Harrison Beach Hotel offers ‘affordable waterfront-real-estate ownership’ with rural feel
Michael Sasges
Sun
The Harrison Beach Hotel is an expeditious introduction to the condominium-resort-project phenomenon because it’s up and running and because it’s just down the freeway.
Harrison Hot Springs is only 90 minutes from Vancouver, even on a Friday afternoon if a Highway 1 HOV lane between Boundary and the Port Mann is your route out of town. Only two people in a vehicle make it an HOV-eligible vehicle on Highway 1.
No Horseshoe Bay going, no Tsawwassen going, no Departure Bay returning, no Swartz Bay returning. No Coquihalla going or returning. Agreed, the Port Mann, in the right circumstances, is a daunting barrier to timely passage, but, again, only in the right circumstances.
The Harrison Beach Hotel exists physically; its front desk has been renting rooms since the summer. ”This is not a pre-sale situation,” said Guy Young, the president of ForSite Developments Inc., the property’s developer.
Guy gave me half a dozen reasons Vancouver Sun readers might want to know about the Harrison Beach Hotel, its occupancy permit and close-to-home location the two incontrovertible reasons. The other four are:
– ”The project offers affordable waterfront-real-estate ownership.”
– ”The project offers a unique combination, of personal use coupled with a lucrative rental pool.”
– ”Although close to the city, Harrison Hot Springs has a really soft, rural feel and real village feel, a place where everyone knows your name. It is incredibly mountainous, one of B.C.’s finest locations.”
– ”As a resort location, Harrison‘s undiscovered. It is prime for investing now, before it does get on the radar screen.”
TwoWestcoast Homes commentaries influenced my Harrison Beach Hotel interviews.
One was from the developers of the Black Rock resort on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In it they make a couple of points about the attributes of a condominium-resort investment for which I sought comment from Foresite’s Young.
‘ . . . an owner-usage program that discourages full-time owner-residency, assure[S THE HOTEL
MANAGEr] a minimum
number of available
room-nights to rent out per year. In this way, they can afford to hire the best quality staff to run the resort [AND] the paying guests receive[S] a high-touch experience and are prepared to pay more for the room . . .’
— Mike duggan
AND JAMES ASKEW,
BLACK ROCK OCEANFRONT RESORT
The owner-usage program at Harrison Beach Hotel provides management with 281 rentable room-nights yearly and the owners of an HBH room with a one-third share of the other 84 nights.
A condominium resort buyer, if the real estate being sold is a fractional interest, is typically a quarter-share proposition. At HBH, it’s a one-third proposition.
”Given the proximity of Harrison to Vancouver and the ease of access to the resort, we anticipate owners would want to use their properties on a frequent basis and decided to offer the project in one-third ownership,” Guy Young reported.
The 28 annual sleeps a HBH buyer buys consist of seven nights in the high season for which the buyer will pay 20 per cent of the daily rent; seven nights in the off season for which the buyer will pay 20 per cent of the daily rent; seven more in the high season, no charge; and seven more in the off season, again no charge.
One-third fee-simple interests in 42 rooms are for sale. Prices range from $54,900 (a first-floor back-of-building suite) to $109,900 (a top-floor corner apartment). Of the 126 room-shares available, 50 have been sold.
” . . . key questions
potential buyers should ask [include] who will
manage my property
when I’m not using it?”
Lamb Property Management Inc., manager of the Ramada Plaza and Conference Centre in Abbotsford, manages the Harrison Beach Hotel. Jean-Marc Guillamot, with 22 years of hospitality-industry work behind him, heads Lamb, and heads it well enough to the Ramada Plaza and Conference Centre to receive Ramada and industry awards in the last year.
Additionally, the Harrison Beach Hotel general manager, Matthew Lynam, worked for the Harrison Hot Springs Resort and Spa for 20 years before joining HBH.
”One of the key benefits
of a resort condominium
is the quality of the . . . amenities.”
”Amenities are on offer at either Harrison Beach Hotel or Harrison,” Guy Young comments, an echo of a comment that came my way last week, about a downtown Vancouver warehouse conversion: ”Amenities — None in the building. The neighbourhood is the amenity.”
An indoor pool and an exercise room are up and running; a day spa is scheduled for opening in December. A restaurant with its own deck facing Harrison Lake is planned.
Across the street, of course, is the reason Harrison Hot Springs has been a recreational destination for years and years: the lake. Up the road is the Hemlock Valley winter-sports area. Down the road is all the farm-fresh goodies a soul might desire.
”The valley is wealthy with fruit, vegetables, organic-farming techniques, farmed game, cheeses,” Guy Young reports.
Don’t feel like cooking one night? The Black Forest Restaurant is next door; the Crazy Fish Bistro around the corner. Breakfast, too, is just around the corner, in a couple of bake shops or down the road, at the Springs Cafe.
” . . . with due diligence, resort condominium hotels are a very popular option for people to enter . . . recreational real estate.”
The Harrison Beach Hotel disclosure statement is almost three-quarters-of-an-inch thick . A close reading of it, legal counsel on call, is the (minimum) due diligence demanded of a serious HBH prospect.
Neither you, dear reader, nor I are serious prospects. All I want to pass on to you is what passes for preliminary due diligence in the presentation centre, my source its manager, real estate agent Tracey Blackham. The most frequently asked questions of visitors to the presentation centre are these:
q ”Is there a financing package that we can benefit from? Yes, we have an HSBC package.”
q ”What is the difference between fractional ownership and timeshare? Where else is fractional ownership being sold in B.C.?”
q ”Can I resell it and what is the process if I choose to do so? As you would any other property or condo through a realtor.”
q ”What is the forecasted revenue and how does the rental pool work? What are occupancy and room rates based on, if this is a new hotel? The answers are in our disclosure amendment.”
q ”If I buy all three shares, can I use the unit for 365 days? No, you have three shares of 28 days each and rental pool for the rest of the time.”
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I said at the outset I travelled to Harrison Hot Springs with two visitor guides at hand. The author of the second is one of the most successful real estate agents in North America, Jason Craik (“Consider cost of commuting in condo pick,” Sept. 24 Westcoast Homes). “Research the developer before looking at the product.”
ForSite Developments is a B.C. company that ”specializes in the development of second-home and tourist accommodation in recreational and resort locations,” Guy Young reports. The Harrison Beach Hotel is one of four properties it has brought, or is bringing, to market.
Guy Young’s more than 20 years in real-estate development include executive positions with Intrawest Corp., the big resort-developer, and Intracorp Developments Ltd., the big new-home developer.
For more information, visit harrisonbeachhotel.com or telephone 1/604-796-1111 or toll free 1/866-338-8111.
Just about any thing a body could want during a week’s vacation in a lakeside resort, save food ‘n’ booze and shorts ‘n’ sandals, are part of the contract between room-share buyers and the developers of the Harrison Beach Hotel.
In the photographs of an HBH suites in the previous pages, you’re looking at ‘Exhibit B’ of the developer’s disclosure statement as much as you are lookiing at furniture and furnishing.
Among the 50 Harrison Beach Hotel buyers – that number achieved in just a few weeks – are Gary and Eileen Newcombe. Gary Newcombe writes: After 30 years of hard work as a business owner (Newco Products in Burnaby) it is now time to start winding down and enjoying the fruits of labour. My wife and I enjoy Harrison Hot Springs in the fall and spring and we generally visit the area three or four times a year. We were delighted to see the construction commence on the Harrison Beach Hotel. We viewed the progress with great interest and were thrilled with the final results. We are blessed with a summer place in the Okanagan and ar getaway in Kauai, Hawaii, but Harrison has a special place in our hearts. We thought it was great to have the opportunity to purchase a one-third share in a room. We not only have the opportunity to utilize the property for a holiday but also appreciate it as an investment. We are both looking forward to sharing these beautiful accommodations with our family and friends.
© The Vancouver Sun 2005
