real estate developments

From Hamilton Hall to the Hamilton Grand: Kohler Redesigns St. Andrews

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Real Estate Developments, By Design

When we last left Herbert Kohler, he had just purchased the large building at St. Andrews called Hamilton Hall. It was originally The St. Andrews Grand, a hotel built in the early 1900s, then became an Army barracks, then was purchased by the University of St. Andrews to house dormitory students. It was then purchased by the Wasserman Group, a real estate development group out of New York, whose plans were to build million dollar plus fractionals. This plan fell through because, in part, it did not sit well with the townspeople.

All the while, Herbert Kohler was well-known to St. Andrews, as he had purchased The Old Course Hotel, one of the great landmarks on the course at St. Andrews, in 2004. He had quietly and expertly renovated it, using many town workers and consultants. Indeed, the Managing Director of the Old Course is herself from Scotland. When Hamilton Hall became available, he purchased it in November of last year, and planned to hold an open town hall forum, asking the people of the town and interested others, for feedback as to how he should proceed with the renovation and restoration of Hamilton Hall. Here's what happened.

Tags: fractional real estate, hamilton hall, kohler, real estate development, real estate developments, scotland, scotland golf, st andrews

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Lake Las Vegas Ritz-Carlton Set To Close

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Real Estate Developments

More bad news out of the Lake Las Vegas development. We've been watching the resort area slowly implode since last June and now USA Today's Hotel Check-In says that the Ritz-Carlton Lake Las Vegas will shut down at the start of May putting around 400 people out of work. The 348-room resort is owned by Village Hospitality, an arm of Deutsche Bank which has decided to case funding the hotel.

It's the latest blow to an area that has been hard hit in the recession. The resort destination, 17 miles away from the Las Vegas strip, features a manmade lake surrounded by an Italian-style village. It started off with grand fanfare as a quiet luxury alternative to the high-powered glitz of the Las Vegas strip. Real estate boomed and several different hotels settled in. But in the developer, Transcontinental Corp., lost the property in foreclosure after defaulting on $540 million in loans and the new owners of Lake Las Vegas filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008. The Reflection Bay Golf Course at Lake Las Vegas closed last August leaving just one course, the private SouthShore course in Henderson, available for play. The Lake Las Vegas real estate market remains clogged with multimillion homes. The resort area faces many challenges including a still-slumping Las Vegas tourism market, a second home market that refuses to rebound and a water bill that runs into the millions jacking up the homeowners association fees.

Tags: lake las vegas, LakeLasVegas, nevada real estate, NevadaRealEstate, real estate development, real estate developments, RealEstateDevelopment, RealEstateDevelopments, ritz-carlton

Travel and Leisure's list of top 100 real estate developments

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Luxury Travel & Hotels

In the market for a second home? Travel and Leisure has compiled their list of the top 100 dream vacation home real estate developments around the world. There are slideshows grouped by region with details on price and amenities offering a wide variety of both fractional and full ownership opportunities. Don't pack your bags yet, many of the homes aren't completed yet. They don't all break the bank either. For prices starting at $207,000 you can move into 550 Wellington, a condo builiding in Toronto that has all the amenities of the built-in 94-room hotel. It will cost you a bit more to head to the Temenos Anguilla, a white property perched high on a hilltop with some homes bordering the Caribbean island's first 7,100-yard golf course Prices there start at $1.4 million.

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Tags: real estate developments, RealEstateDevelopments, second home, vacation home