Beach Place

[vacationmama]

Just back from Beach Place and asked to see all the fabrics and plans for renovations. They are absolutely gorgeous and will make the place into a spanking new place to visit! As an aside, they have begun raising the cost of a unit there in anticipation of the renovation. $500 now and another 500 in three months bringing a unit up to $30,500 through Marriott.

 

[pwrshift]

Thanks for the note ... I'm getting excited to see this big change - apparently $8 million when it's done. I assume they are throwing out all the old hard goods furniture too along with the old soft goods, TV's, Fridge, Stoves, faucets, etc. Did they speak to that or just the fabrics?
It should be quite spectacular if they do it right ... something the HOA has never done before.

It will be interesting to see if the ROFR goes up for BeachPlace along with the price, and it should go up along with the neighbourhood.

Brian

 

[thinze3]

Platinum weeks at BeachPlace Towers just may be the best resale bargains in the Marriott Vacation Club chain. IMO

 

[Steamboat Bill]

Platinum weeks at BeachPlace Towers just may be the best resale bargains in the Marriott Vacation Club chain. IMO

In hindsight, I should have bought there instead of MMC...my MMC annual dues has risen 33% in two years and has lower trading power than Beach place according to redweek.com

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

It's too bad, but no matter how much money they spend at Beach Place they will never be able to solve the parking nightmare and the slow elevators.

I'm glad to see that they are doing other upgrades though as it is definitely needs it.

I believe 80% of the actual owners own there for trading purposes only, so it will be interesting to see if the owners start coming back once the renovations are completed.

 

[pwrshift]

Bill ... I'm surprised you would prefer MBP which is about an hour from you instead of what you have in MMC for a complete change of environment for a holiday.

I think MMC/MSE has one of the best HOA's in the Marriott system and as a long time owner there, feel that if they needed that kind of increase to keep this place very special I'm OK with it because there have been years in which there was little or next to no increase at all. Even with the last 2 years of MF increases it still is very affordable...and there aren't many, if any, Marriotts with MF's that low.

http://www.tug2.net/advice/marriottmf.htm

I think if you bought MMC for trading you're missing out on something very special. For $845 a year you also get 6 free rounds of golf included .. a significant saving if you pay to play golf anywhere else ... and even if you don't it is just $121 a night for lovely surroundings. If you wanted to sell, you should easily get 100% back if you bought resale. The suite size is 1350 sq ft and the complex sits in the middle of a very upscale gated residential neighbourhood surrounded by its 54 holes of great golf. Within a 15-30 minute drive you can go to Virginia Beach for the day, Norfolk, Busch Gardens, Water World, Jamestown, historic Williamsburg, etc. etc. For the $1050 MF of BeachPlace, you get nothing extra but an HOA that did no renos over the last five years and now has to play catch up big time.

Regardless of Redweek's stats, I own at both BeachPlace and Manor Club (also Canyon Villas) and my experience is that Manor Club outstrips MBP in trading power. Just this week I was checking II with a MSE studio lockoff for availabilities up to the first week of July -- and found dozens of 2 bedroom suites as well as a 3 bedroom in Spain! Many of those did not show up at all when I searched with my MBP studio. MBP is also harder to rent on Ebay even for President's week than Manor Club - this year I rented the 1 bdrm and the studio of MSE on Ebay for $1490 in a week - 75% more than my cost! My MBP studio for President's week didn't rent at all so I had to turn it in to Interval.

80% of MBP owners either trade for points each year or for other resorts ... probably due to the poor condition of what they own as you can't beat the location if you want beachfront in the winter -- but the cost of the MF to get 110k MR points instead is almost as high as buying them from Marriott.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=446333&postcount=73

I don't know if you have experienced your ownership of MMC yet, but that might change your opinion. And if MMC's HOA continues with double digit MF increases for 2009 I might change mine too!

Brian

In hindsight, I should have bought there instead of MMC...my MMC annual dues has risen 33% in two years and has lower trading power than Beach place according to redweek.com

 

[Steamboat Bill]

I am not unhappy with MMC, but I mainly use it for II and we have reservations there Spring Break 2009, but it is not a place I wanted to visit every year.

When I bought, it was in 2006 (when it had the lowest annual dues) and every since I bought, the annual dues have skyrocketed. Too bad all of my stocks have not followed the same path.

I bought resale for around $8000 + closing costs.

 

[vacationmama]

Brian, someone must be using Beachplace as the front desk was telling me that it is always 93% full for all seasons. That is a great rate. You are right. The location is wonderful. I have had fantastic trades with my Beachplace, Spain, Hawaii, France and all larger units for my lock-off.

 

[mas]

... I assume they are throwing out all the old hard goods furniture too along with the old soft goods, TV's, Fridge, Stoves, faucets, etc. Did they speak to that or just the fabrics?

Brian

Brian:

We were there two weeks ago (week of 4/13). Went on the sales presentation and I asked what all was included in the upgrade. The sales guy said the only thing that wouldn't be upgraded were the cabinets and the plumbing. All new appliances granite counters, new carpets painting and of course LCD TVs.

FYI: The sales guy also explained how the schedule for upgrade works, In May they will block off the top three floors and rework the top two leaving the 17th floor as a noise buffer for the floors below. In June then floors 17 and 16 would be done and 15 would be block off as a buffer. So if you have a reservation in June, you may be able to get one of the upgraded top two floors. The downside, I would imagine is that with all that construction going on, any reservation between now (May) and Oct would have to deal with increased elevator traffic and longer waits. By the way, I thought the elevator wait time was practically non existent during our week .


Next year will be fun.

 

[pwrshift]

Brian:

Next year will be fun.

I bet we'll see a huge increase in 'owner use' next year!

Even at the busiest times I've never had an outrageous wait for an elevator, but if they reserve 1 or 2 of the elevators for the construction people, I hope they put chairs at the elevators!

Brian