The Latest in Luxury Resort & Real Estate News

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Steep Discounts, Club Incentives Prove Successful at WCI Communities

(PALM BEACH GARDENS, FL) -- Nobody needs to be told it's a fantastic time to buy property in Florida, a highly desirable Sun Belt destination where supply still greatly exceeds demand, but the fire sale nature of Florida is really starting to heat up.

That's the main reason why Florida experienced an increase in existing home sales for the fifth consecutive month this January compared with the previous year, according to data released Feb. 25 by the Florida Association of Realtors. In all, there were 8,450 homes sold in January, a 24 percent jump from the previous year's 6,810 homes transacted.

"Many people are looking at today's market and seeing opportunities to find the home or business they've always wanted," said 2009 FAR President Cynthia Shelton. "With a range of available housing options, historically low mortgage interest rates and affordable prices, buyers who may have been hesitant before should take a closer look at the current opportunities for homeownership."

Indeed, Florida's median sales price for existing homes was $139,500 in January, a 33 percent price decline from the previous year ($206,900). Even condo sales continue to pick up in Florida, with 2,556 units sold in January, a 13 percent increase over the previous year thanks to a 40 percent drop in median price ($113,400 vs. $190,200 in '08).

On the high-end of Florida's real estate market, smart shoppers are also taking advantage of jaw-dropping deals. WCI Communities, a 60-year real estate developer and builder that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in August, is one seller gladly benefitting from Florida's changing and challenging real estate landscape.

In fact, it's not unusual to find WCI Communities and its builder partners discounting homes by 20-40 percent in more than 20 of its luxury developments around the state - many of them private resort-style communities complete with championship golf courses, state-of-the-art spa and fitness centers, yacht slips and more. One WCI community turning heads in particular is Old Palm, one of South Florida's most exclusive private golf clubs where custom homes start at $5 million.

So what is Old Palm doing to sweeten these deals today? For starters, Marty Hasey of Pinetree Homes slashed the price on three of his fully furnished spec homes during a recent sales event by $1 million each. WCI also greatly reduced the price on a few of its remaining spec homes and, for the first time, is allowing prospective homebuyers the ability to spread out the payments for Old Palm's $275,000 club initiation fee.

The formula seems to be working because sales director Lou Paratore ended up selling one of the 4,000-square-foot WCI homes at the February sales originally listed for $1.7 million. And he reports that there were several other very strong sales leads from the weekend event that drew an estimated 300-plus people.

"Our high-end buyers are some of the brightest and most sophisticated consumers," Paratore adds. "And these people clearly understand this is a great time to buy."
 

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New Honduran Golf Resort Community Parties at PGA Tour Event

(ROATAN, HONDURAS) -- Pristine Bay Resort, home of The Black Pearl Golf Course being designed by Perry and Pete Dye, is one of the four largest sponsors at the World Golf Championships CA Championship being held March 9-15 at Doral Resort and Spa outside Miami.

The Roatan, Honduras-based luxury golf resort and master-planned-community is using this week's high-profile professional golf event as a perfect venue to introduce the multi-faceted project that will feature a championship golf course, five-star hotel, spa, deep-water marina, beach club, and a variety of residential products.

"The international format of the World Golf Championships CA Championship and setting in multicultural metro area of Miami are perfect for introducing Pristine Bay Resort to golfers from around the world," says Mario Toriello, Pristine Bay's vice president of sales and marketing.

Pristine Bay resort and golf course representatives, as well as detailed information about the project, are available in Pristine Bay's Alliance Suite, located along the 419-yard, par-4 17th hole on Doral's famed Blue Monster. Pete Dye, recently inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 2008, and son Perry of Dye Designs, are also scheduled to be in attendance.

"The 2009 WGC-CA Championship is a world-class event and is a perfect match for Pristine Bay to entertain already existing clients as well as to penetrate new markets," says Sue López, sales manager of the World Golf Championships CA Championship. "The WGC-CA Championship is a global event that is going to attract an audience that is among the elites from local, national and international companies. This event will be a rare opportunity to see the top 75 golfers in the world."

The WGC-CA Championship field is limited to the top 50 players from the Official World Golf Rankings, and the top 30 players from the Official PGA Tour money list, the top 20 players from the European Tour, the top three players from Japan Golf Tour, the top three players from the PGA Tour of Australasia, the top three players from the Sunshine Tour and the leading money winner from the Asian Tour. The tournament's first two rounds are being televised by The Golf Channel and NBC will broadcast the final two weekend rounds.

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PricewaterhouseCoopers Principal Paints Gloomy Picture for '09 Hospitality

(MIAMI, FL) -- The New Year brought nothing new in terms of a fresh forecast for the vacation ownership industry. Companies continue to cut workers; the credit markets are still frozen; broad-based consumer confidence remains low and the recession drags on.

PricewaterhouseCoopers principal Scott Berman, who oversees the U.S. Hospitality and Leisure division for the Miami-based consulting firm, summed up the post-holiday period this way: "I don't think there's any magic dust out there."

Certainly not in the hotel and lodging industry, where analysts continued to downgrade their '09 forecasts in January, according to Suzanne Cook, senior vice president for the U.S. Travel Association.

One of the more striking reports to come across Cook's desk was from PKF Hospitality Research, which called for a 7.8 percent drop in RevPAR this year as the U.S. hotel industry enters the "initial stages of one of the deepest and longest recessions in the history of domestic lodging."

"It is difficult to find a silver lining in any of the news because it continues to pile on," Berman recently told the Real Estate Channel. "For developers and operators, it's really about preserving capital and managing costs (in '09). That's the theme.

"Those that have a stronger balance sheet are better prepared for this downturn. Those that are more at risk are clearly feeling the impacts of what has just been an unbelievably rapid fall. It's as simple as that. The second message is, as brokers of information, the news may get worse before it gets better in the first half of '09. So much of this is psychological. And regardless of your personal wallet size it's having a psychological effect on everybody."

Yet, the timeshare industry is a resilient business - one that has overcome devastating hurricanes, terrorist attacks and past economic blows at a time when many hospitality industries struggled. And don't forget the timeshare business was all but born out of period in the early '70s when interest rates sharply rose to double digits, many condominiums were crumbling in value and the U.S. economy was in a state of stagflation.

Thus, current economic challenges notwithstanding, the vacation ownership industry - thanks to its relative values -- is poised to emerge victorious once again. It always does, industry executives say. To be sure, it won't happen this time without continued sacrifices, patience and entrepreneurial energy like never before.

So what does the "new normal" mean? Well, besides the obvious changes in streamlined staffs, cutbacks in operating and marketing budgets and stricter lending policies, the new normal in 2009 and beyond is going to be about new ideas and creative concepts, new attitudes and open-minded thinking.

One way longtime architect/designer Margit Whitlock is hoping to change the way she does business is offering a new "healthcare and hospitality studio" by strategically aligning her company, San Diego-based Architectural Concepts Inc., with a contractor that specializes in healthcare and institutional work. Another alternative solution is giving the market a "soup to nuts" architectural firm that now encompasses everything from traditional architectural and interior design consulting as well as the relatively rare service of purchasing.

With the Baby Boomer market seeking more resort-style communities with health and wellness components, Whitlock says her new "health and hospitality studio" is timed right for the timeshare market. Not to mention the lack of a construction partner in the past has already cost her firm two jobs.

"I see some opportunities where the timeshare industry and specialized resorts might want to have a component of healthcare," says Whitlock. "The company we're talking to doesn't have a strong interiors department so what we would bring to the table between the two is the health component, the construction component, architecture and interiors and a resort/hospitality minded discipline.

"The lifestyle communities are popping up. And in that lifestyle community, for the aging, let's say, I think it's about a sense of security. People need to know their loved ones are going to be taken care of and it's not going to take a half hour to get to the hospital. ... I had a business coach once and he used to say, "You've got to find another river of cash. When one river starts to slow down you've got to find another river. So we're looking at other things we can do to leverage what we do best."

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