by Art Szmuriga, Former Board President, Cedar Village Resort
I can speak from positive experience regarding the repurposing of an aging timeshare resort. I was the President of Cedar Village in Beech Mountain, NC, a small fifteen-unit complex. All units were three-bedroom. Cedar Village was built in the early 1970s. It was a thriving association at one time, but in later years, it faced the typical challenges of a declining and aging ownership base, resulting in decreasing annual revenues to support the complex. We tried various strategies to reinvigorate the complex, association, and ownership, but our results were limited and insufficient for long-term sustainability.
I/we belonged to TBMA, and I attended meetings on the East Coast. I would often talk with Shep Altshuler about possible solutions to our dilemma. Late in 2016, Shep put me in contact with Alex Krakovsky of Lemonjuice. I began discussions with Alex, and he expressed interest in repurposing Cedar Village into wholly owned condominiums. Alex and I had many discussions about how this could be accomplished while protecting the owners in good standing.
Alex proposed a plan where Lemonjuice would buy the unit weeks from owners at a fair market value based on the Red, White, and Blue week format. Once I was convinced that this was a viable plan, I introduced Alex and the proposal to the other four Board members. They agreed with the plan. The next step was to obtain approval from at least 70% of our owners in good standing. This was easily achieved through a mail-in ballot. After that, Lemonjuice began purchasing unit weeks from individual owners. By our Annual Meeting in September 2017, the current Board members had sold their unit weeks to Lemonjuice, and Lemonjuice took over control of the Board and operations of Cedar Village.
Lemonjuice operated Cedar Village as a limited timeshare complex for a year or more to honor any incoming exchange commitments from RCI and other exchange companies. Lemonjuice also worked with and negotiated with owners who did not want to sell their unit weeks, eventually acquiring full ownership of all weeks. Shortly thereafter, Lemonjuice sold the units at auction and through private sales. The entire repurposing process took two to three years to complete, but it was successfully accomplished. The end result was a win-win situation for everyone involved.
I/we are thankful for becoming members of TBMA, as that is where I connected with Shep and others, ultimately leading to the successful repurposing of our resort.