Panama City Beach special assessment

[Jan M.]

I see on Facebook that PCB owners are getting letters about a special assessment. It's $1.23 per thousand points. If you're a PCB owner you should be able to see and pay the special assessment in your Paymentus account

 

[paxsarah]

And while there seems to be a lot of angst and outrage in the FB groups about this, I'll just point out that adding $1.23 to the regular PCB maintenance fee for 2023 still puts it at a dollar lower than CWA per 1,000 points. And it's only for one year (hopefully). It's too bad that reserves couldn't cover it, but it seems quite reasonable, all things considered.

 

[HitchHiker71]

What is the intended purpose of the special assessment? Property improvement of some kind? Renovations? Structural repairs? Curious...

 

[paxsarah]

What is the intended purpose of the special assessment? Property improvement of some kind? Renovations? Structural repairs? Curious...

This is pulled from an owner on FB who posted the letter they received:

Dear Panama City Beach VOA Owner,

The purpose of this letter is to inform you that on April 25, 2023, your Board of Directors voted to approve a Special Assessment, which was primarily driven by a Special Assessment approved by the Emerald Beach Master Owners Association ("Master Association"). The Master Association is comprised of three current members: Tower I (whole ownership), Tower III (vacation ownership), and the retail building (Developer). The responsibilities of the Master Association are to maintain the common areas of the property.

The Special Assessment will fund projects such as the repair, seal, and repaint of the common areas of the building exteriors; the modernization of the east and west elevators; the replacement of the skybridge roof; parking garage repairs; and to provide an adequate operating fund balance to sustain operations for the Multi-Association.

In order to fund these unanticipated costs from the Master Association and Developer, the VOA Board believes there is no alternative but to administer a Special Assessment totaling $4,234,289, which equates to $1.23 per thousand points.

Please note that this is a separate billing for this Special Assessment and is not combined with your existing Annual Assessment dues. Please refer to your Special Assessment invoice for due dates and payment instructions.

We understand that Special Assessments are never ideal. Please be assured your management company and Board of Directors are working diligently on your behalf to minimize the impact of rising costs, while maintaining the resort to ensure we can offer the best experience to our owners and guests when you visit.

If you have any questions regarding this letter, please don't hesitate to contact our Financial Services Department at 888-739-4022. Representatives are available to assist you Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-8 p.m., Sat-Sun 9 a.m.-6 p.m., ET.

Sincerely,

Club Wyndham

 

[HitchHiker71]

This is pulled from an owner on FB who posted the letter they received:

Very interesting. None of the listed items are particularly costly in nature at a total of $4.23mm. It is rare IME to see any SAs like this for Wyndham properties. Repainting and elevator modernizations generally wouldn't fall under "unanticipated costs" so to speak as these types of maintenance procedures are generally planned out well in advance. One could argue that parking garage repairs and roof replacements might fall under unanticipated costs if these repairs were not expected this year - but are required this year for whatever reason - however IME this is typically where the reserve fund is tapped - which doesn't appear to be the case here. Or perhaps it would drain the reserve fund completely which wouldn't be desirable either for various reasons.

I'm wondering if we may see more SAs at resorts due to higher inflation over the past couple of years. Using a SA approach may be preferable to simply increasing MFs across the board, with hopes that inflation will abate over time, after which SAs like this would no longer be required as the reserve fund that likely can no longer cover such expenses with higher inflation/costs in play, would be able to cover such expenses if/when inflation comes down. Just speculation on my part to be clear, but this post got me thinking.

 

[paxsarah]

It also sounds like maybe their hand was forced by the other non-VOA members of the Master Association. It's possible that if they spread out the repairs that it could have been covered over multiple years through reserves, etc, but maybe they weren't given the option.

 

[HitchHiker71]

It also sounds like maybe their hand was forced by the other non-VOA members of the Master Association. It's possible that if they spread out the repairs that it could have been covered over multiple years through reserves, etc, but maybe they weren't given the option.

Good point - given building I is listed as "whole ownership," I'm assuming that's condo owners, along with the Developer reference for the retail building. I've never been to PCB before so am not sure though. Looks like Wyndham may have been outvoted here and has to absorb whatever portion of the expenses they are responsible as the VOA member. Hopefully this is a one-off and not the beginning of a pattern across more Wyndham resorts.

 

[troy12n]

I don't know what percentage of units that Wyndham owns there, but i've been there a couple times. The structure is basically split into two, with the "north" set of Elevators for Wyndham timeshare users and the "south" set of elevators for the rest of the building, which is actually called the Emerald Beach Resort. It's mix of owned condo units, vacation rentals and some hotel rooms based on my observation. Those of you who have been here remember that Wyndham guests check in on the other side of the road from the main resort tower, same side as the parking garage, And "emerald" guests check in on the ground floor of the tower.

There are "owned" units on the Wyndham side, its pretty obvious which are timeshare units and which ones are owned. I would guess Wyndham owns less than 50% of the units there,

This seems kind of like shenanigans to be honest, but the HOA I guess can force this down everyone's throats. I bet this also has to do with the HUGE increase in insurance costs hitting ALL condos and single family homes in Florida. I live here and my homeowners insurance has roughly doubled in the past 3 years.

Special assessments are not supposed to be for this sort of thing though, maybe the HOA is mismanaged.

 

[Sandi Bo]

I don't understand why it wouldn't have been handled through increased maintenance fees. But hey - what if they actually fix those elevators - wouldn't that be something?

 

[stevenh21]

I found this interesting. I was watching a 154K PCB Ebay auction that ends today.

 

[Billo53]

What I want to know is if this is a 1 time assessment of or the first of many. Does anyone know how to contact the HOA?

 

[Billo53]

I can tell you that the roof over the skyway is in need of replacement and he elevators have been breaking down regularly as long as I can remember. The replacement elevators are very modern (2 are in place at this time). The escalators are only partially working. I was told the reason for the assessment was that the reserves ran out during covid but that was by sales so who knows.

 

[Bamaman]

I have heard that there will be large assessments in the near future for major renovations. This last one of $1.23 per thousand points was only to replenish the reserve funds. I was also told that PCB owners will be getting registered mail with the assessment information. I have yet to receive one. Has anyone gotten one yet?

 

[scootr5]

I have heard that there will be large assessments in the near future for major renovations.

heard from whom?

 

[dioxide45]

I have heard that there will be large assessments in the near future for major renovations. This last one of $1.23 per thousand points was only to replenish the reserve funds. I was also told that PCB owners will be getting registered mail with the assessment information. I have yet to receive one. Has anyone gotten one yet?

Why registered mail (did you mean certified?). Seems like an unnecessary expense.

 

[kaljor]

It's always easy to second guess, but as a long time condo owner and Board member, an occasional Special Assessment is a fact of life. You can't anticipate everything and even if you do, by the time the repair is needed, the costs have risen more than anyone could have foreseen when setting up the Reserve Fund. I suspect that managing a 24 story ocean front high rise with three different HOA's is no piece of cake!

I haven't been there in a few years, but I seem to remember thinking that the elevators were the fastest ones I'd ever been in.

I am surprised though, that they don't attribute any of this to insurance costs. Everything I read tells horror stories about this in Florida over the past few years.

 

[Sandi Bo]

It's always easy to second guess, but as a long time condo owner and Board member, an occasional Special Assessment is a fact of life. You can't anticipate everything and even if you do, by the time the repair is needed, the costs have risen more than anyone could have foreseen when setting up the Reserve Fund. I suspect that managing a 24 story ocean front high rise with three different HOA's is no piece of cake!

I haven't been there in a few years, but I seem to remember thinking that the elevators were the fastest ones I'd ever been in.

I am surprised though, that they don't attribute any of this to insurance costs. Everything I read tells horror stories about this in Florida over the past few years.

I wonder how insurance is effecting them. Just has to be. As a property owner, it's been a nightmare. The cost and obtaining it. My original company cancelled us and I had quite a time finding another. People don't even call back. I think the state is subsidizing now, I should know better how things are being done but I don't. Just thankful to have something in cast of catastrophic damages (we had claims after Michael (Panama City)). The resort itself suffered very little damage from Hurricane Michael.

 

[Richelle]

I have heard that there will be large assessments in the near future for major renovations. This last one of $1.23 per thousand points was only to replenish the reserve funds. I was also told that PCB owners will be getting registered mail with the assessment information. I have yet to receive one. Has anyone gotten one yet?

If you heard that at a presenation, write it off. It's a common scare tactic the sales people use.

 

[iknowkevin]

Emerald Beach Resort in Panama City Beach is a unique property. One of its four towers owned by individual owners, another serving as a Wyndham timeshare, while the other two towers remain unbuilt. I was an original board member but decided to sell my share shortly thereafter. I've always wondered about the satisfaction levels among the majority of timeshare owners in Emerald Beach Resort. Could you share how much you pay annually for timeshare maintenance and how many weeks you get?

 

[Jan M.]

Emerald Beach Resort in Panama City Beach is a unique property. One of its four towers owned by individual owners, another serving as a Wyndham timeshare, while the other two towers remain unbuilt. I was an original board member but decided to sell my share shortly thereafter. I've always wondered about the satisfaction levels among the majority of timeshare owners in Emerald Beach Resort. Could you share how much you pay annually for timeshare maintenance and how many weeks you get?

We're Presidential Reserve owners at PCB and our 2025 maintenance fees are $5.63 per thousand points. That's without the program fee that goes to Wyndham, not the resort. The maintenance fees for standard points there have typically been .20-.30 less per thousand.

Answers are going to vary widely in regards to how many stays an owner gets for the number of points they own. It's very much a usage will vary thing.

Presidential Reserve owners have a minimum of 1M points. If the points were purchased directly from Wyndham and not resale, that means the PR owner is Founders level VIP. With standard points it takes 1.4M to be Founders. Founders VIP owners get a 60% discount on the number of points needed to book within 60 days of the check in date and a free upgrade on unit size if a larger unit is available. Platinum VIP gets a 50% discount and a free upgrade if it's available within 60 days. Gold 35%/upgrade at 45 days. Silver 25%/upgrade at 30 days. Bronze 15%/upgrade at 15 days. Owners who aren't VIP or have resale points don't get that discount within 60 days, nor the upgrade. All owners use full points for reservation dates more than 60 days out. A number of VIP owners book some to most of their stays with full points to ensure they get the dates and unit size they need. Some VIP owners have more flexibility in regards to dates and unit size so are able to utilize their discount and sometimes get the free upgrades too.

I once ran the numbers on how many points it would take to stay at a combination of the legacy resorts 52 weeks a year if you were able to get the max discount and free upgrade from the smallest unit and went in the lowest point seasons. The legacy resorts are the original/older resorts that don't require as many points to book. Iirc it could be done with a little over 2M points. A resale owner or a VIP owner who has to book at full points or wants to stay at the newer, higher point resorts might get 5-14 weeks with that same number of points.

Another determining factor on how far any owner can stretch their points is not staying one or both of the higher point Friday and Saturday nights. Before my husband retired to maximize his vacation time I liked to book 9 night stays so two extra weekend higher point nights. We'd get in on Friday evening and leave on Sunday of the following weekend.

A better question would be how many points do you have and how many nights do you get out of them?