Talking Timeshare, the weekly, two-hour radio program hosted by Mark Silverman, is part of a new wave of Internet radio programs. I was on for an hour last week with Mark lobbing me both soft and hard balls. I'm not sure who exactly tunes in, but the station has a bunch of sponsors, so apparently there are plenty of listeners out there.
In other news, Star is closing in on a project on theGulf Coast of Texas. Located south of Galveston, the project will include building sites on both the ocean and the bay. The plan is to build four bed/bath homes sold on both a whole and fractional basis. There's terrific rental income in the area, so that should help the larger fractions that are sold. The project is an hour from Houston, which is not feeling as much of the recession as is the rest of the country. Houston's business is centered on energy and medicine. We are eager to 'git at' those Texans.
I've just returned from New Orleans after having made multiple trips to assist in the packaging of a number of French Quarter properties. If funded, which looks promising by the way, there will be a major mixed-use project comprised of a hotel, hotel condos, regular condos, fractional and timeshare condos along with plenty of retail and parking lots. Talk about mixed use!
The other parcels are more condos and mid-rise parking. As you can imagine, parking in the Quarter is a major deal. The local team is first rate, and property values in the Quarter have jumped 25% in the past year. The only negative is that those folks really believe the New Orleans Saints can win their conference and host the Super Bowl to be held in NOLA in February. Naturally, it will be the 49ers there instead.
Our business continues to be dogged by lagging consumer confidence, as you are aware, and a very sluggish economy. So, any starts Star has will be gradual in the hopes that 2013 and 2014 will see us come out of the current malaise.
I want to give a 'shout out' to the 4,000-plus members of LinkedIn that are members of the Luxury Fractional Group and of the Luxury Resort Development Group. Both were put together by Bruce Cuthbertson. If you haven't joined already, feel free to click the links above to do so.
