Moloka'i Ranch has sought a permit to renovate and reopen the 152-room Kaluakoi Hotel and upgrade its 18-hole golf course for more than $30 million.

The company said it filed a special management area permit application as the first step toward restoring and opening the hotel, which a former owner closed in 2001.

Moloka'i Ranch said more than 100 jobs would be created under the plan.

The restart of hotel operations, however, is contingent on a controversial master plan that involves Moloka'i Ranch developing and selling 200 residential lots on the island at La'au Point to finance the renovation.

An application is pending with the state Land Use Commission for the residential project, which some Moloka'i residents oppose. Other residents support the master plan, which also involves conveying most Moloka'i Ranch land on the island to a community trust for perpetual preservation.

Moloka'i Ranch spokesman John Sabas said he is hopeful the company can obtain master plan approval by January 2008.

A public hearing on the hotel renovation before the Moloka'i Planning Commission is expected around March 2007.

"The Kaluakoi Hotel will provide an essential element in the economic redevelopment of Moloka'i envisioned in the master plan," Moloka'i Ranch President and CEO Peter Nicholas said in a statement.

The Kaluakoi was developed as the Sheraton Molokai Hotel in 1975 by a subsidiary of the Louisiana Land & Exploration Co. The resort opened in 1977. A Japanese company bought the property in 1987 but ceased hotel and golf operations in January 2001 in the aftermath of a long drop in tourism and the Asian economic crisis.

Molokai Ranch, an affiliate of Moloka'i Properties Ltd. owned by Singapore-based investment firm Brierley Investments Ltd., bought the shuttered hotel and golf course in December 2001. The company in 2004 reopened the resort's Ted Robinson-designed golf course.