Catching Up with Carl: January 2014

New Year's resolution? Yes! Expand our project list from one to three projects. Simple, but not so fast. As you know, the business is very convoluted and development financing is still tight, and there are few new starts. So, we are digging deeper with those contacts we have vetted and doing our best to make a small universe work for us. We have a talented core team, including Scott Tracy and Chris Cannon plus myself, so we have some built-in bandwidth assuming we do JVs that have talented members.

At Seahorse Beach Club outside of Houston, Texas, we are now committed to wood pilings versus the composite fiberglass ones. Remember those pilings up 17 feet? We’ll use what we have of the fiberglass pilings for our dune walk-overs and for our crabbing and fishing pier. The goal is to get the framing up and well on the way by March—when the spring breaks occur for Houston schools—and then occupancy in June.

Our law firm, Ballard Spahr, has prepared the non-resident membership deposit forms for our amenity club. That campaign will kick in during February and hopefully get us on the way for funding of the core amenities.

The Florida Keys Resort and Club goes for conditional approval from the City of Marathon, Florida, next week for the hotel, with final approvals in April. We expect few, if any, problems. Following approvals, real estate firm Newmark Grubb Knight Frank can begin to raise the needed equity and debt. How we go about getting the first batch of fractional cottages ready for the winter 2014–15 season is still being worked out. We had an all-partner meeting in Coral Springs last week. It’s a very talented and experienced group, and we are pleased to be a small part of them.

The Crystal Resort, also in Marathon, may go back to a condominium and fractional resort versus a hotel and cottages property. More to sell for Star, or maybe it will go all timeshare. This is the neat part of resort development—multiple options to keep one light on their feet.

Even been to St. Croix? There’s a very nice set of parcels owned by a Pennsylvania family with long ties to the U.S. Virgin Islands, who now want to develop it: Butler Bay by name. We are investigating if development financing is available for the cottage whole and fractional sales program.

Lastly, New Orleans is perking again; both for the Royal/Chartres and Square 97 properties. Good and solid buyers are looking at both of them, so we should know more by early February. That’s grand news!