VGV BOD - March 2015 Letter to Owners
March 4, 2015
Dear Fellow Virgin Grand Villas Owner:
As your elected representatives on the Board of Directors we participated by conference telephone call on February 12 in a quarterly meeting of the Board. This is our report to you.
THE RESORT
Mike Ryan, the General Manager of The Westin St. John Resort & Villas, reported on the state of the resort. Other than the waterfront area, most of the planned renovations to the resort have been completed. The Army Corps of Engineers has approved the planned repair to the dock area from the damage caused by previous years’ storms. Repair work will commence in April and will take approximately four months to complete. During that time, the Westin boats that customarily shuttle between the resort and Crown Bay, St. Thomas will instead dock in downtown Cruz Bay, with taxi service to the resort.
The refurbishment of the lobby was completed in June and keyed security gates to the resort and up the road to the Virgin Grand units are now operational. A sidewalk from the entrance to the resort area in front of the lobby has been constructed; Starwood Vacation Ownership (SVO) has absorbed the cost of construction. SVO is also installing, at their cost, a concrete sidewalk on the villa side of the road from Virgin Grand to the St. John market area, as well as a retaining wall to improve the flow of storm water down the mountainside and through our property. The retaining wall will be about 3 feet high and will be textured and painted to match the exterior of our villas.
FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP
Denny Seiber, the Director of Finance, presented the Treasurer’s Report which was as of December 31, 2014, stating that collection of the 2014 maintenance fees was 95.2%, reflecting a continuing recovery in the economy. There were 102 delinquent accounts of which 81 were in varying stages of the USVI foreclosure process. Last April’s resale of 63 foreclosed unit weeks resulted in 28 closed sales with $96,000 of sales proceeds to our Owners Association and, more importantly, a source of ongoing revenue from maintenance fees.
REPLACEMENT OF VIRGIN GRAND FURNISHINGS
A presentation was made by representatives of L2 Studios, Inc., the interior design firm that has done work for both Bay Vista and Coral Vista. “Soft goods” (i.e., upholstered items) are scheduled to be replaced in all units in 2015/16 and “case goods” (i.e., wood items) are scheduled to be replaced in buildings 31, 43 and 44 in 2016 and in the remaining buildings in 2021. The presentation included a color board showcasing both wood and fabric samples selected by L2 Studios, Inc. for durability and intended to capture a St. John “feel”. The Board approved the design scheme and color board, as well as the construction of a model unit for the 2016 case goods to be reviewed by the Board later this year. Bids for the soft goods renovation will be reviewed and approved during the April meeting of the Board. The anticipated costs of these replacements were previously provided for in our reserve plan.
STARWOOD MATTERS
Bruce McNish, Vice President of Board Relations, elaborated on Starwood“s announcement, made several days before our meeting, of its intention to spin-off its vacation ownership division, SVO, into a separate publicly traded entity. Click here to view the press release. Starwood contemplates that this will enable the new entity to add additional resorts to its network. The relationship between our condominium association and The Westin St. John Resort & Villas, and between The Westin St. John Resort & Villas and SVO, is not expected to change. We will continue to be branded as a Westin resort. SPG points will continue to be earned and honored as before, and owners will continue to have the privileged status in SPG that they enjoy as a result of their timeshare ownership. Starwood and the new public entity will enter into long-term affiliation agreements for the Westin brand experience and access to SPG. We inquired about the duration of the long-term agreements, but management was not able to give us that information; it is possible that they have not yet been entered into.
OWNER WEB BULLETIN BOARD
The Association’s President reported that our owner bulletin board has been well received. To date 613 owners have signed on as members and there are currently 193 listings (to exchange, sell, buy, etc.). The more owners use this web posting service the more valuable it will be, so we encourage owners to log on and use the system. For the convenience of owners, we again repeat the instructions for using it:
Secure access to the site is provided to Owners registered with MyStarCentral. Please follow the steps below.
I have a MyStarCentral account:
Visit starwoodvactionnetwork.com and click on 'Owner Login' in the upper-left corner of your screen.
Enter your Username or Email and your Password and click 'LOG IN'.
Hover your mouse over 'Owner Quick Links' in the upper-right corner of your screen and select 'MyStarCentral' from the drop down list.
Click on 'Your Owners Association' in the left-hand navigation menu.
Select a 'Westin St. John Resort & Villas - Virgin Grand' unit and click 'View the Details of this Ownership Week'.
Click on 'VGV Owner Posting Board' in the right-hand section of your screen.
I do not have a MyStarCentral account:
Visit starwoodvactionnetwork.com and click on 'Owner Login' in the upper-left corner of your screen.
Click 'REGISTER NOW'.
Follow the on-screen prompts to complete the online form.
Click 'Go directly to the StarCentral homepage'.
Click on 'Your Owners Association' in the left-hand navigation menu.
Select a 'Westin St. John Resort & Villas - Virgin Grand' unit and click 'View the Details of this Ownership Week'.
Click on 'VGV Owner Posting Board' in the right-hand section of your screen.
This will take you to the Association's website where you must read and accept the terms and conditions of the disclosure statement. You will then be taken to the homepage where you can sign up and create your member profile.
Please be aware that you must create a member profile and be logged in to create or view current listings. Just beneath the boxed message on the homepage, there is a link you may click on to view detailed instructions for use of the website. This detailed instruction document and the FAQ page can be accessed without logging in to the website.
There is one tricky part about logging in for the very first time. When you have followed the instructions above and get to the main page for our posting website, you will see this box:
User Login If you are registering for the first time on our bulletin board, DO NOT enter your email or password where it says to enter them. Instead, click on the words "New members click here to sign up." After you have signed up as directed, on return visits to the site you will enter your email and the password that you selected.
Also, a few Mac users have had difficulty signing in with Safari. If you use a Mac and have difficulty, try using Google Chrome.
PROPERTY TAX BILLS
The Association’s President informed the Board that the USVI Tax Office expects to provide the 2014 property tax bills very soon. March 2, 2015 update - the USVI tax office is in the process of printing the bills and SVO anticipates their receipt within a week or so. owners should begin receiving their property tax bills shortly thereafter. A 5% early payment discount will apply toward payments received by April 9, 2015. Payment must be made by August 31, 2015 to avoid late payment charges. Owners should monitor their email for more information on this matter from SVO.
ENERGY MATTERS
As we reported in prior letters, we continue to monitor the local public utilitys announcements concerning its intention to convert its generating equipment from diesel fuel to LPG. Such a conversion by the utility could affect our own consideration, as previously reported, to purchase co-generation equipment that, by utilizing LPG, would provide all of our remaining electrical needs (over and above that provided by the solar panels on the roofs of some of the Virgin Grand buildings).
REMINDER ABOUT MOSQUITOS
Both dengue fever and chikungunya have infected some humans on nearly every Caribbean island, including St. John, although the number of reported cases on St. John in recent years has been very low. Both diseases, which are spread by the day-biting Aedes mosquito, are serious ailments. While the resort sprays its foliage, treats its standing water, and has mosquito traps throughout the property to suppress the mosquito population, we nevertheless want to remind owners and their guests to use effective repellant, especially when they travel off the resort property.
ANNUAL OWNERS’ MEETING
The next annual owners’ meeting will take place at the resort on April 20, 2015. We encourage those of you who will be in St. John at that time to attend, when there will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end of the meeting.
Sincerely,
Philip G. Schrag
phil.schrag@gmail.com
Robert H. Werbel
robert.werbel@yahoo.com
