The two LinkedIn groups I manage—Luxury Resort Development and Luxury Resort Fractions—now have a total of 4,742 members. That's up about a thousand from last year. So, congratulations to those who 'hung in’ there during the last of the recession and welcome to those who have more recently joined.
I have begun to receive Google alerts for 'Fractional Resorts' after a hiatus of what has seemed to be a few years. So, is there a market perking up? On the buyer financing side, as far as I can tell, the answer is ‘no.’ On the development financing side, a qualified ‘yes.’
It’s interesting that the banks we've spoken with say they are not 'collateral' lenders. While I realize what that means, how do they lend to make any money? Does that mean they don't lend anymore to auto dealers, hardware stores and the like against their inventory? They can ask for the personal or corporate guarantee, but for the post-recession resort business, they are not going to get much in those areas.
A recent Wall Street Journal story about luxury Tuscan resorts featured the Timbers Resorts property Castello di Casole, which has succeeded during the recession by selling fractions and whole homes to European buyers. That was the message a few years back from Timbers’ then-sales manager at Piers Brown's fractional London conference, so good for them to be able to attract those buyers.
In Star Resort Group news, we are about to come to market at our Texas project, Seahorse Beach Club, with both whole and fractional homes for sale. We’ll see if the fractional product is still recognized and sought after by the booming Houston market.
We have a great team there with Ward Communications out of Houston leading the marketing way. We also have such talent as architect Margit Whitlock of Architectural Concepts; our terrific home designer, Alan Kent of Kent & Kent out of Houston; Bob Duke of Galveston’s Duke Landscaping Architecture; Gary Bullard, our quite down-to-earth building contractor; as well as our in-house team of Richard Korowicki leading sales, Chris Cannon for marketing and Scott Tracy for project management.
All else at Star is fine.
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