Catching Up with Carl: October 2015

Back from hiking 110 miles in England. Grand stuff, good weather for all but two of the days, and fun times in London pre and post hike.

Star is now fully disengaged from Seahorse Beach Club on the Texas coast. Personally, I’m still on one of the home loans, but that will take care of itself.

Burnt Mill, Maine, continues to be tough to tie down. The owners, the L.A. folk, are reexamining all options. On our side, we have put together options to take them out. We’ll see what happens in the coming days. One change is that the golf course is being reimagined as a nature park, which means less money to build and sustain, and easier to fund.

Peter Moore, our investment banker, continues to show a great amount of flexibility in arranging the various elements for full financing. His job is now made easier that the golf course is becoming a nature preserve.

Connor Homes of Middlebury, Vermont, is more than ever the primary homebuilder—and home designer—that we are placing our bets on for an upscale project. Founder Mike Connor has been very forthcoming with his time and talents to assist with the strategy for the resort.

Crystal Resort, in the Florida Keys, also continues as a moving target. Will it be a full timeshare resort, fee for service, with a brand, or a PRC or workforce housing? Gosh, a prime parcel with about $8 million equity, no debt, and it seems so hard to get the right investor.

On the horizon:

•Kauai project, single-family homes to be fractioned; sales on the West Coast, Honolulu and on site. Mitch Imanaka and Steve Peterson are designing the strategy for sales and registration. First things first, the developer needs to get the purchase agreement fully signed and then funded. Bill Ward, of Ward Financial, is very positive on buyer financing.

•Barbuda Island, Caribbean: Lighthouse Bay Resort, very, very high-end fractions; selling at over $1 million per 6th. Heavy U.S., European and South American sell. This is a fly-to island, private plane, and the property’s all bought and designed.

Other stuff over the transom, but not worth mentioning. In other news, Tom Goetschius has a new website designed by Marc Saxe. Take a look:www.tomgoetschius.com. 

Catching Up with Carl: September 2015

Some deals come and some go as we all know.

We are nearing the end of September and Burnt Mill in Maine is not yet funded with the bridge loan, yet the golf course work has to begin by October 15th. It takes balls of steel to be a developer.

Of import, the owners have realigned their decision-making, so we now have a real pragmatic person in charge. That’s terrific. Peter Moore, our investment banker, is close to the bridge and the permanent loan. The October 15th date is fast upon us!

Florida for Crystal Cove is, on one hand, leaning toward at full TS fee-for-service project, and on the other a 34-unit PRC, which we at SRG favor. We’ve been canvassing the major TS companies to see who is most interested, or has the bandwidth to consider the fee-for-service opportunity.

Then, there’s Seahorse in Texas that we are now out of; too many conflicts with our partner.

Spoke with Tom Ward of Ward Financial recently about end loans for fractional buyers. He says that there’s money out there for end loans. He just needs a well-structured project with sales velocity to attract a lender.

Other deals that could be on the horizon: The Sanctuary at Frigate Bay, Caribbean, a posh, small island with luxe houses and condos to be built; fractions at $1 million to $2 million a share. Now, that may just be a deal.

There's a ULI meeting in San Francisco in a few weeks; my Recreational Development Council is having an update on fractions, and I’m hiking in England. Darn it. Maybe they’ll hold over to the next meeting in Spring 2016!

Kauai project? The Ragatz study is completed and the developer wants to break all conventions and sell fractions on America's West Coast: CA, OR, WA and BC. Will it work? It just might.

Hiking in England from September 26th to October 13th with a couple of days in London pre and post. The South Downs Way, 110 miles in 10 days for us. Inn to inn. What’s not to like?