Friday, January 12, 2007

It's January 12th, and I'm in New York City at my Manhattan Club. We began searching for the right building in 1992 and got into full planning in 1995 and pre sales in 1996. Sold out now of the original 242 suites. Then last year additional and more luxury suites were built in the penthouse, which were sold to the original owners. Now on the sales floor luxury studios are being built. Talk about maximizing a building as the sales demand has been so strong over these years.

Kudos go to Scott Lager and his development team to keep the inventory in synch with sales over the past decade. Also, more kudos go the property management team of Josh Wirshba, Sal Real and Vince Caster, and their departmental managers, for running a first class property at 90% occupancy with daily use. That's a real challenge, and they've done a superior job at their jobs. Josh began as head of HR at the hotel before the conversion, and Sal was an assistant GM of the hotel.

I've received many notes of support to my recent release on the continued dangers of 'guaranteed use' with the destination clubs and hybrid fractional projects. There is no reality to 'guaranteed use' and all buyers should beware of any company offering that.

We issued another release yesterday in a Q and A format to assist buyers in assessing a purchase of a fractional interest.

I'm seeing more innovations in use plans offering some fixed use based on the highly successful Old Greenwood model. Bill Fiveash, and his team, was very, very original in that use plan, and they deserve credit to advance the whole area of use plans. We've always said that the use plan, or the reservation plan, is the central focus of the fractional product. Much overlooked and mis-understood, the correct use plan goes a long way to ensure success. The opposite is also true.

Initial response to reservations at Snowbird's Mt. Superior Club have been excellent in the $2000 per square foot band.

Don't forget the Ragatz Conference coming up in March.