Catching Up with Carl: May 2017

So, here it is May again. We at Star Resort Group are on ‘pins and needles’ awaiting Clairfield International’s response to our deck of projects for financing, which are:

Windham East, Windham Mountain Resort, NY
Merchant Woods, CT
Seagate, St. Simons Isle, GA
Rendezvous Bay, Antigua, the Caribbean
Stokes Park, outside of London, England
California Hotel, New Orleans, LA [under negotiation]

At Saratoga Springs Polo, NY, we are close to getting the project back with new partners. The problem, as you all know, with lawsuits is that they drag on. Our goal is to bring our errant partners to heel asap, and then move ahead with new partners. Duane Gerenser is honchoing this for SRG.

Ocean Lodge, in St. Simons Isle, GA, is a ‘slow go’ deal. The database of past hotel guests did not generate the leads or sales we expected, so we are now in the open market for leads. Our sales exec, Sandy Staudenmayer, is self-generating to make up for down time.

RG marketing guru Chris Cannon is very busy generating leads from the universe of Atlanta residents, who are income qualified. Atlanta is the main market to St. Simons, being five hours away. Jacksonville is closer, but looks to the South in Florida. We knew we’d be in this market later, but now sooner. So goes the marketing and selling business. One has to be on top of it, and a bit of a risk-taker to be successful.

Mill Creek Resort, Gruene, TX: The whole town is on the National Historic Register. Mill Creek Resort is a small project a short walk from the main drag; we’ll start marketing and sales after we exhaust a fee-for-service opportunity. The three partners in 2009 sold 36 units to Wyndham VO and Wyndham/World Mark sold the condos out in less than a year. Gruene has a dance hall that is famous for attracting country western headliners. I was in Gruene two weeks ago: It is 25 minutes from San Antonio, 35 minutes from Austin and 2.5 hours from Houston and Dallas; it’s a big Mexican market on holidays. It's also part of New Braunfels, a bustling city with a major discount mall. The welcome mat is out to all Texans and Mexicans, too. A new part of the country for us, but our good friend Pat Hanes, who spent over a year in that part of the Hill Country, gives it high marks.

Catching Up with Carl: April 2017

Here it is—Spring 2017 and Star still has only one project: Ocean Lodge, St. Simons Isle, GA. We have a key sales person on-site booking and selling the mini vacation tours that have been generated from past hotel guests.

To be sure, we have other projects in the pipeline: Key West Cottages in Key Largo, FL; Seagate next to Ocean Lodge; Saratoga Polo coming out of litigation; and Windham Mountain Resort, a New York State ski hill two hours north of NYC. We have an LOI on 300+ acres that directly abuts the ski hill including a run that goes through the ski in/ski out property.

Academy Securities of San Diego, named for alumni of the Annapolis and West Point service academies, is being looked at to provide financing for many of these projects. For an Academy presentation, this coming Wednesday, April 12, in NYC, we have put together all Star’s projects. It’s an impressive list going back to 1973 with the first fee-ownership timeshare in the world at Brockway Springs, Lake Tahoe, CA. Here it is:

Resort Fractional Projects:

     Ocean Lodge, St. Simons Island, GA

     Seahorse Beach Club, Follett’s Island, TX

     Dye Villas, Myrtle Beach, SC

     Anabui Private Residence Club, Aruba, Lesser Antilles, Caribbean

     Vallarta Gardens, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico

     Front Four, Stowe, VT

     Mt. Superior Residence Club, Snowbird, UT

     Residence Club at Whitefish Lake Lodge, MT

     Purgatory Lodge, Durango, CO

     Expedition Lodge, Kirkwood, CA

     Meriwether Ranch, Melrose, MT

     Rancho Manana, Cave Creek, AZ

     Northstar-at-Tahoe, Northstar, Lake Tahoe, CA

     Cottages at Pinehurst, Pinehurst, NC

     Christy Club, Phase One, Steamboat Springs, CO

           

Urban Timeshare Projects:

     Jackson Court, San Francisco, CA

     San Francisco Suites on Nob Hill, San Francisco, CA

     Powell Place, San Francisco, CA

     Avenue Plaza, New Orleans, LA

     The Manhattan Club, New York City, NY

Resort Timesharing Projects:

     Vail Run, Vail, CO

     Cliff Club, Snowbird, UT

     Casa del la Playa, La Jolla, CA

     Kingsbury Crossing, Lake Tahoe, CA

     Schooner Landing, Newport, OR

     First Cabin Club, Lake Havasu, AZ

     Cape Codder Residence Club, Hyannis, MA

     Brockway Springs, Lake Tahoe, CA

Collections:

     Holiday Clubs International, Holiday Inns, Memphis, TN      

     World’s Finest Resorts, Fractional Exchange Program

I’m tired just looking at the list. We’ve been a lot of places over the years, and had a lot of success… and also a few screwy developers to deal with.

Catching Up with Carl: March 2017

We begin sales at our St. Simons Island, GA Ocean Lodge project shortly. Our marketing mastermind, Chris Cannon, has qualified leads ready to go and our Sandy Staudenmayer is on site and ready, too. So, we expect some quick success.

Even though Georgia is a full disclosure vs. registration state, we are doing the last-minute updates on our document package to ensure that buyers from Florida and the Carolinas are fully protected vis-à-vis their shared ownership registration. Our Scott Tracy is handling that for us.

Saratoga Springs, Polo: We filed suit last week and expect either a settlement or the property. We are very sorry about this, but it’s indicative of deals that were around pre-recession that have stayed in the original developer’s hands. Our Duane Gerenser is heading this up for Star.

Pickle Bay Condos, Granada: I was in Tampa two weeks ago and Skyped for an hour-plus with the owner of the project, who lives in London. I was with both a real estate ‘trader’ and a media trader. I think this will go once all parties agree on the dimensions of the project. Our former London-based World’s Finest partner, Russell Bragg of Premier Resorts, knows Pickle Bay and the condos. Small world.

Windham East Ski Mountain, Poconos, New York: Not a Western ski hill for sure, but the best just a few hours outside of NYC. The 300+ acres adjacent to the ski hill are owned by a Greek shipping family. We are engaging in a venture with them to develop and market single-family homes and condos. It’s ready to go; we’ll bring financing and JV to the property, while Mike Connor is to supply the homes. As with Polo, Duane Gerenser is heading this up for Star

Seagate Condos, next to Ocean Lodge, on St. Simons: The 24 condo units are currently waiting for the financing commitment in writing, acquisition and buyer, from BB&T. They have verbally committed. The BB&T financing is at 75%, so we need to raise the equity, and are in the process of doing so. Our Marvin Rappaport along with Peter Temling are spearheading this project.

Catching Up with Carl: February 2017

About Star Resort Group

Star Resort Group, and it predecessors, has its roots in the shared ownership business beginning in 1973 by getting registered in California and bringing to market the first fee ownership timeshare in the world at Brockway Springs, in Lake Tahoe, CA.

Since that time, the principals of Star have been involved in mixed-use and shared ownership projects.

Other notable firsts include urban timesharing in San Francisco, New Orleans and New York City, and the first fractional development company in the world, funded by Starwood Capital.

Since 2000, Star has focused on fractional ownership, with projects in Lake Tahoe; Steamboat Springs, CO; Snowmass, CO; Stowe, VT; Snowbird, UT; Whitefish, MT; Cave Creek, AZ; Myrtle Beach, SC; St. Simons Isle, GA; Aruba; and Puerto Vallarta.

A hallmark of Star is its understanding and application of innovative use and reservation plans, as well as a deep understanding of buyer motives for the purchasing of a fractional interest.

It's one thing to be an innovator; it's another to remain contemporary in the business. The principals of Star have done both.

Star develops for its own account and works with developers for advisory services and marketing and selling services.

Star and its team of planners, marketing and sales experts, developers, and legal and financial specialists have worked with some of the industry's most recognized and respected brands in locations all over the planet, including Raffles Hotels & Resorts, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, and Starwood Capital, with projects in Manila, Croatia, London, Crimea, Seychelles, French Polynesia, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and throughout the United States.

Catching Up with Carl: January 2017

With Trump coming in the deal flow is picking up; Red or Blue, the market is upbeat about future resort development prospects.

Ocean Lodge on St. Simons Island, GA: The marketing plan, done by Star’s senior marketing exec Chris Cannon, is complete and accepted. We’re going after a wellness theme so our major market can see using four weeks of time. Our lead sales person, Sandy Staudemayer, is ready to leave Montana for Georgia. We plan to be in business the first week of February with dependable lead flow.

Seagate, or Ocean Lodge II: This is the 25-unit building ‘next’ to Ocean Lodge. The market report by Wally Hobson of Hobson Advisors is complete and approved. Now we need to secure the equity financing to go along with the BB&T banking commitment to acquire the property just a few steps from Ocean Lodge. The Seagate’s 25 units to go along with Ocean Lodge’s 14 units give us a decent size project, for an independent that is. Or 39 units x 12 shares each [for now] = 468 shares to sell.

Saratoga Springs Polo continues with the lawyers. Our lawyer had a phone call with the current owner’s lawyer to offer a settlement, a lawsuit or to have the current owners join we three buyers [Duane Gerenser, Mike Connor and myself] on our development LLC that has been formed for some time.

Windham Ski: The venture with the current owners continues on a positive track, and we expect to be in first phase development this spring.

Marina Pointe, Big Bear, CA, is at a stalemate for now. The owner is proceeding ahead with the development of ‘super sites’ that will house 14 to 28 pre-approved condominium units. Our interest is to buy, subject to a number of elements, one or more of the sites for fractional condominium sales.

A comment about getting deals done without a lot of up-front cash, and trading on Star’s reputation of effective sales: As mentioned last month, the deals that were on the table pre-recession have a ton of ‘hair’ on them as the developers had to jump through many and varied hoops to keep control. It’s a delicate world out there. Even though September 2008 is almost a decade ago, the memory is still vibrant in the minds of many, and for good reason.

As California is ‘broke’ and overtaxed, Star has added Marvin Rappaport of Coral Springs, Florida, as Financial VP and Duane Gerenser of Manchester Center, Vermont, as our Northeastern VP of Development. A long overdue welcome to both. This extends Star’s reach to the East Coast. Both Marvin and Duane will work in concert with our Scott Tracy and Chris Cannon for administration and escrow and marketing respectively. There’s that dangling participial at the end of the sentence!