Here's the 411....
First of all let me say that this news distresses me immensely. As an owner, I had heard rumors and at the past annual meetings which I've attended, when one of the trustees was present they always say that they've been looking into ways to sell off their interest and retire. And, at the last annual owner meetings there was no one from the trustees' office present. If what you've heard is accurate, this is HOW it could've taken place: the "unsold weeks"are the accumulation of never before sold blue and white weeks, plus the repossession of delinquent red-white-and blue weeks. On top of this, the resort is closed about three months every year and those weeks are owned by the trustees (although they do not pay any MFs on them). The trustees can sell their inventory to anyone who will pay the negotiated price and that entitles them to alone have the single largest vote of all owners in a HOA, IF the management had been officially turned over to a HOA WHICH IT HAS LEGALLY NOT. Per the Declaration of condominium, the resort has never been sold out to a point where the resort's management could be turned over to a HOA. Therefore, until the point where the resort was something like 80 or 90% sold out (and I'm just throwing those two percents out as examples as I don't know the requisite) the trustees have the legal right to sell and manage what they own in any way they like. Therefore, they CAN do this. But it makes me sick. The ultimate and commonly frequent problem with companies/developers who come in and buy up what is mostly worthless inventory is that to justify the purchase they turn around and do a purported "upgrade" on all units. This leads to many many owners defaulting on their subsequent payments of assessments and MFs and then deeding back all the valuable weeks to a new developer/trustee. (This sounds like that, doesn't it?) Now, having explained the above to you, I've gotten on the horn and made some calls....here's what I learned.... Cliff Hagberg, the president and owner of IVS Realty in Hyannis (the largest timeshare resale company in New England) is the buyer. Cliff is a Sandcastle owner and I met him several years ago. According to an inside contact, he does plan to do upgrades to Sandcastle, which eventually has to mean special assessments. An upgrade (such as specifially A/C is necessary in order to get I.I. onboard as an exchange company.)
I'm only guessing, but Festiva's involvement may be as a third alternative exchanging company. I do not know Cliff's involvement if any with Festiva, although one could speculate that perhaps he has an interest in it? In any event, a letter will be forthcoming this fall to all owners and we will supposedly be able to convert our weeks to RCI Points. (I dread to think, but I dare predict the reason why Cliff is buying out and upgrading Sandcastle: His company IVS Realty did Points Conversions at other Cape Cod timeshare resorts and I think they charged over 2 grand per week. He stands to make a killing if he can get people on board with RCI Points. I converted the one week I own at Briarwood- but only after the price was lowered over the course of a few years to $495. (It turns out that RCI only realizes about $200 for a "conversion"- the rest of the money is divvied up between a resort/salesbroker commission.
There are two good things about this change: as of right now nothing has changed at the resort- it's the same managers and staff running everything the same. Things probably won't start happening at all until after the Royal Coacghman building is closed for the season (end of week 43) and until the Dunes building closes at the end of week 48. And the other good thing is that it is a local who is taking over- Cliff is a yearround Cape resident and I remember meeting him several years ago and him telling me that his wife's #1 favorite timeshare is Sandcastle. (And to be honest, as president of the largest timeshare resale company in New England he has the ability to trade or own anywhere he wants.)
Brian
