Since last we posted, Rachel and I had a wonderful vacation with her family and made it back safe. Now that we have caught up on work, we thought we’d share some news on what’s going on in Park City. Here are some quick headlines:
-No update on the Deer Valley Lodging bankruptcy. We are waiting on there court date and they seem to be running a bare-bones operation.
-Promontory is offering huge discounts on lots and cabins to members in good standing. Email us for info. They are also bringing the Temptations out to the club for a private performance to try to win the good graces of the membership back (tickets are $100).
-Park City just celebrated its 125th birthday with a bash on Main St on Saturday night….it was a little rainy, but fun!
-June has been one of the rainiest months in memory…which should be good for our water supply, decrease fire danger, and increase wild flowers…it is very lush in PC as we speak!
-Park Silly Market kicked off it’s 3rd year this past Sunday and the new set up is wonderful!
As far as real estate goes, here are some quick hitters:
-The past 10 days we have seen an average of 13 properties come on the market, 12 experience a change in price, 4 go under contract, and 3 close escrow.
-Activity has been up compared to the first of the year, which is promising….as ski season is usually the busiest time.
-Inventory continues to flood the market, which is the bad news.
-I would think that this summer is going to bring us more of the same: a slight uptick in activity, Seller’s lowing price (because they see Buyer’s in the marketplace scooping up the good deals), and inventory continuing to come on the market faster than it can be sold off.
Here are a few Park City events to look forward to:
-Park Silly markets on Main St. Sundays 10am-4pm
-Locals summer concerts start next week at Deer Valley. Wednesdays 5pm-7pm
-Savor the Summit this Friday night on Main St….very cool event where Main St is closed and there is one large table running up the street. You can buy seats at the table from your favorite Main St restaurant.
-Crawfish boil on Saturday night at Easy Street.
-Fourth of July Festivities…Main St parade, City Park concerts, Pancake breakfast, fireworks, and much more!
Tags: deer valley, deer valley real estate, empire pass at deer valley, empire pass at deer valley real estate, glenwild real estate, montage deer valley. park city wire, park city, park city real estate, promontory, promontory bankruptcy, promontory golf, promontory real estate, victory ranch real estate
Interesting article from Jonathan Weber - The Big Money
Not too many years ago, $1 million might have bought you a midrange house on the side of a slope of a midrange Western ski hill.
Today, you could buy an entire ski resort for that price, as long as you have a few bucks left over for operating costs and some good lawyers to duke it out with investment bank Credit Suisse.
Of all the bad loans made in 2002-06, Credit Suisse’s Western resort loans have to be among the worst. Packaged up as “collateralized loan obligations” and sold off to institutional investors, Credit Suisse made the deals, took the fees, and laid off the risk on someone else. Except, as it turned out, the legal risk.
Tamarack Resort, in Idaho, took $250 million from Credit Suisse in 2006 for a brand new ski hill and golf course and base village and all the rest. It’s now defunct, awaiting foreclosure, and with luck someone will pick it up for nothing (literally) and bring it back to life. The payback on the $250 million loan? In all likelihood, zero.
At Promontory Club, outside Park City, Utah, Credit Suisse lent $350 million in 2005, most of which was immediately taken (by agreement) by the developer, Pivotal Group of Arizona. When lot sales stalled in 2007, bankruptcy followed, and an auction of the property drew virtually no interest. End result? Pivotal Group got the property back for about $30 million. The payoff on the $310 million or so remaining on the loan balance? Zero.
At the Yellowstone Club in Montana, the most elite of the bunch, a $375 million loan in 2005 also led to bankruptcy just three years later. This time, Credit Suisse was sure the property had to be worth real money and fought tooth and nail in bankruptcy court to gain control of the club so that it might mothball the property and sell it down the road—or else force the wealthy members to pay up.
But the bankruptcy court judge didn’t like that plan and eventually ruled that the original loan was so reckless that Credit Suisse would lose its secured position. A special new appraisal method had valued that club at more than $1 billion back in 2005, though any normal appraisal would have put the value at less than half that. Since the parties couldn’t agree on a 2 percent or 3 percent loan fee, it was decided by a coin flip. Seriously.
The Yellowstone Club actually had an eager buyer in the person of Sam Byrne, a member of the club and a distressed real estate specialist, so Credit Suisse managed some recovery. Under the terms of a settlement reached earlier this week, Its lender group will get a new $80 million note to replace the $310 million reaming on the original loan and might get more by going after former club owner Tim Blixseth. The payback? Maybe 25 cents on the dollar.
Lake Las Vegas in Nevada is the biggest of the bunch, and its prospects are grim. Credit Suisse and its lenders group are on the hook not only for the original $560 million loan but also for $127 million in debtor-in-possession financing that it had to provide post-bankruptcy to keep the property from drying up and blowing away. (It’s built around an artificial lake, and one concern was that unmaintained pipes would crack and permanently drain the lake, putting, shall we say, downward pressure on the value of the lakeside property. Really, I’m not making this up.)
Likely recovery at Lake Las Vegas? Hard to say, but something close to zero would certainly be a reasonable guess.
Credit Suisse’s biggest concern is avoiding lawsuits from the clients who bought its crappy paper—an especially large concern following the judge’s harsh ruling last week in the Yellowstone Club case. That ruling will probably be vacated as part of the settlement agreement giving the club to Byrne and his Boston-based private equity firm CrossHarbor Capital Partners, but U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Ralph B. Kirscher’s words nonetheless ring loud:
The only plausible explanation for Credit Suisse’s actions is that it was simply driven by the fees it was extracting from the loans it was selling, and letting the chips fall where they may. Unfortunately for Credit Suisse, those chips fell in this Court with respect to the Yellowstone Club loan. The naked greed in this case combined with Credit Suisse’s complete disregard for the Debtors or any other person or entity who was subordinated to Credit Suisse’s first lien position, shocks the conscience of this Court.
Shocking, yes, but in the era of bubble banking, all too typical.
Tags: credit suisse park city, park city golf real estate, park city real estate, promontory park city, promontory real estate
From PRweb:
ResortQuest Park City Assist Unpaid Homeowners
ResortQuest Park City announces plan to assist unpaid Premier Resorts (formerly Deer Valley Lodging) and David Holland Resorts Homeowners
Park City, Utah (PRWEB) May 15, 2009 — ResortQuest Park City announced today its plan to assist vacation rental homeowners who have been left unpaid by Premier Resorts (formerly Deer Valley Lodging) and David Holland Resorts. ResortQuest will offer to qualifying homeowners who join its vacation rental program, the ability to receive full compensation for this winter’s unpaid reservations. The program compensates qualifying homeowners with upfront cash payments upon joining ResortQuest’s rental program and future payments of the remaining unpaid balance over a period of time.
“We are very concerned about the impact to rental homeowners and the resort business in the Park City marketplace.” stated Jason Schnaitter, General Manager of ResortQuest Park City. “This program is our way of providing immediate financial assistance to qualifying homeowners, as well as full compensation for their lost rents over time. While this offer is not something we would typically provide to a prospective rental homeowner, our hope is that this effort will restore confidence in the vacation rental marketplace for these owners, and we look forward to assisting them through this challenging time.”
We are very concerned about the impact to rental homeowners and the resort business in the Park City marketplace. ResortQuest offers Deer Valley and Park City vacation rentals for vacationers looking for the ultimate destination. ResortQuest has the perfect Park City vacation rental for all families and budgets. ResortQuest offers the largest collection of private homes in the Park City Resort area. Vacation rentals in this area are either walking distance to the Park City Resort, or within two to three blocks of the base of the resort. All units are either on or very close to free shuttle system, which allows easy access to all three ski resorts.
About ResortQuest:
ResortQuest, one of the nation’s leading vacation rental hospitality and resort real estate companies, provides a one-stop resource in North America’s premier resort destinations. ResortQuest is the largest marketer and management company of vacation condominiums and home rentals in the U.S., based on a portfolio of nearly 10,000 vacation rental properties. With the inclusion of Partner Affiliates in North America and Europe, ResortQuest now offers over 100,000 vacation rental choices in over 140 destinations world-wide. With over a billion in sales, ResortQuest Real Estate is one of the nation’s leading real estate companies focusi
Tags: deer valley, deer valley lodging, deer valley real estate, deer valley rentals, park city, park city lodging, park city real estate, park city rentals
As we enjoy a nice May and Park City life eases along at the regular lazy-Spring pace, there are mixed signals from the Real Estate Market and troubles in the property management biz.
Most of you have probably heard Deer Valley Lodging and David Holland’s have not paid property owners they represent the rental revenue due to these owners for ski season 2009 rentals. The latest on this front is property owners represented by Deer Valley Lodging have filed a motion to force the company into involuntary bankruptcy. Deer Valley Lodging has close to 30 days to respond. In addition, Deer Valley Lodging let a large majority of their employees go and has not paid them….Seeing an opportunity in the property management business, Deer Valley Resort is opening their own property management division. The kicker is that they are hiring many Deer Valley Lodging ex-employees….Many Parkites feel like this is hiring the fox to guard the hen house….can’t really blame the public sentiment, huh?
As for the Real Estate Market, we are seeing the same general activity that we have in the past few weeks and months:
-Inventory coming on the market faster than rate properties are moving (at about a 3:1 ratio)
-A nice amount of activity for this time of year, prices and activity are all over the board….with short-sales and undisclosed sales prices it is tough to pin-point exactly what is “fair market value”. Every deal is different and you get back to the point that something is only worth what someone will pay for it.
-Seller’s seem to be adjusting their prices for the summer selling season.
-There are pockets of distressed Seller’s everywhere…no 1 area can claim not to be effected by today’s market…no matter who tries to tell you differently!
-We are seeing and average of 15 new properties come to the market on a daily basis, 11 change their asking prices, 4 properties close on a daily average, and 5 properties go under contract daily.
-Activity seems to have picked up a little in Promontory, as there seems to be a light at the end of the b.k. tunnel….but there is still a mess of inventory to sell off in the development….but hey, the golf is good!
Gotta run, but we will be back in touch with some more specific property information on what’s moving out there…hopefully Friday!
Tags: deer valley, deer valley real estate, empire pass, glenwild, old town, park city, park city wire, parkcitywire, promontory, promontory bankruptcy, promontory real estate, red ledges, Rob and Rachel, silver lake, silver star, talisker, talisker club, tuhaye, upper deer valley
As all the golf courses around town begin to open and all fellow Parkites begin to partake in summer activities, we are seeing much of the same in regards to the activity in the Park City Real Estate market. Here is what the numbers look like:
-An average of 14 properties coming on the market per day, 12 properties changing the asking price (99% to a lower number), 2 properties closing escrow, and 4 going under contract on a daily basis.
Of note are:
ACTIVE:
-Home in the Aerie at $1.725m; 4bd/5ba, 4500 sq ft, $383psf…not too bad of an entry price, but it seems this one will go lower.
-Glenwild lot at $735,000….good lot, but not much activity in the vacant land sales department.
-Promontory home for $909,000; 4bd/5ba, 5372 sq ft, $169psf…yes it is bank owned, but a good deal.
-Hideout Canyon lot at $229,000….whoa here is a 2005 price for ya! It is developer product, and there are many more out there like this one/
PRICE CHANGE:
-Deer Valley home in the Oaks down $1.4m! to $1.45m; 5bd/7ba, 7000 sq ft, $207psf….another short sale in a prestigious neighborhood.
-Tuhaye cabin down $454,000 to $600,000; 3bd/3ba, 2400 sq ft, $240psf…another pre-real estate boom price and then some! A short sale screamin’ deal…however, they broke the four-some rule. Which states, “in a high-end golf course community don’t build homes less than 4 bedrooms…1 bedroom for each person in the foursome!” A guy has to have a place for his golfing buddies to sleep, right?
PENDING:
-Silver Star unit at Park City Mountain Resort (ski in/ski out) at $1.799m; 4bd/5ba, 2499 sq ft, $719psf…these units continue to get action in a down market!
-Old Town home at $1.74m; 4bd/5ba, 3150 sq ft, $552psf….Old Town has seen a little activity over the past few weeks.
-April Mountain townhome for $1.375m; 4bd/4bd, 2925 sq ft, $470psf….not a bad deal here for both parties.
-Glenwild home at $1.53m; 6bd/8ba, 5869 sq ft, $260psf….great deal on a short sale!
CLOSED:
- Silver Star unit at $1.515m; 3bd/4ba, 1980 sq ft, $765psf…just 5% off asking price and a strong ppsf.
-Old Town home asking $2.495m but the sales price is undisclosed; 4bd/4ba, 4440 sq ft…we are seeing many properties close that have undisclosed sales prices. Since Utah is a non-disclosure state the Seller’s seem to be trying to hide how much of a loss they took.
-Upper Deer Valley home for $3.295m; 5bd/6ba, 5017 sq ft, $656psf….not a bad ppsf at all and 8% off asking price.
Tags: deer valley, deer valley real estate, empire pass at deer valley, empire pass at deer valley real estate, glenwild real estate, montage deer valley. park city wire, park city, park city real estate, promontory, promontory bankruptcy, promontory golf, promontory real estate, victory ranch real estate
