March '10 Blog

Signs of life out there? It seems so. The phones are ringing, development partners are talking, are the banks lending? Well, two out of three isn't bad compared to 2009.

Ragatz conference is upcoming next week; chock filled with lawyers and suppliers and woefully short of marketers and developers - a sign of the times. We'll be there.

ARDA last week - many upbeat, but the timeshare business has really been decimated. And, with fewer new sales and more defaults it brings back the scary scenario of a tidal wave of resales swamping developer sales. Far too long has this issued been ignored.

ULI coming in three weeks where the meeting landscape will be littered with stalled deals and deals gone back to lenders and underfunded HOAs. Those will probably be the common topics…how and when a workout occurs.

Consumer uncertainty has been the largest impediment to buyers, other than bottom feeders, coming back into the market. One part of that uncertainty the House of Representatives took care of last Sunday with their vote on the health. Like the higher taxes or not, worry about available quality medicine aside at least one, large social issue has been decided. Energy is next.

Once that has been decided, and we have the November election buyers will come back. I predict that the winter season 2010-11 will be terrific. Like the social policy or not, like the higher taxes or not, like who controls Congress; at least those who wanted 'change' have it, and we all need to get on with our businesses.

Our Whitefish MT project continues to chug along. We are looking at moving into two other, major deals. So, count Star with the glass half full crowd…at least maybe filling to the half level.