There's actually a soft goods renovation happening to most if not all units at Canyon Villas this summer. And yes, it is needed.
Part of the problem is that the last full renovation done eight to ten years ago was a noticeable downgrade from how the resort was furnished and decorated when it was new. It essentially took what were luxurious and bright villas, and converted them into something more rustic, with a washed-out, almost exclusively beige color palate. I believe it was an effort to play up the desert theme of the resort, but the aesthetic has not aged well.
Renderings of the new design were on display in the lobby last summer. It looked pretty good, but I'll reserve judgement until I see the refreshed rooms. My hope is that it will be a return to form for this great resort.
In my opinion, and assessment (as 35+ year, multiple week MVC Owners), there are two phenomenon at play here:
(1) MVC seemed to up the juice at MVC resorts, when those resorts were (individually) in Developer Sales. Decor, furnishings, design, overall quality and attractiveness, were substantially greater, when the resort came out of the gates, than what MVC does (at the direction of the then resort's HOA BOD), today. Clearly, the advent of MVC resorts, where "weeks" are not sold/were not sold (e.g. resorts leveraged on MVC Destination Club points, not "weeks"), became a Game Changer, in this regard. (2) The quality, attractiveness, and
value-engineering that goes on, when the Resort HOA BOD drives a refurbishment, in my opinion, is a stark contrast to the resort that MVC delivered in a resort's Developer Sales era. For example, we see many substantial shortcomings to recent renovations/refurbishments to villa interiors at Desert Springs Villas One. At DSV One, louvered interior doors, old cabinets, tile, hard goods and certain softgoods, to us, just reek of Value Engineering by the BOD HOA. Further, I'm concerned that MVC's profit margins on refurbishments are so great, that they, in my opinion, take away from the capital/investment that is infused into a villa, by the HOA ("owners").
Then, we see, many, what appear to be foolish decisions by MVC's Refurbishment Team, and the HOA BOD, like the dark brown color of the front doors of the villas at DSV One, that within a matter of days (of their painting), turn into an eyesore, as the dark paint is chipped, and the white/light color underpaint shines right through.
Finally, speaking of villa/resort refurbishments, and "Keeping Up With the Jones's," who would have ever imagined, 35 years ago, when we purchased at DSV One, that we, and many other owners from our (purchase) generation, might not be able to navigate the exterior stairs, to the second floor villas, and that the resort would be faced by an inordinate demand from First Generation Owners, for first floor villas, vs second floor villas. That, to me, is just one example, of a future, that we never considered, when we became DSV One owners. One can only welcome the "next generation" of younger owners.
FORTUNATELY, we see many MVC resorts, e.g. Desert Springs Villas One, Cypress Harbour, where these older resorts, in our opinion, look darn good for their age. Cypress Harbour, unfortunately, has new challenges, with the resort landscape, based on the unanticipated construction of the apartment community, beside it, where the golf course once stood. Personally, I think the facade/architecture of Sabal Palms, looks very dated.
