Vacation-home buyers snapped up the initial phase of a new condominium villa project at Waikoloa Resort on the Big Island, spending about $2 million each to buy the first 36 units in the 192-unit Hali'i Kai subdivision.

Developer Centex Destination Properties reported selling out the first phase at $70 million on Saturday after previously soliciting reservations.

Michael Kosmin, vice president of sales and marketing for the Hawai'i division of Dallas-based Centex, said the company was thrilled at the response.

A second phase is scheduled to be released for sale in February.

The resort home project is one of several that developers have targeted to the upper echelon of mainly second-home buyers who helped propel sales of homes at Hawai'i resorts to $2.7 billion last year.

At $2 million, the average price at Hali'i Kai is about double Hawai'i's 2004 resort home sale average of $960,480, which was a new record and included sales of existing and new homes, according to market researcher Ricky Cassiday.

Hali'i Kai is a joint venture between Centex and investment firm Lehman Bros. The gated community consists of two- and three-story condos in 24 buildings on 29 acres between the ocean and Waikoloa's Beach Golf Course.

The project is the fourth residential community for Centex in Hawai'i. The company has two projects at Ko Olina Resort & Marina on O'ahu, and one other at Waikoloa called Kolea, where initial unit sales averaged $1.5 million and were expected to sell out by the end of this year.

Reach Andrew Gomes at agomes@honoluluadvertiser.com.