Catching Up with Carl: March 2013

Three areas to cover this month:

1. London Fractional/hotel conference: Piers Brown deserves credit for pushing on through the recession. The conference shrank from two to one day. The one-day was, however, excellent and saw about 100 attendees, all of whom were interactive and some real, top tier talent. Here are my takeaways:

•The European market is in limbo with the recent Italian elections, and the continued weak economies in Italy, Spain and Crete. There is no bank money for resort development as the money is all committed to the bail-out initiatives the EU is working through.

•The timeshare market in Europe continues to fight uphill against past transgressions in marketing and sales. Add to that, the UK regulations that a timeshare/fraction has to be on leasehold versus fee.

•That said, very established sun areas, specifically theAlgarve in Portugal, continue to sell and plan new developments.

2. Seahorse Beach Club, Texas Gulf coast outside of Houston: We have now set our Beach Club and Pool and fractional home designs. FF&E continues to be a bit high, and we’re working on that. Our website will be up in the next two weeks, and premarketing will begin in April. Two observations:

•Houston residential real estate continues to boom. Yes, boom. The energy and medical sectors that dominate Houston are going up, up and up. Houston is our primary market just an hour away.

•First homes will be ready for occupancy in mid-August. The Ocean homes will be 5-bedroom/5 bath and the Bay homes will be 4 and 4. The Beach Club willopen spring 2014 featuring day use for owners who don’t want to stay the night. Pricing will reflect the start up nature of the project.

3. Future Deals: The Wall Street Journal had an article on the EB5 program focused on the Trapp Family Lodge in Vermont. On the Florida Keys project, previously reported on, the developer is currently in Shanghai rounding up the necessary funds to get that project underway.

•New Orleans—the hotel component is drawing terrific attention recently. So, we expect that part of the French Quarter square block to be put to bed shortly.

•Nakoma Golf Resort in the Sierra Nevada north of Lake Tahoe. We first visited in the early 2000s and went back this week. The resort welcomed new owners, savvy folks who will reintroduce the fractional product in the coming months.