Is it Time for Timeshare?
Timeshare vacation properties,once a hot commodity that fell into disfavor over questionable booking practices,have been making a comeback since reputable hoteliers like Marriott International, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts and Hilton Hotels Corp. got into the mix. The big hotel chains have re-branded the concept as “vacation resort ownership.”
Today, vacation destinations such as Orlando are rife with vacation ownership resorts, some developed by the Walt Disney Co. But in the Anaheim area, there are only two: Peacock Suites, owned by Chicago-based Shell Vacations LLC and Orlando-based Fairfield Resorts Inc.’s Dolphin’s Cove.
In fact, until Marriott Vacation Club International bought land on the Newport Coast from Disney in 1998, no major vacation ownership property existed in OC, though a dozen or so small properties are scattered throughout the county.
The first units at Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas opened in 2000. This month, construction is set to begin on phase three of the project, according to project director Doug Hall. About 200 of the 700 planned units are finished.
Sales, Hall said, are “ahead of last year through June.”
The local market has been a big contributor to the project, with local residents and companies buying units at Newport Coast to use as executive retreats,or for Marriott Vacation Club perks.
Art Spaulding, a partner at Irvine law firm Cox, Castle & Nicholson LLP, which specializes in hospitality projects, said the county is a perfect fit for more timeshare properties, but the cost of development and local moratoriums on such development have frequently kept new projects out. Some of the moratoriums came 10 or more years ago to encourage traditional hotels, which pay transient occupancy taxes whereas timeshares are subject to property tax.
“Hotel projects in Orange County might be hampered by restrictions on timeshares,” Spaulding said.
But the sector has been growing, he said, even since last September.
“It’s been a very successful project for Marriott,” Spaulding said. “Almost every hotel project today contains a timeshare element.”
That traditionally hasn’t been the case in OC, though it was once considered at properties like the Hyatt Newporter and Newport Dunes.
Newport Beach-based Makar Properties is considering a timeshare component at its Pacific City development in Huntington Beach. If that one works out, it would be the first successor to Marriott’s Newport Coast Villas.
,Sandi Cain
