WSJ-VGV HOA Update, March 2014 (Part 2)
Construction at the resort
Refurbishment of the resort (and the conversion of some hotel units into the new Coral Vista timeshare development) is proceeding rapidly. The poolside buildings already look much better. The main pool deck has been expanded by 4,000 square feet, and there are 75 additional chaises. Within the next year, the dock area will be improved, the beach café will be reconstructed, the fitness center will be refurbished, the lobby will be spruced up, and the gatehouse will be moved from the Virgin Grand side of the road to the hotel side, with an electronic gate for automobile access to the Virgin Grand side. In addition, a footpath will be built adjacent to the most heavily trafficked part of the access road between the main road and the lobby. A lock has been installed on the freecycle shed, which you can open with your room key – only Virgin Grand occupants will be able to access the shed. Even with all the construction going on, the resort has regained its four-star rating on TripAdvisor.
At present, no footpath is contemplated between Virgin Grand and the St. John Market on the main road. However, if you believe that a footpath should be created as a safety measure, because at present owners must walk (and even wheel carriages and strollers) in the road, please send an email to General Manager Mike Ryan at
mike.ryan@westin.com He has offered to raise this issue with the Virgin Island authorities if there is sufficient interest.
More StarOptions and Starpoints
The resort has become such a desirable destination that Starwood has increased, effective 2015, the number of StarOptions and Starpoints associated with our units. This will make it harder to trade into Virgin Grand and Bay Vista, and easier for St. John owners to exchange to other SVO resorts or to convert for hotel points. Here is the new allocation.
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Short-term investment of maintenance fees
The management company receives the great majority of maintenance fees on time (by Jan. 17 this year), but it spends the money throughout the year. We noticed in the management company's report to the Board that the maintenance funds were earning only .01 percent interest in a money market account. Meanwhile, short-term (e.g., 6-month) CDs were paying up to .5 percent interest. In response to our inquiry, we were told that the funds would be invested in short-term CDs very soon. We asked that in future years, the funds be invested in secure short-term investment products more promptly, and management agreed that this should be done.
Sale of foreclosed units
We have continued to foreclose on unit weeks whose owners were not paying their maintenance fees. The association currently owns 66 unit weeks, with more coming through the pipeline during the coming months. We are going to hold another bargain-basement sale in April, with prices as low as $500 to buy a unit week in a studio in the off-season. Watch your email later this spring if you are interested in buying one or more additional unit weeks at very deeply discounted prices.
Smoking
At present, all of Virgin Grand is a no-smoking zone. Some owners and guests are smokers, and a few have been smoking on balconies and the pool areas to the disturbance of others. General Manager Ryan is going to create a small number of smoking areas at locations that will not intrude on non-smokers. If you are a smoker, please smoke only in those designated areas (and do not smoke on the property at all until those areas are established). There are already some designated smoking areas on the hotel side of the road. ("No smoking" signs will also be posted at the hillside pools).
Check-outs
In our last report, we advised owners that although check-out time from the villas is 10 am, some owners and renters were not leaving their villas at that time, delaying check-ins and requiring us to pay more for cleaning staff on turnover days (which is then reflected in our maintenance fees). It appears that owners have paid attention to this advice, because the percentage of people checking out on time has increased. However, management is continuing to monitor the situation, and if the late check-out problem recurs, management will have to consider imposing a penalty fee for late check-outs (as is done on the hotel side).
Minor matters
Several owners have noticed that because it is necessary to use two different remote controls (TV and Bose) in a specific order to play a DVD, it is often necessary to call Service Express or to rent a ten-year old in order to synchronize the devices. Mr. Ryan will have a card printed, for each villa, with step-by-step instructions on how to play a DVD.
When the hillside villas are fully occupied, it is sometimes difficult to park on the hillside because the cars are parked inefficiently, with half a car-length between them. Mr. Ryan is going to remedy the situation by painting parking space lines on the driveways.
Management is looking into trimming the trees to improve views of the bay from the hillside villas, without removing too much landscaping.
Management has installed 23 mosquito traps in inconspicuous locations around the property. While owners might have trouble locating these traps, the mosquitoes don't seem to be having a similar difficulty.
We sometimes receive questions from new owners regarding issues that were fully addressed in our prior reports or in prior reports from SVO. Starwood will attempt to archive all of the prior reports on the section of mystarcentral.com that is dedicated to Virgin Grand owners.
In June of this year, the chaises at the hillside villa pools will be replaced by cushioned chaises like those at the main hotel pool.
The hillside pools have been re-decked with tiles that don't heat up in the sunshine and both pools have been equipped with motorized chairlifts for users with less mobility. As we requested, shade sails have been installed, providing much more shade at the pools. And the poolside grills are now much improved.
There had been a problem with the bottom bed sheets in many units: they did not fit under the very thick mattresses. We understand that all of those sheets have been replaced with sheets that will tuck under the mattresses.
Finally, we want to express our appreciation to the resort's management and staff, and to SVO's management and staff, who have worked very hard over the past few years to make our resort an outstanding property. And we'd like to end this report with a particular shout-out to Mark Dunham, Starwood Vacation Ownership's Vice President of Facilities Management, who has done a superb job of investigating the options for reducing our energy costs, presenting them to the Board of Directors in a clear way, and responding to all the questions with which we pepper him.
Your elected directors,
Philip G. Schrag
phil.schrag@gmail.com
Robert Werbel
robert.werbel@yahoo.com
