With the growing popularity of luxury residence clubs, Exclusive Resorts is bursting out of its headquarters in Denver’s Lower Downtown.
The company has more than 200 people working at the high-end destination club, up from 36 at the end of 2003, prompting it to lease 5½ floors of the Park Central Building at 1515 Arapahoe St., more than doubling its space to 80,000 square feet.
The company will relocate from its offices in the Sugar Building by late summer.
Exclusive Resorts, which sold its first membership March 1, 2003, has more than 1,800 members, including about 100 in Denver. It has increased the number of multimillion-dollar resort homes it owns from 23 at the end of 2003 to about 300 today.
“Our plans for growth would get us another 100 properties a year, depending on when we buy in the cycle of real estate,” said Brent Handler, company president and co-founder.
In a good market, the company buys custom homes that can take up to two years to build. It bought 10 units at Arabelle at Vail Square, Vail Resorts’ $500 million Lionshead development that’s still at least a year from completion.
Exclusive Resorts didn’t receive a discounted price for buying multiple units, but it did get to choose its properties before other buyers – a big deal considering that nearly 600 people were vying for one of the 64 units priced from $1.3 million to $14 million.
“They help establish a nice market,” said Jim Flaum, president and managing broker of Slifer, Smith & Frampton Real Estate, which marketed the project for Vail Resorts. “You know you have a buyer that’s going to perform.”
The company uses about 80 percent of its members’ deposits to fund acquisitions. The remainder covers operating costs. Exclusive Resorts’ profits are in the form of real-estate appreciation, Handler said.
“It’s a very different model,” he said.
Its business model targets wealthy clients who want luxury vacations but not a second home.
Staff writer Margaret Jackson can be reached at 303-820-1473 or mjackson@denverpost.com.
