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.