Oprah to buy Kula land
By HARRY EAGAR
Staff Writer
KULA — Oprah Winfrey, who already owns 100 shore-front acres in Hana, is buying more beautiful Maui real estate in Kula.
Her agent on Maui had no comment, but Winfrey and her friend and personal trainer Bob Greene have made offers on several properties past the Kula Hospital on Thompson Road, the narrow rural roadway that runs to the ranch.
Winfrey is the longtime syndicated television talk show host, who is maven of a multimillion-dollar media conglomerate that includes a magazine and a book club. Greene is a physiologist who co-authored with Winfrey a fitness book, “Make the Connection.”
Their offers for Upcountry land reportedly have been turned down by some, but accepted by others.
One sale under way is of 31-acre Thompson Ranch.
Jerry Thompson, whose father started the ranch in 1901, said Tuesday he “had mixed feelings” but would never have sold if he had not been able to make a land exchange to buy a larger, ranchable property nearby.
He and his wife, Toni, will move their Thompson Ranch Riding Stables business to the new area, but not until after the summer rush.
Until then, they will continue offering trail rides over about a thousand acres of Haleakala Ranch land, where they have an entry agreement.
Just down the road, Carmen Goble of Goble’s Flower Farm says she told Winfrey’s agents, “No way!” when they inquired about buying the property she farms with her husband Woody.
“We are not selling,” she said Tuesday, because “we have four children and there would be no place for them” if they did.
Other neighbors reportedly are either selling or in serious negotiations, although April Mims of RE/Max Maui realty, the agent, said she was unable to say more.
The home place of Thompson Ranch was what is now Silver Cloud Ranch, operated as a guest house.
Thompson Ranch at one time covered about 500 acres, according to Jerry Thompson, but his father sold or gave away much of it during World War II.
When his mother died, Jerry Thompson had to sell what is now Silver Cloud to pay inheritance taxes.
The 31 acres he kept is too small to keep a real herd of cattle, and so he decided, with regrets, to sell the place he grew up on in order to be able to continue ranching and operating his trail rides.
When Winfrey bought acreage near Hamoa Beach in Hana, she made promises not to develop the land, beyond building about three houses for herself, Greene and a guest cottage.
Thompson says he believes Winfrey also has no interest in developing his land, beyond building a couple of houses for Greene and herself.
However, he has never met her.
