Westin Cabo San Lucas

[WalnutBaron]

My wife and I are in Palm Springs this week and attended a developer sales presentation for the new Desert Willow property, which is due to open in the 3rd quarter of 2009.

Of particular interest to me, however, was the news (at least to me) that Westin is now selling ownership shares in what they are calling the Westin Cabo San Lucas Beach Resort. It wasn't clear to me whether they plan to convert the Club Regina or build new villas adjacent to the Westin hotel there, but the salesman said the new villas will be open and part of the SVO system by late next year.

 

[stevens397]

Don't believe him.

Starwood had purchased Grand Regina, adjacent to the Westin resort. They have dropped the project and returned it to Raintree, the original developer, who has also decided not to proceed with the project.

 

[clsmit]

Did they quote you prices? Did you see a price sheet? Or was it just talk? If they are really selling something it might be a different property than the Raintree one we've discussed.

Any talk about Aruba at the same time?

 

[WalnutBaron]

Yes...they did show a price sheet quoting $43,900 for a 2BR lockout. There was no mention of Aruba.

The two new projects for 2009, according to the salesperson, were Desert Willows and Cabo.

 

[SDKath]

WOW. This is interesting. Maybe someone else can confirm to see if they indeed are selling these units. Until recently, everyone thought SVO would buy this property and develop it. Then about a month ago SVO changed their website to say that essentially they are not going to have anything to do with Cabo and the existing site, owned by a different company. I'd love to see a price sheet and see exactly what they are offering now.

In the meantime, I would be VERY careful about purchasing at Cabo because last we heard, it isn't even going to happen for Starwood?!?!?!

What about Riverfront? It is going to be done in late 2009 too from what I understand.

Katherine

 

[LisaRex]

Westin Los Cabos was an acquisitions of an existing property, Grand Reginas, that SVO had planned. However, they have since backed out of the project! Below are threads related to the project, but note the dates of the posts. The most relevant one is the first link and the most relevant post is the second link.

To summarize: One owner who put money down on the project back in 2004, was recently told via email that Starwood has backed out of the project and that she was to contact them to arrange a buyout.

http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80728
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showpost.php?p=634766&postcount=53
http://www.tugbbs.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38089

Which leads us to two unhappy conclusions: Either your salesman was deliberately lying to you in order to close on a timeshare purchase OR SVO has failed to communicate to its own sales force that they should cease selling ownership in a ghost project.

You'll also notice that Los Cabos is not listed on the SVO website.

http://www.starwoodvacationownership.com/starwood_vacation_ownership_resorts.jsp

 

[LisaRex]

What about Riverfront? It is going to be done in late 2009 too from what I understand.

Katherine, Riverfront still shows up on the website, but I wouldn't count on anything until someone has empirical evidence that a building exists, with a "Westin" sign on it before I believed anything.

 

[LisaRex]

To the OPer, I'd take nanaboat's advice and strongly caution you against buying anything that isn't already built. Starwood/Raintree took Nanaboat's money back in 2004 and have sat on it, with little communication to her about the disposition of the property, since then.

Starwood has created some beautiful properties. I'd buy one of the existing ones again, on the resale market (of course), but only with the intention of using it, and only it, in the future. These are crazy times, with formerly solid businesses failing at an alarming rate. Hotels are not immune to these pressures. Starwood has stalled on building new timeshares and that alone should be enough to make you approach with caution.

The economy as a whole, and along with it the timeshare industry, are very sick due to the worldwide recession and tightened credit, both to consumers and to businesses. Which on the upside means that you can pick up some real bargains on the resale market, but on the downside means that we don't know how the rules of the game are going to change in reaction to the unprecedented downturn.

Point to ponder: If Owners simply walk away from their TSs because they can't afford the MFs (because they were laid off and/or their net worth just took a nosedive), what does that mean for the remaining Owners?

These are crazy times.

 

[clsmit]

The previous incarnation of Cabo, according to the press release on MSC, is The Westin® Los Cabos Ocean Villas. WalnutBaron noted a different name. Very interesting -- makes me think that they are doing something different there.

SDKath-- can you call your rep to ask about it?

 

[jkrischt]

Katherine, Riverfront still shows up on the website, but I wouldn't count on anything until someone has empirical evidence that a building exists, with a "Westin" sign on it before I believed anything.

Riverfront definitely exisits. Just got back from Owner's Update at Sherton Mountain Vista and we walked to the see the Westin Riverfront. It is really there! And should be ready in May 2009.

I also asked about Los Cabos duing my Owner's Update. And I too was told that there was a possibility of adding timeshares to their hotel property. And they had a Los Cabos picture board along side the other timeshare properties displaying it! I just figured it was an old picture board from the canceled project though. But maybe something is actually coming...

 

[jarta]

LisaRex, ... "I wouldn't count on anything until someone has empirical evidence that a building exists, with a "Westin" sign on it before I believed anything."

My wife and I stayed at Mountain Vista for a week in September. I drove past the Westin Riverfront hotel and time share complex every day for a week. It is quite large, the largest thing in Avon. It had a fully completed chair lift to the slopes of Bachelor's Gulch. In September, it looked 95% complete. It had a great, big Westin sign out front.

And, yes, while I was there, Starwood tried to sell me a unit (but I wasn't interested because I'm not a skier).

Is that good enough testimony for you to believe? ... eom

 

[LisaRex]

Is that good enough testimony for you to believe?

That works for me.

 

[mindy35]

Duplicate

[Duplicate post deleted - response moved to other thread.-DeniseM Moderator]