Florida Timeshares Before Orlando

[OldGuy]

From another thread:

https://tugbbs.com/forums/index.php?threads/south-florida-west-coast-timeshares.291028/

Most of the SW Florida Timeshares were started by a company name Captran in the 70's and 80's, by a guy from Bowling Green University.

Keith Trowbridge developed the first successful purpose-built interval ownership resort in the United States in 1974, Florida’s Sanibel Beach Club, a 31-unit condominium project built and completely sold out in 18 months. He founded Captran Resorts International, Ltd. At its peak in the late 1970s, that company posted annual timeshare sales of $50 million.

Many of their resorts were not "purpose-built", but, rather, they were re-purposed motels.

Here's Captran resort brochures and price sheets (58 Pages):

http://nebula.wsimg.com/9d50aad5e18...52F0A154A04CBBFF4&disposition=0&alloworigin=1

I'll go through it and list the resorts (circa 1980-ish):

Sanibel Beach Club II
Sand Castle Beach Club
Shell Island Beach Club
Sanibel Beach Club
Caribbean Beach Club
Lighthouse Resort and Club
Kahlua Beach Club
Penthouse Beach Club
Seagull Beach Club
Freeport Resort and Club
Daytona Resort and Club
Bonita Resort and Club
Estero Island Inn

Well, that's 13 of the 35.

There's a wealth of revealing information in that packet. All the prices, promotions and sales figures. Some of the listings mention "Original Building(s) and New Constructions. Who knew they operated the Interval College on Sanibel?

 

[OldGuy]

Here's Page 35 of that packet:

SALESMAN 'S TELEP HONE RES PONSE TO QUESTI ONS ABOU T "P ERI OD OF YEARS" We have provid ed th at a t the en d o f 40 y e ars , yo u r ownershi p aut o ma ticall y converts t o a t e n anc y-in-c ommo n wit h a ll o ther o wn e rs o f your pa rt ic ular u ni t . Fo r t y yea r s, bec a u s e our experts tell u s t h at is t he ap pr o xima te use f u l lif e o f the b uil ding . We fel t tha t i t is fai r you t h e n h ave a c hoice as t o wha t t o d o wit h t h e p r operty . (1) You can v ot e t o " p a rt i tion" a n d se l l th e pro per ty a n d div ide th e pro c e e d s p ro rat a . (2 ) You ca n v o t e t o r e mode l , ren ovate o r comp le te l y re buil d t h e p rop er t y . (3 ) Yo u c a n v ot e to c o n tinue th e p ro p ert y a s is . Ea c h o pt i on i s g o od for t e n y e a rs at wh i c h t ime you hav e t he s ame c h o ices , a nd so o n , f or add iti o n a l te n ye a r pe r iod s.

So, there's 40 years ago, telling the salespeople how to answer questions about how long the resort(s) would last. That, of course, is what we have been calling the Sunset Clause, and what timeshare owners are dealing with now.

Don't you know that when prospects were told that 40 years ago, it immediately became a non-factor, something far, far into the future, just like the idea of some day not owning their timeshare. I wonder how many of the original buyers/owners are still around, dealing with the Sunset Clause?

Don't you just love history?
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It just hit me that it is saying that 40 years was the estimated useful life of the actual physical buildings, but . . . since many of those resorts were re-purposed existing buildings, they would be much older than 40 years when the Sunset Clause kicks in.

I know of one, for instance, that was re-purposed from a beachfront motel built in 1959, and they just dealt with their Sunset Clause. That resort is not fancy schmancy, but functions well for it's owners and has been managed well. Gosh, it's 60 years old now!!!!

I would suspect many of those Ft. Myers Beach ones are about that old. Places like Lahaina Inn, started August 22, 1980, et al.