UPDATE: Savio Wants Waiakea Villas for Pagoda Hotel

The owner of Oahu’s Pagoda Hotel is looking to appeal to Hilo’s student population when he opens a hybrid hotel and dormitory in the Waiakea Villas complex.

An earlier report incorrectly said another apartment complex was involved.

Peter Savio, a Honolulu real estate developer who was born in Hilo, has reportedly entered into a verbal  agreement to buy the property from an investor group and turn it into a Pagoda-branded hotel with 250 hotel and dormitory rooms.

The set-up will be similar to the hybrid situation he created when he bought the Pagoda Hotel in 2010. At that property, between 5% and 10% of the units are condos.

The Waiakea property had previously been a hotel but for the past several years has been an apartment complex.

Honolulu developer Peter Savio. Courtesy photo.

Savio plans to spend about $25 million buying and renovating 200 rooms in the 275-unit apartment complex.

He has expressed interest in buying the remaining 75 units if the individual owners are willing to sell.

Additional plans for the property call for building 50 hotel units on a portion of the property that previously burned to the ground, as well as develop 45,000 square feet of commercial space.

Restaurants, offices, and retail stores are planned within the commercial space.

Savio has had his eye on the Hilo hotel market for some time and previously made multiple attempts to purchase the Naniloa Hotel in the past.

According to Savio, the hotel, which will begin its metamorphoses in Spring 2013, will offer rates that appeal to students, kama`aina, and business travelers.