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Sunset Resorts--Cabarete, DR

Sullco2

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This small resort on the North Coast of the Dominican Republic had a short run as a timeshare a decade or more ago. It targeted Canadians with a version of timeshare that seemed just right for them--inexpensive, in town location with no need for a car, no required All-Inclusive rip off, two week stays in winter, no maintenance fee if you didn't use it in a given year, finite end to the deal (20 years, I believe), in-house exchange concierge who truly worked miracles for members who wanted to exchange, and a no-pressure sales atmosphere.

Yes, timeshare vets--no pressure. For example; "Come to our sales event, but don't bring a checkbook--go home and think about it. We'll be here all week."

They sold a lot in various Canadian provinces using hotel shows and even travel agents who visited the property to inspect and then represented it back in their communities.

Then it all fell apart--the owners of the "club" launched "too good to be true" offers to make more sales and an impossibly generous "no maintenance fee ever" offer left local management with the impossible task of keeping up a Caribbean property with no guaranteed budget.

The owners kept their lifestyle luxurious and did another version of the resort in the Canadian Rockies. They drive around in Porsches and Hummers and concoct similar schemes that sell in the short term but turn around to bite buyers in the rear end in the long run.

Several years ago, after a partnership rift, one partner remained in the DR and launched an expansion of the resort that required a total redevelopment. So he simply closed the property, told the members that he would honor their remaining "time" when he reopened with a dramatically upgraded resort.

The worldwide economic collapse killed the redevelopment project and now it appears that foreclosure is in process. The original members will not get the balance of their time--don't feel bad for them though since they had good value for quite a while and got a lot of use.

However, the depositors who put down serious money for new whole ownership condos on the expanded resort now risk losing everything. There is no requirement in the DR for escrow and all moneys "on deposit" are spent on bricks and mortar, marketing, developer expenses, etc. This was disclosed, but people will buy anything--especially with a reasonable amount of good will generated by the previous popular vacation club on site.

There appears to be a vulture developer circulating who has bought the debt and is foreclosing. He has plans to build out the property on the backs of these individual depositors, resell the whole ownership inventory at an enormous profit since a good part of the construction has already been funded by the condo buyers who are losing everything due to the foreclosure.

The vulture is also Canadian, per the rumor. So, there is no loyalty under the Maple Leaf flag when money is concerned. One would think that he would help the original investors get what they contracted for based on pure good will and then reap the benefit with referral buyers at greatly reduced marketing cost.

But, apparently not.

Any TUGGER with first hand knowledge of the situation is invited to keep us all posted.
 
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