Tuesday, February 21, 2006
High-End Timeshare Planned For Florida Real Estate
A longtime luxury-home builder has broken ground near Walt Disney World on what would be the region's first fractional-ownership resort sort of an upscale timeshare.
Lighthouse Key Resort & Spa, 4.5 miles west of Disney on U.S. Highway 192, is being built by ICI Homes Inc. of Daytona Beach. A fractional-ownership development is a highend timeshare real estate, with more room and amenities and a longer minimum-purchase requirement -- at least four weeks in the case of Lighthouse Key, which is being built on Raccoon Lake with a waterfront theme.
Many of the Orlando area's top time-share companies are moving into the ritzier fractional market elsewhere in the country, but Lighthouse Key will be a first for Central Florida as well as for ICI, said Charlie O'Sullivan, the company's Orlando market president.
"These are more like second homes," rather than conventional time shares or condos, O'Sullivan said. "Our goal here is to bridge the gap -- to offer something that's more in line with a second home, but you pay only for what you use."
Also, more in keeping with the second-home market, the Lighthouse condos can be bought outright. Prices for full ownership currently range from $370,000 to $480,000 a unit.
Fully deeded "fractional" purchases at Lighthouse Key start at four weeks. Preconstruction prices range from $40,000 to $65,000 based on a unit's size and go up in four-week intervals. Annual maintenance fees are extra.
The units range in size from 1,200 to 2,200 square feet, come fully furnished, and have double master suites in most cases. The first of the 600 units, in 15 buildings, will be available by the end of this year, with buildout by 2011.
Howard Nusbaum, president and chief executive officer of the American Resort Development Association, which represents the time-share industry, said there is no legal difference between a time share and a fractional-ownership unit; both are governed by the same laws and regulations.
But the fractional subset is aimed at wealthier families and is marketed differently, Nusbaum said.
"I call them the 'rational rich,' " Nusbaum said of fractional buyers. Instead of sinking $3 million into a second home or condo in a destination resort, such as Aspen, and then using it only part of a year, he said, a buyer will invest a fraction of that and keep the balance for other uses.
"Many affluent families already have second or third homes, and they can be money pits," Nusbaum said. A fractional, he said, duplicates much of the luxury for a fraction of the cost.
While the Orlando area is the nation's leading timeshare market, it is a relatively budget-minded market that has never been considered prime territory for upscale fractionals -- at least not when compared with exclusive locales such as Vail and Aspen, or St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, Nusbaum said. Until now.
O'Sullivan said the Orlando area's vacation-home market has tightened to the point that value is hard to find, and upper-income buyers will have a new option in the fractional project.
Lighthouse Key owners will experience "full-time luxury living," he said, "starting with groceries in the refrigerator when they arrive and 24-hour concierge service."
Construction starts soon on a 26,000-square-foot clubhouse with a 4,500-square-foot luxury spa.
ICI Homes is already planning a second local fractional project, this one with an "eco-tourist theme," as part of the Legacy Resort development of regional impact on Shingle Creek, said Kevin Mays, vice president of the resorts division.
The company will start a "residents' club," Mays said, that would allow fractional owners to spend time at other resorts. Members would also have access to many other resorts worldwide through the Interval International exchange network.
Lighthouse Key Resort & Spa, 4.5 miles west of Disney on U.S. Highway 192, is being built by ICI Homes Inc. of Daytona Beach. A fractional-ownership development is a highend timeshare real estate, with more room and amenities and a longer minimum-purchase requirement -- at least four weeks in the case of Lighthouse Key, which is being built on Raccoon Lake with a waterfront theme.
Many of the Orlando area's top time-share companies are moving into the ritzier fractional market elsewhere in the country, but Lighthouse Key will be a first for Central Florida as well as for ICI, said Charlie O'Sullivan, the company's Orlando market president.
"These are more like second homes," rather than conventional time shares or condos, O'Sullivan said. "Our goal here is to bridge the gap -- to offer something that's more in line with a second home, but you pay only for what you use."
Also, more in keeping with the second-home market, the Lighthouse condos can be bought outright. Prices for full ownership currently range from $370,000 to $480,000 a unit.
Fully deeded "fractional" purchases at Lighthouse Key start at four weeks. Preconstruction prices range from $40,000 to $65,000 based on a unit's size and go up in four-week intervals. Annual maintenance fees are extra.
The units range in size from 1,200 to 2,200 square feet, come fully furnished, and have double master suites in most cases. The first of the 600 units, in 15 buildings, will be available by the end of this year, with buildout by 2011.
Howard Nusbaum, president and chief executive officer of the American Resort Development Association, which represents the time-share industry, said there is no legal difference between a time share and a fractional-ownership unit; both are governed by the same laws and regulations.
But the fractional subset is aimed at wealthier families and is marketed differently, Nusbaum said.
"I call them the 'rational rich,' " Nusbaum said of fractional buyers. Instead of sinking $3 million into a second home or condo in a destination resort, such as Aspen, and then using it only part of a year, he said, a buyer will invest a fraction of that and keep the balance for other uses.
"Many affluent families already have second or third homes, and they can be money pits," Nusbaum said. A fractional, he said, duplicates much of the luxury for a fraction of the cost.
While the Orlando area is the nation's leading timeshare market, it is a relatively budget-minded market that has never been considered prime territory for upscale fractionals -- at least not when compared with exclusive locales such as Vail and Aspen, or St. Thomas in the Virgin Islands, Nusbaum said. Until now.
O'Sullivan said the Orlando area's vacation-home market has tightened to the point that value is hard to find, and upper-income buyers will have a new option in the fractional project.
Lighthouse Key owners will experience "full-time luxury living," he said, "starting with groceries in the refrigerator when they arrive and 24-hour concierge service."
Construction starts soon on a 26,000-square-foot clubhouse with a 4,500-square-foot luxury spa.
ICI Homes is already planning a second local fractional project, this one with an "eco-tourist theme," as part of the Legacy Resort development of regional impact on Shingle Creek, said Kevin Mays, vice president of the resorts division.
The company will start a "residents' club," Mays said, that would allow fractional owners to spend time at other resorts. Members would also have access to many other resorts worldwide through the Interval International exchange network.
# posted by John @ 4:29 AM 
