.

At the same time, construction of the 60 passenger Swiss tramway and the upper terminal with the Glacier Express and Seven Glacier Restaurant was in progress.

The tramway was finished first in late 1993 and the Alyeska Prince Hotel was completed in the summer of 1994 and had the official Grand Opening in August of 1994.

Mr. Tsutsumi and his company spent a fortune on the Alyeska Resort development and all of Alaska was proud of the great new hotel and tramway.

We were lucky and fortunate that the company proceeded with the entire expansion and development as the economy in Japan started to slow down (the bubble burst) in the early 90s.

Anchorage lost all the international flights over the Northpole between Europe and Asia and unfortunately Anchorage did not get selected to host the 1992 or 1994 Winter Olympics.