Featured Columnists
The Latest in Luxury Living and Real Estate News
Construction Tops Out at Bonita Bay High-Rise
(BONITA SPRINGS, FL) -- A little more than one year after construction started, Bonita Bay's newest luxury high-rise tower, Tavira, has topped out.
The last major roof slab on the 26-story residential high-rise has been poured, and construction is on schedule with completion slated sometime this fall, according to the developers. The Lutgert Companies and Boran Craig Barber Engel Construction Company Inc., broke ground on the building in October 2007.The sixth of eight high-rises planned along Estero Bay in Bonita Bay, Tavira is next to Estero Bay Park, one of three waterfront parks within the 2,400-acre master-planned Bonita Bay golf and country club community. The building will have a rooftop sunset terrace with views of Estero Bay, Bonita Beach and the Gulf of Mexico. Tavira will have four residences per floor, and access-controlled elevators will open into private entry foyers.
Forty-three of Tavira's 90 residences, including the two penthouses, have been sold. Remaining residences, offered in four floor plans, range from 3,517 to 4,146 square feet of air-conditioned living space, with terraces providing 546 to 716 square feet of outdoor space. Home prices range from $1.6 million to $2.853 million.
Residents of Tavira will have access to the Bonita Bay Club, which features two clubhouses, an 18-court tennis and swim center, a fitness center and 90 holes of championship golf, including three Arthur Hills-designed courses within the community and two Tom Fazio courses located nearby.
More than 1,400 acres of Bonita Bay is devoted to open space, including lakes, nature-preserve areas and a 12-mile network of biking and walking paths. In addition to three waterfront recreational areas within the community, Bonita Bay has a private beach park on the Gulf of Mexico and Marina Club.
Tavira is the Lutgert Companies' sixth high-rise project at Bonita Bay, with Esperia South being the newest tower open for sale.
Orange Lake Resort, Holiday Inn Timeshare Partnership Paying Off
(ORLANDO, FL) -- Perhaps the best example of leveraging one's assets in the changing timeshare industry is Holiday Inn Club Vacations, the newly formed partnership between Orange Lake Resorts and InterContinental Hotels Group.
Orange Lake, a 2,478-villa property located just a few miles from Walt Disney World, is a timeshare juggernaut with more than 120,000 owners; IHG, of course, is the world's largest hotel group by number of rooms, featuring 4,100 Holiday Inn-branded hotels in 120 countries and a hotel database of 39-40 million frequent travelers.
Collectively, the two companies have created a compelling story for their customers and employees, to say the least.
"I've used the phrase that this shot in the arm has come at the right time for us," said Orange Lake Resort president/CEO Don Harrill, whose company is coming off its third consecutive year of 20 percent sales growth. "Little did we know as a team three years ago when we really recommitted ourselves to the customer and started planning for this that we really needed it for now.
"These are very difficult times. But our occupied rooms are higher at the resort than last year. All of 2008 we ran more occupied rooms than we did 2007. And the interest from folks in residence hearing our story about the future has improved immensely. People are anxious to learn where we're going and what we're doing."
In less than a month since the Holiday Inn news was announced last December, the partnership is already paying off. For example, Orange Lake received numerous leads from the InterContinental Hotels' Holidex reservations system and several Priority Club Rewards members have redeemed points to vacation at Orange Lake and learn more about the growing number of Orange Lake timeshare resorts.
"We all work for Mr. Wilson's five children and they're all elated," says Harrill, whose Holiday Club Vacations partnership will explore strategic opportunities in mega-markets that make sense for both Orange Lake and IHG. "It feels good and it works well. (HCV) really embodies those very original principals of good value and taking care of the customer that Kemmons Wilson established. So we're excited. And as we look around our industry and realize the struggles and difficulties others are having, we're so thankful we got after this a few years ago and it's come to be. We're benefitting from it immensely."
Abu Dhabi Announces Region's First Golf Course Designed by Trent Jones II
(ABU DHABI, UAE) -- Renowned architect Robert Trent Jones II has been commissioned to create a unique "tidal course" on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island - a natural island lying just offshore the capital city of the United Arab Emirates.
The Saadiyat Reserve course is being developed by the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC), one of the leading developers in Abu Dhabi and the name behind Saadiyat Island's transformation into a signature leisure, residential and cultural destination."Robert Trent Jones' credentials are second-to-none and are compelling when selecting a designer who can deliver a championship course which is informed by its natural environment and which also makes keen financial sense," said Lee Tabler, chief executive officer of TDIC. "Robert Trent Jones' extraordinary designs have a proven history of creating courses of enormous real estate value for developers worldwide."
Tabler noted the power of the Trent Jones II capabilities can be judged by the fact all leading professional golf association tournaments - the PGA Tour, the Senior PGA Tour, the LPGA Tour, the Asian Tour, the PGA European Tour, Australian Tour, World Cup and the World Match Play Championships - have been staged on RTJ II-designed courses.
The Saadiyat Island RTJ course - the first to be undertaken Abu Dhabi by the son of famed course architect Robert Trent Jones Sr. - will be located in the resort destination's Saadiyat Reserve District.
The Reserve is Saadiyat Island's eco-destination with a landscape characterized by dramatic tidal flats.
The 175-acre course, part of a larger 321-acre Saadiyat Reserve golf resort destination, was wrapping up its design work at year end and schedule to break ground early this year.
"Robert Trent Jones is renowned for his innovative design concepts that integrate course with coastal wetlands and other sensitive environments," Tabler said. "His courses are acknowledged for enhancing habitats while creating playable courses rich with strategic variety. These design traits fit extremely well with our plans for Saadiyat Reserve and also with TDIC's own corporate ethos of strong and tangible environmental stewardship."
Trent Jones II, former president of the American Society of Golf Course Architects, has been commissioned to produce a 'unique' course which will flood in accordance with tidal movements around Saadiyat Island.
"The distinctive terrain of Saadiyat Reserve presents us with a challenge and an opportunity to deliver a course like no other in the region, if not the world," said Jones II, whose portfolio spans more than 200 courses in 35 countries on six continents. "The wetlands allow us to give full rein to our vision of creating golf courses where nature works in harmony with the values of the royal and ancient game."
Meanwhile, TDIC is progressing well with the championship Saadiyat Beach Golf Course - the UAE's first signature Gary Player course and the Arabian Gulf's only 'ocean' course with several beachfront holes. The course is due to open in the third quarter of next year.
"The two courses will offer distinctly varied playing experiences and will complement each other with differing shot values and landscape settings," explained Tabler, whose company also owns the Abu Dhabi Golf Club, home to the annual PGA European Tour-backed Abu Dhabi Golf Championship.
