[MERGED] T&L expands Sports Illustrated Resorts portfolio with New Vacation Ownership Destination in Nashville

[dandjane1]

And all this discussion over a lousy TEN (10) units, which will only be available to T/S folks at Founder level or above, for the very necessary ARP.
But that fact won't be mentioned to the new retail buyers of 105 or 140K CWA points!

 

[HitchHiker71]

I don't think it is being sold as a vacation destination. This is a great place for parents who send their child off for 5 years to stay when they visit, a great place for conference going visitors to stay together, and a place not only for football crowds but also basketball, baseball and the rest of the sports teams that draw fans. The university has academic events, speakers, graduations etc also. This is not going to be sold at all like other Wyndham properties, it is a new audience.

Perhaps Wyndham will also ink deals with the actual universities for some of the resort inventory to host the incoming academics, speakers, events, temporary staff, etc. Thinking outside the box.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[CO skier]

And all this discussion over a lousy TEN (10) units, which will only be available to T/S folks at Founder level or above, for the very necessary ARP.
But that fact won't be mentioned to the new retail buyers of 105 or 140K CWA points!

From the July 23rd T+L earnings call:

"In [the] last week, we announced our newest Sports Illustrated Resorts location in Nashville, Tennessee. Located on Music Row in the heart of Midtown just one mile from downtown, the planned resort will feature 185 units and is expected to open in the spring of 2027. These new brands will help us expand into key markets, reach new audiences and offer experiences suited to their lifestyles.

Nashville is a conversion property. It will be just in time inventory to match revenue to sales, 185 units opening in the spring of 2026 and expectation is to start sales at some point in Q4 this year. Tuscaloosa is a purpose-built project, which we've gone through the permitting process, which put us about a quarter behind from our original expectations. So it's going to be early '27 for delivery."

That does not sound like "a lousy TEN units" to me, especially the "purpose-built project" part.

 

[dandjane1]

Did some investigation on Nashville location - It will be where the current Placemakr property is 1600 McGavock St.

Article about the sale which notes that part of it was sold to T+L

Midtown hotel building sells for $67M

Memphis company now owns Placemakr Music Row in deal worth about $347K per unit

www.nashvillepost.com

And then I did a google street view to confirm
Google View of Placemakr
View attachment 113271
and Picture from new resort website

View attachment 113272

 

[dandjane1]

I was quoting the above post, and relative to only Nashville. The 10 units are clearly noted in the narrative. See below"

According to a Davidson County Register of Deeds document, the new owner is an LLC affiliated with Memphis-based Kemmons Wilson Hospitality Partners (KWHP).


The seller was an LLC associated with Washington D.C.-based Placemakr.

The building offers 193 unit, rendering the deal the equivalent of $347,150 per unit.

In a related move, and according to a separate Davidson County Register of Deeds document, the buying LLC sold 10 units located on the second floor of the building for $7.68 million.


The buyer in that transaction was an Orlando LLC seemingly associated with timeshare company Travel + Leisure Company.

 

[paxsarah]

I was quoting the above post, and relative to only Nashville. The 10 units are clearly noted in the narrative. See below"

According to a Davidson County Register of Deeds document, the new owner is an LLC affiliated with Memphis-based Kemmons Wilson Hospitality Partners (KWHP).


The seller was an LLC associated with Washington D.C.-based Placemakr.

The building offers 193 unit, rendering the deal the equivalent of $347,150 per unit.

In a related move, and according to a separate Davidson County Register of Deeds document, the buying LLC sold 10 units located on the second floor of the building for $7.68 million.


The buyer in that transaction was an Orlando LLC seemingly associated with timeshare company Travel + Leisure Company.

This was addressed in a different SI thread:

I understand that the deal will be what they consider "asset light", so Travel + Leisure isn't developing the property. So I think that sale of 10 units on the second floor is for a sales center. Then someone else will convert and sell the units to Travel + Leisure in a just in time model where they will then be sold as timeshare. Of course, I could be all wrong in that understanding and perhaps only 10 units will be converted to timeshare under Travel + Leisure.

So it’s very likely the 10 initial units are only the sales center, especially since it’s the second floor.

 

[dioxide45]

Who would make a lifetime purchase commitment for a four or five year college education?

 

[HitchHiker71]

Who would make a lifetime purchase commitment for a four or five year college education?

The college itself certainly might consider it for ongoing temporary housing needs for various legitimate purposes.

 

[dioxide45]

The college itself certainly might consider it for ongoing temporary housing needs for various legitimate purposes.

So Wyndhams target market for this property will be to sell to the university? Universities are going to be buying timeshare?

 

[HitchHiker71]

So Wyndhams target market for this property will be to sell to the university? Universities are going to be buying timeshare?

I certainly think it's at least feasible yes, though probably unlikely big picture. The college itself is the one entity involved that certainly lays claim to a lifetime purchase commitment making sense purely from a basic logical standpoint. Not saying it's going to happen, I'm simply saying it's feasible is all - and gives Wyndham and SI new blood to bring into sales updates.

 

[paxsarah]

That (a university actually purchasing timeshare contracts) seems like the least likely market for owners here, for multiple reasons. Many universities of the type under discussion here already have their own hotel and conference center. The last thing they want is their academic or other official guests being hit up for a timeshare presentation when they check in. Availability doesn’t cease to be an issue with points-based timeshares, especially on short notice. Most universities of the type under discussion here are public, and a developer purchase of timeshare interest would be abysmal stewardship of public funds.

I could see some sort of marketing partnership, or more likely, just the developer renting out its unsold inventory competing with local hotels. If university ownership was feasible, you’d have seen William and Mary buying up Williamsburg timeshares long ago, or UNLV in Las Vegas - but they haven’t.

 

[HitchHiker71]

That (a university actually purchasing timeshare contracts) seems like the least likely market for owners here, for multiple reasons. Many universities of the type under discussion here already have their own hotel and conference center. The last thing they want is their academic or other official guests being hit up for a timeshare presentation when they check in. Availability doesn’t cease to be an issue with points-based timeshares, especially on short notice. Most universities of the type under discussion here are public, and a developer purchase of timeshare interest would be abysmal stewardship of public funds.

I could see some sort of marketing partnership, or more likely, just the developer renting out its unsold inventory competing with local hotels. If university ownership was feasible, you’d have seen William and Mary buying up Williamsburg timeshares long ago, or UNLV in Las Vegas - but they haven’t.

You assume the university would be subject to the same purchasing processes and rules as a normal consumer. I would surmise that assumption would not be valid in this case. Wyndham can sell this product however they so desire. They could lease the product to the university - similar to Wyndham Discovery - and never require a purchase - they can do pretty much whatever they want as the developer - subject to the governing trust rules of course. Just because something hasn't occurred in the past doesn't mean it's not going to occur in the future, change is the only constant. Again, it's unlikely, but it's possible, and it would remediate the risks that everyone is mentioning in this thread regarding seasonalities and limited audiences that would really be interested in the concept.

 

[Floridaman76]

@paxarah is absolutely right. Universities, especially PUBLIC Universities would never be involved in a business transaction with a timeshare company. This would not pass any level of scrutiny and would be an audit nightmare.

I have worked for the government in the past and the general "perpetual" nature of a timeshare contract would not be allowed by law. The government cannot enter into any sort of agreement which would contractually obligate the entity to be on the hook for maintenance fees into perpetuity, forever, with no control over escalation of charges year over year.

Just would not happen. Every contract the government enters into it's required to have escape clauses and terms which require favorable exit and renewal terms. None of which timeshares could or would offer.

Also there is the matter of government travel always requiring the most inexpensive option possible, which is almost never a timeshare/condo.

Again, having worked for and travelled for the government, the type of accommodation was never negotiable. If there was some roach infested Days Inn for $68/night, or a Hilton for $150/night, my ass was staying in the Hilton. No exception.

It's a completely different world than the private sector. And I imagine with "DOGE" now, it's even worse.

Also as mentioned, most universities have hotels on-site, and part of their licensing agreements include provisions for the hotel to provide a certain number of rooms for their "traveling dignitaries" are extremely low pre-negotiated rates exactly for this purpose...

 

[schoolmarm]

Also there is the matter of government travel always requiring the most inexpensive option possible, which is almost never a timeshare/condo.

ACTUALLY, I'm a (retired now) Public University Professor and I bought into Wyndham to beat the high cost of hotels in the DC area when I did research at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian and the University of Maryland College Park Special Collections.

How it worked was I would always use up my points in a use year, or deposit them forward. Booked with "rented" points at $12/1000 for my conference and research travel. You get a receipt for this, which the University and grant agencies require. Stayed at Old Town Alexandria, Edisto Island, Nashville, Patriot's Place in Williamsburg, and even Chicago (when we had it)...all coming way under the per diem and really stretching out my grant money. I've used Atlanta, NYC, and National Harbor in addition to Nashville as conference hotels....once you get tenure the universities don't always pony up for your expenses and you are usually on your own dime. Took students to Nashville and Atlantic City for conferences and they thought that they were staying in a palace instead of crowding into a Motel 6 or Super 8.

IF a university bought out a timeshare they would probably not keep it as a timeshare but use it for apartment-style student housing.

One draw back to my "renting" out points from Wyndham was that the sales teams all thought that I was a hot prospect because I always used up my points and needed more. HaHaHa!

 

[Floridaman76]

ACTUALLY, I'm a (retired now) Public University Professor and I bought into Wyndham to beat the high cost of hotels in the DC area when I did research at the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian and the University of Maryland College Park Special Collections.

How it worked was I would always use up my points in a use year, or deposit them forward. Booked with "rented" points at $12/1000 for my conference and research travel. You get a receipt for this, which the University and grant agencies require. Stayed at Old Town Alexandria, Edisto Island, Nashville, Patriot's Place in Williamsburg, and even Chicago (when we had it)...all coming way under the per diem and really stretching out my grant money. I've used Atlanta, NYC, and National Harbor in addition to Nashville as conference hotels....once you get tenure the universities don't always pony up for your expenses and you are usually on your own dime. Took students to Nashville and Atlantic City for conferences and they thought that they were staying in a palace instead of crowding into a Motel 6 or Super 8.

My previous post was geared towards a government agency owning the timeshare and using it for staff.

From an employee angle, using for "work travel", I tried that too, but they would never allow that because even though I could prove my MF/1000 and could show how many points I consumed, they would not accept that. So I got frustrated and went with whatever garbage hotel they ended up booking. It was especially frustrating because I managed my team's budget and our travel and training budget was always severely limited, so this would legitimately save money in some cases.

But admittedly that's admittedly an angle I had not attempted (renting points). Clever.

 

[HitchHiker71]

My previous post was geared towards a government agency owning the timeshare and using it for staff.

From an employee angle, using for "work travel", I tried that too, but they would never allow that because even though I could prove my MF/1000 and could show how many points I consumed, they would not accept that. So I got frustrated and went with whatever garbage hotel they ended up booking. It was especially frustrating because I managed my team's budget and our travel and training budget was always severely limited, so this would legitimately save money in some cases.

But admittedly that's admittedly an angle I had not attempted (renting points). Clever.

Renting points or using EH/VS might serve as a viable option these days, or if you could find a last minute booking within the 15 day window, you could always use the "pay instead of points" option that's now available at IIRC around $5/1000 points which is a pretty good deal. Since its actual dollars instead of points, would that have been acceptable?

 

[Floridaman76]

Renting points or using EH/VS might serve as a viable option these days, or if you could find a last minute booking within the 15 day window, you could always use the "pay instead of points" option that's now available at IIRC around $5/1000 points which is a pretty good deal. Since its actual dollars instead of points, would that have been acceptable?

It might, but the issue with EH or Bonus time is it's last minute bookings, and the time is inflexible, and not knowing for certain you have a place to stay at 2 weeks before travel probably wouldn't be an option. Conferences usually get booked months in advance. I just booked a conference in Vegas in December that I would have loved to stay at Grand Desert or Desert Blue. Instead I got booked at Mandalay Bay, which I guess they got a deal at. The conference's host hotel was the Venetian which was too rich for their tastes.

EH would be a little more flexible because I think it's 90 days out.

I might have to try some of these angles in the future.

 

[HitchHiker71]

It might, but the issue with EH or Bonus time is it's last minute bookings, and the time is inflexible, and not knowing for certain you have a place to stay at 2 weeks before travel probably wouldn't be an option. Conferences usually get booked months in advance. I just booked a conference in Vegas in December that I would have loved to stay at Grand Desert or Desert Blue. Instead I got booked at Mandalay Bay, which I guess they got a deal at. The conference's host hotel was the Venetian which was too rich for their tastes.

EH would be a little more flexible because I think it's 90 days out.

I might have to try some of these angles in the future.

AFAIK you can book on EH up to 13 months out - basically the Club Wyndham booking window - but I've never used it so I'm not certain.

 

[schoolmarm]

But admittedly that's admittedly an angle I had not attempted (renting points). Clever.

That was the only way to get a RECEIPT with a dollar amount at that time....

if you could find a last minute booking within the 15 day window, you could always use the "pay instead of points" option that's now available at IIRC around $5/1000 points which is a pretty good deal. Since its actual dollars instead of points, would that have been acceptable?

And now Hitchhiker brought up the new "extra time" (is that what it is called?) last minute reservations...great idea. But with Floridaman's caution that most conferences book up early...so looking for cancellation inventory is risky. I had to book Old Town for a conference over July 4th one year and I was up at midnight 10 months out (WHEW!).

Hopefully these ideas would help others who are using timeshares for WORK. Man, I was getting tired of not getting reimbursed.

And if anyone owns Massanuttan...try to book your float week for graduation at James Madison University, you might get a rental. That town does NOT have enough hotel rooms for their big crowd. Lots of people stay "at the Nutt". I think that other big events at JMU also use Massanuttan as a housing option. SO the Sports Illustrated model in Alabama might actually work. When I did grant work in some of the southern states that were big for football, I was surprised at the lack of hotel accommodations. It will be interesting to see how the SI model works (or doesn't).

 

[dsanner106]

I lived in a college town for 7 years while going to school and trying to make life / job work in that same town after graduation (dumb idea). I know all that, and also know that there's an existing plant of hotels sitting mostly empty 5 days a week to accomodate those visiting parents. They make their entire year's worth of income during football weekends and move in/move out weekends 6 times per year. Everything else is gravy for them. I just actually looked at the weekend before classes start and there's no shortage of sub $80/night rooms. If you look the week before, or the week after move-in week, it's even cheaper and more availability.

This weird niche market for "parents that want to stay in a condo instead of a hotel" probably exists, but I have to guess is incredibly small.

I guess we will find out.

Having worked for Universities for a few decades I can say that the market for parents not wanting to stay in a tiny hotel room is pretty large. Many parents who can afford to send their kids off to Vanderbilt want to get a place large enough that their student can come stay with them and their siblings at a nice resort with pools and amenities. We had a non-stop stream of parents asking about this.

 

[paxsarah]

Having worked for Universities for a few decades I can say that the market for parents not wanting to stay in a tiny hotel room is pretty large. Many parents who can afford to send their kids off to Vanderbilt want to get a place large enough that their student can come stay with them and their siblings at a nice resort with pools and amenities. We had a non-stop stream of parents asking about this.

Maybe it all just relies on the refusal of sales to paint a realistic picture of what they're selling, but while there's a market for "parents [and alumni] who'd rather stay in a condo instead of a hotel room" (I'm pretty psyched that my kid is going to college a few blocks away from a Club Wyndham location, and I'm pretty happy to have been able to stay in a Club Wyndham unit for my own homecomings at a completely different university), there's probably less of a market for "parents who will plan 13 months ahead to book the most popular weekends at their kid's school or be satisfied with a midweek stay in February" - and that's what's really being sold and presumably a much smaller market.

 

[Arimaas]

Maybe it all just relies on the refusal of sales to paint a realistic picture of what they're selling, but while there's a market for "parents [and alumni] who'd rather stay in a condo instead of a hotel room" (I'm pretty psyched that my kid is going to college a few blocks away from a Club Wyndham location, and I'm pretty happy to have been able to stay in a Club Wyndham unit for my own homecomings at a completely different university), there's probably less of a market for "parents who will plan 13 months ahead to book the most popular weekends at their kid's school or be satisfied with a midweek stay in February" - and that's what's really being sold and presumably a much smaller market.

Well I think you hit the nail on the head here, I don't think Wyndham sales is going to be too transparent at availability and how ARP, etc works. They will just sell the unit and the parents will leave there none the wiser.

As an aside, I don't think it's too difficult to plan 13 months out with a college calendar. Most will know when homecoming is, parents weekend, etc. within that time frame.

 

[paxsarah]

As an aside, I don't think it's too difficult to plan 13 months out with a college calendar. Most will know when homecoming is, parents weekend, etc. within that time frame.

I don't have the fall 2026 calendar yet for my kid's college (2025 family weekend is 7 weeks out and homecoming is one week later, so we're getting close to 13 months now for 2026). For UGA (where I live) the academic calendar for 2026-27 is published (so move-in/move-out are predictable) as well as non-conference football games, but not SEC games (which would need to be set before determining homecoming or family weekend). Looks like the 2025 SEC schedule was announced in December 2024.

 

[Arimaas]

I don't have the fall 2026 calendar yet for my kid's college (2025 family weekend is 7 weeks out and homecoming is one week later, so we're getting close to 13 months now for 2026). For UGA (where I live) the academic calendar for 2026-27 is published (so move-in/move-out are predictable) as well as non-conference football games, but not SEC games (which would need to be set before determining homecoming or family weekend). Looks like the 2025 SEC schedule was announced in December 2024.

well I stand corrected. guess the exact schedules aren’t all shored up at the same time.

 

[jp10558]

I don't have the fall 2026 calendar yet for my kid's college (2025 family weekend is 7 weeks out and homecoming is one week later, so we're getting close to 13 months now for 2026). For UGA (where I live) the academic calendar for 2026-27 is published (so move-in/move-out are predictable) as well as non-conference football games, but not SEC games (which would need to be set before determining homecoming or family weekend). Looks like the 2025 SEC schedule was announced in December 2024.

Although this does make me wonder if, assuming the market is parents, if there's going to be competition for whatever college "weekend" before the schedules are published? I.e. maybe you have to get online and book immediately after the schedules are published, but if there's no other draw very few non parents will be competing with you right?