Europe Based Club La Costa Resorts & Hotels Purchases Encantada Resort in Kissimmee, Florida

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Privately owned Club La Costa Resorts & Hotels has just purchased Encantada Resort in Kissimmee, Florida from Park Square Homes. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Club La Costa founder and Chairman, Roy Peires, made the announcement of the company's first North American property.  Founded in 1984 by Peires, Club La Costa has more than 50,000 members and mixed use resorts in England, Scotland, Austria, Spain, Tenerife and Turkey in addition to its own in-house travel agency and resort management arm.

The company has successfully developed a mixed use model of whole ownership homes - usually offered with a leaseback program as well as timeshare resorts.  In addition to its latest project in Florida, Club La Costa is currently expanding in Turkey with one resort open and a second--the company's  first residential golf project--under construction.  In 2007, Club La Costa launched its unique Yacht Club with sailings in the Red Sea, Turkey, around Mallorca and Greece.

"The announcement of our new resort has already caused a lot of excitement among our members who can look forward to a resort exhibiting Club La Costa high standards in this sought after destination," said Peires.

Encantada, a 50 acre resort located only minutes from Central Florida's most popular attractions, features four-bedroom, three-bath and three-bedroom, two-and-a-half-bath townhomes ranging from 1,298 square feet to 1,516 square feet.  The resort also features a 9,000 square foot clubhouse, two pools and spas, game arcade, fitness center, lounge and cyber café.

Because of the growing demand for an Orlando-based resort from its member base, Club La Costa is expected to construct approximately 161 luxury townhomes at Encantada over the next 18 months in addition to the resort's existing 200 townhomes.

Midlan International Resort Realty is a 35-year-old company that specializes in all aspects of the shared ownership industry--including management, sales and marketing, feasibility studies and turnarounds--acted as the broker for the transaction.

"The shared ownership industry, such as vacation ownership (timesharing), fractionals and private residence clubs, is a niche market that most of the large real estate brokers ignore, yet it remains a vibrant market with strong sales, even after the decline in the economy and the real estate market," said Midlan Chairman Michael J. Butler.  Butler screens potential resorts for shared ownership potential and provides a detailed feasibility study that's outside the scope of most real estate brokers' expertise. 

In addition to the Encantada sale, Midlan also provided the feasibility study and assisted in securing the financing for a $100M, 44 unit Private Residence Club on Siesta Key in Sarasota, Florida.  The property was opened in 2007 and is in active sales.

Midlan, is also currently handling sales and marketing for an Orlando vacation ownership project - Driftwood WorldGate Resort

"Club La Costa is one of the European and Asian clients we are working with and the first to finalize a purchase transaction in Orlando," said Midlan President, Christine Starker-Butler, the Real Estate Broker on the Encantada transaction. "The USA in general and the Orlando area in particular is very appealing to these buyers.  Their owners/members are eager to have USA destinations to access.  The real estate down turn in the USA makes this an ideal time for these players to enter the market."   Midlan is actively looking for other suitable properties in US urban and resort areas for their clients."

 

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