COURTESY PARADISE COVE LU’AU
Hula dancers and other performers are among the 167 employees who will lose their jobs when Paradise Cove Lu‘au closes at the end of the year to make way for a new entertainment, dining and shopping complex at Ko Olina.
The Paradise Cove Luau at Ko Olina will be closing tonight after one final show — and one final hana hou — ending an era of Polynesian entertainment, after more than 40 years in business.
As reported earlier, PC Services dba Paradise Cove Luau notified the state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations it would be permanently closing at the end of today due to the loss of its lease. Tickets were sold out for tonight.
A total of 167 employees, including accountants, bartenders, bus guides, landscapers, parking lot attendants and entertainers will be terminated. In previous weeks, job fairs were held to help workers find new positions.
The 10.85-acre property is slated for redevelopment by Cove Campbell Kobayashi LLC into a new, scaled-down retail and dining complex.
State Rep. Darius Kila on Tuesday presented Paradise Cove Luau with a legislative certificate, calling it a company “our community, our Westside, and our entire state have come to know and love as a true treasure.”
He wrote in a Facebook post that Paradise Cove Luau has been a first job for many, and the only place they’ve worked for the past 30 to 40 years.
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“A true pioneer in both traditional and modern tourism, Hawaii is and will always be better because of this special gem on the Westside we know as Paradise Cove Luau,” wrote Kila.
Honolulu stylist Chalei McKee posted on Facebook that Paradise Cove Luau shaped so many lives, including hers.
McKee said she started working at Paradise Cove Luau when she was just 17 years old and stayed until she was 25. She spent her last four years there as a line captain, dancing almost seven days a week, she wrote in a post, and learned discipline, humility, leadership, and “aloha in its truest form.”
“Paradise Cove built my work ethic,” she wrote. “It taught me how to show up for people, how to serve with heart, and how to carry myself with pride. I went through so many highs and lows here — because that’s what your early 20s are — but every season helped mold the woman I am today.”
Paradise Cove Luau was voted Hawaii’s Best Luau by readers of the Star-Advertiser numerous times, including in 2024.
Oahu Auctions and Liquidations, meanwhile, is holding an online auction of Paradise Cove Luau items, including Aloha shirts, tiki statues, plants, golf carts, lighting equipment, loudspeakers, dancers’ costumes, a chapel piano, lawn chairs and tables and more. The online auction ends Jan. 13.