Thursday, December 11, 2014

Catching Up with Carl: December 2014

December, the month of Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays. I'm curious where you come out on these names?

   Last week, we had a full-team Seahorse meeting to assess where we currently are and to make concrete plans for 2015. It was an excellent day and a half. This is the slow time of the year on the Texas Gulf Coast, so many of our decisions will take some months to play out.
   Our main topic was have we over-built our luxury homes on the beach and bay and do we need a second line product? Or, have we just not seen the right prospects yet?
   Because we have not been able to arrange financing for our major amenity, the beach clubhouse and pool, we are really selling with one arm tied behind our backs, as the expression goes.
   Usually, not much gets accomplished during December due to parties and the holidays. No so, as mentioned last month, with us. We are going flat out to improve sales at Seahorse and to get the Florida Keys Resort funded.

Marathon Key:
   The Crystal Cottages project on Marathon is already funded with equity. Now, it's time for the development loan, to start construction and to get into sales. RCI will play a material part in this process.
   The Florida Keys Resort, aka Sombrero Golf Club, with sites for hotel, fractional cottages and new clubhouse, will close next month. We are finalizing the major equity contribution that will allow us to do so. We have transferred our franchise agreement from Crystal to Florida Keys Resort, and still plan to sell the second floor either in a fractional structure or a condo-hotel structure.
   Condo-hotels? The SEC has changed its regulations to allow for a more dynamic presentation of the numbers. With the improving economy and the red hot Keys hotel market, we may have a winner on our hands.
   Where do we go from here? We have a good handful of leads for marketing and/or development. Now comes the tough part—converting the leads into deals.

New Orleans:
   Square #97, about which we've written quite a bit over the past year or so, is in limbo as we have been faced with conflicting information on transient use [hotel, fraction, short-term rentals] and ownership. We may have an 'in person' meeting soon.

Other Deals:
San Antonio, TX – At The Fairmount, we have a proposal before the owner to fractionalize to-be-built condos in and on top of the hotel.

Bear Valley, CA – We have discussed with the new owners the build-out of the village core.

Telluride, CO – We have a proposal for a bulk sale of inventory there in a semi-dormant fractional project.

Wells, ME – Back again after the recession is a wonderful project that will have a golf course, country inn and a fractional component.

The easy part is getting the leads in and organizing them. The tough part is the closing.

Merry Christmas, 
Carl

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