Catching Up with Carl: June-July 2014

Seahorse Beach Club, located on the Gulf outside of Houston, is really moving now. We're sold four of the six fractions in Beach House #1 and are preparing for construction on Bay House #1, which should trigger the funds to begin the Clubhouse. 

Tiffany Clark, who previously ran operations and marketing at Pronghorn in Bend, Oregon, has joined Seahorse as an operations and club management pro. Pronghorn sold fractions and whole units [up to $3 million each] in addition to having two golf courses and other amenities. A first class deal. As it happens, our Seahorse sales director, Richard Korowicki, came from there, too, after he had sold out the Teton Club in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. 

Down in the Florida Keys, one of the true hot hotel areas in the USA, our Florida Keys Resort is in the final stage of raising the necessary equity and debt to buy the 120-acre property, which includes the golf course. Separately, we have gotten Marathon Key city approvals to sell the 15 fractional cottages and the second floor of the boutique hotel on a lock-off basis. The approvals were never in doubt, but we now have them locked in. Also locked in are the transient zoning units, called ROGOS, necessary for the cottages and the hotel under Florida law. 

Star is getting quite Keys-centric as Marathon Key is also home to the Crystal project, which was to be funded via EB5 but now has other money chasing it. Originally planned were a number of Gulf-front fractional cottages. We hope that the hotel operation will allow them. A number of hospitality companies are closing in on this deal.

Who wants to buy a two-unit office building in Old Town, Scottsdale? Our HQ building is for sale; one half is rented and we occupy the other half. As more of our post-recession business seems to be in the Southeast, we have the building up for sale. It's a really unique structure right in the heart of the dynamic Scottsdale scene. Let me know if there's interest. 

I've written in the past about New Orleans, and the two deals that are part of the brokerage team, and potential JV team. All cities have their 'inside' track to gain approvals, but in NOLA it's a real throwback to the days when if the right team goes into the planning department and the Mayor's office, approvals can be granted in quick time. Too many companies operating through the back door is not what they want to do. This is understood. 

That said, the opportunity is there, especially in the French Quarter, for the developer or other buyer who has nerves of steel and is willing to let the line play out. Real estate in the French Quarter is red hot.