The JW Marriott Ihilani Ko Olina Resort and Spa, which was slated to close on Jan. 10 for remodeling and rebranding as a Four Seasons resort, will stay open for at least another three months.

Ihilani developer Jeff Stone said the hotel will shut down after the Easter holiday on April 5. The property currently has 250 full-time employees, roughly half the number it had before the closure was announced. Many employees have found other jobs or transferred to other positions on the property, he said.

"We want to preserve as many jobs as possible. The decision was made based on the need to keep people working when you can," said Stone, adding that massive construction work won’t start until April after the peak holiday season. "Hawaii’s running over 95 percent occupancy in Honolulu. We have a lot of events. One of our biggest issues is we have Disney (next door). You start tearing up the front … putting in pools, making a lot of ruckus, it will definitely alter the vacation for a lot of people. We don’t want to do anything that will damage Disney’s reputation."

The first phase of the $500 million project, which is expected to close the hotel for a year, will include a major renovation of the existing 401-unit hotel.

Once completed, there will be a new 15-story tower with 150 luxury homes, the first Four Seasons-branded estates in the islands. The new tower will feature 195 rooms dedicated for hotel use and 206 resort condominium residences.

Hotel employees will receive severance packages totaling $5.2 million, including medical benefits, Stone said. His company, The Resort Group, has partnered with one of North America’s largest luxury developers, Canadian-based Westbank, to acquire and redevelop the property. The company notified workers of the change in closure date on Monday.

Meanwhile, upgrades will still continue out of sight.

"We’ll continue to work on the top of the building and work our way down," Stone added. "Nobody can see us since we’re inside the rooms doing the interiors. As soon as everyone leaves from the holidays, then we’ll start to really do the majority work on the exterior and work our way back up."

The upper portion of the hotel will have a buffer of two floors between construction and guest rooms, he said.

"Our goal is to be able to maintain the majority of those people working for us for as long as we can, then the shutdown period becomes less critical," he said. "We had to relocate thousands and thousands of room nights from year-ago bookings. We want to be able to let those people still come if they want to."