The Palm Desert City Council resolved several issues in its General Plan on Friday by bypassing discussion on its controversial land use designations for the northern part of the city.

On Friday morning, during its second General Plan hearing in as many days, the council sped through a number of the plan’s policy elements with little fanfare.

That will free council members to continue discussing proposed changes to the plan’s land use element at their next meeting, scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Wednesday.

"We got through (five) different chunks of it that are now out the door," Councilman Buford Crites said after the hearing.

After making a few changes and additions, the council unanimously approved the following elements: circulation, police and fire protection, schools and libraries, water/sewer/utility and public buildings and facilities.

Those elements contain policies that will be used to help guide the city’s decision-making over the next two decades.

"There’s not a lot of difference of opinion on those elements," noted Councilwoman Jean Benson.

The approvals pave the way for the issue that’s been taking up a good deal of the city’s time during the General Plan revision process: the university park planning area.

The university park planning area is a stretch of desert that encompasses about 2,000 acres in the north part of the city, near the Palm Desert Campus of California State University, San Bernardino on Cook Street.

The Palm Desert campuses of Cal State and the University of California, Riverside are taking shape on some of the land, and the Marriott’s Shadow Ridge timeshare resort occupies real estate near the corner of Monterey Avenue and Frank Sinatra Drive. Much of the planning area is undeveloped.

The City Council is working to prescribe a future for the rest of that land. But finding the right housing blend has been a tall order.

On Feb. 26, the council began consideration of a proposal shaped by Councilman Jim Ferguson. Ferguson said he got help on the plan from Councilman Richard Kelly. The proposal seeks to give the city more flexibility when it comes to fulfilling its housing goals for that area.

A small portion of the land in the university park area -- less than 5 percent of the land between Frank Sinatra Drive and Interstate 10 -- is designated for high-density housing. High density housing would allow buildings like apartment and condominium complexes of 10 to 22 units per acre. The latest proposal would designate that land as medium-density, like duplexes and single-family homes on smaller lots (four to 10 units per acre).

Developers could apply for a high-density project on any land zoned medium-density in the area north of Frank Sinatra Drive, if they promise to fulfill certain criteria, to be set by the city.

"The developer has the incentive to do something better," Kelly said. "It’s a great way to go."

Benson said, "I think that allows for a good compromise."

The council is tentatively expecting to wind up their deliberations over the course of two more meetings. "I’d like to get the rest of this stuff done," Crites said, holding up his thick copy of the General Plan draft, during the hearing.

If the council finishes with two more meetings on the current schedule the plan could be finalized at the meeting set for March 15.

Earl thinking of time shares for Aladdin site

Planet Hollywood International Inc. Chairman Robert Earl thinks a couple of thousand time share units may be the best way to use a vacant parcel next to the Aladdin that he and his partners would acquire as part of the Las Vegas megaresort they've agreed to purchase out of bankruptcy protection.

A 4 1/2-acre site on Harmon Avenue, east of the Aladdin's main entrance, could be profitably used for time share units, Earl said this week.

The dapper Earl set up camp in a luxurious Aladdin suite this week, conducting meetings and finalizing design plans for the planned transformation of the three-year-old property into the Planet Hollywood hotel-casino.

Although fixing the resort's well-documented problems such as poor Strip access and other design flaws are taking up the lion's share of Earl's Las Vegas time, he acknowledged that interest in the Aladdin site as a time share location is palpable.

"We've had a flurry of requests to utilize the 4 1/2 acres," Earl said. "Having done our studies, we've decided to do lodging on the site. The most likely scenario is time share."

Time share is hot, particularly in Las Vegas, Earl said.

Hilton Hotels Corp., for example, in January opened its $128 million Hilton Grand Vacations Club time share tower on a 10-acre site north of Circus Circus, the first of four planned towers at the north Strip location.

Another time share giant, Marriott International, is developing the Chateau, a $300 million, four-tower time share complex next to Polo Towers, across Harmon Avenue from the Aladdin.

Earl, who lives in Orlando, Fla., said the Sunshine State city provides a clue about future Las Vegas development trends.

"Orlando has about the same number of annual visitors as Las Vegas but it has 70 timeshare resorts, while Las Vegas only a handful of resorts," Earl said.

Earl said he and his partners have invested a nonrefundable $15 million into their winning Aladdin bid and said the group fully intends to follow through on its planned purchase.

"We're making daily progress on the design and the costing of the construction," Earl said, noting that he's been pleasantly surprised by the Aladdin's capacity for improvement.

"It's a treasure-trove of unexploited assets," Earl said, referring to not yet built out spaces that allow new attractions to be added without major changes to existing property features.

Earl declined to comment on letters the Culinary Union sent to Nevada Gaming Control Board members earlier this week, missives that slammed Earl and his partners for alleged business incompetence and unethical actions as part of the union's effort to pressure the Planet Hollywood executive and current Aladdin management to recognize the union as bargaining agent for its maids and food-service workers.

"But you can say that our plans continue to include keeping all of the employees," he said.

Timeshare regulation

The timeshare business needs to be regulated to grow the industry, as it has good prospects as an adjunct to the Thailand Elite Card scheme, Vittayen Muttamara, president of the Thai Vacation Ownership Association, said yesterday.

"The timeshare business has the same target group and objective as Thailand Elite - to attract foreigners to spend a longer period of time here, but the product we offer is different," Vittayen said.

The new Elite Card offers many privileges to its foreign members except a free place to stay.

For US$25,000 (Bt1 million), a lifetime personal membership comes with benefits such as five-year entry with no visa required, special immigration lanes and the right to acquire and possess land.

Vittayen said Elite cardholders have to pay for land but for only Bt200,000 timeshare members can enjoy the use of resort accommodations at no extra charge for about 30 years.

Last week the association discussed the legal issue with the Tourism Authority of Thailand and later will approach the Tourism Ministry.

"To protect the rights of consumers and prevent bad timeshare operators from tarnishing the image of the business, regulation of the industry is needed," Vittayen said. At this time timeshare owners only have recourse to regulations on direct marketing, consumer fraud or unfair contracts if they are cheated.

Theeranuch Pusaksrikit

Fraudster ordered to pay up

Timeshare fraudster John "Goldfinger" Palmer has been ordered to pay £3.25 million into court to meet potential claims by 200 victims who were tricked into buying shares in holiday apartments.

Among Palmer's victims in Britain's biggest timeshare fraud were several Shropshire residents, who were cheated out of thousands of pounds.

The latest order was made in the High Court and confirmed yesterday by solicitors for the claimants, many of them pensioners.

Victims paid an average of £8,000 for shares in properties in Tenerife, which are now virtually worthless.

If Palmer, who is in his 50s, of Battlefields, Bath, does not pay the money into court within 28 days of the order he will not be allowed to defend the claims against him. Judgement would be entered in default.

Among his victims was Eric Griffiths, 63, of Chester Road, Whitchurch, who was set to get £8,500 in compensation. And civil servant Cliff Griffiths, of Meole Brace, Shrewsbury, lost more than £6,000.

Retired Whitchurch businesswoman Hazel Turner was also one of the victims.

Marriott Brands Receive Top Honors in Annual Hotel Survey

Marriott International Inc brands received the highest rankings in this year's Business Travel News Top U.S. Hotel Chain Survey. Ranked number one by the publication were JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts in the upper upscale category, Courtyard by Marriott in the mid-price with food and beverage category and TownePlace Suites by Marriott in the upscale extended-stay category. The annual survey reflects the opinions of corporate travel planners based on criteria that includes helpful and courteous staff, physical appearance and overall price- value relationship.

Additional Marriott brands that performed well in the survey include Renaissance Hotels & Resorts and Marriott Hotels & Resorts, which placed second and fourth, respectively, in the upscale category, and Fairfield Inn by Marriott, which placed second in the mid-price without food and beverage category.

For reservations at any Marriott hotel brand, call (800) 228-9290, visit Marriott.com or contact a travel professional.

MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL, INC. is a leading worldwide hospitality company with over 2,700 lodging properties across 14 lodging and 4 timeshare brands in the United States and 67 other countries and territories. The company is headquartered in Washington, D.C., has approximately 128,000 employees, and was ranked as the lodging industry's most admired company and one of the best places to work for by FORTUNE®. For more information or reservations, please visit our web site at www.marriott.com.

Umhlanga resort is country's best

Umhlanga's famous Cabana Beach has just won the most prestigious award of all - the coveted RCI Resort of the Year title.

"You always hope you'll get it, but it still came as a surprise to learn we'd won," said delighted general manager, Ron KlŠmbt.

It was the first time that Cabana Beach has taken the top title.

RCI (Resort Condominiums International) is the largest timeshare and resorts exchange in the world with more than 2 000 resorts worldwide.

Against more than 140 resorts in South Africa, Cabana Beach was deemed to have performed the best in all aspects of service, from customer facilities to courtesy and friendliness.

The Southern Sun resort has 217 suites, ranging from "small" rooms - they are actually doubles - to large three-bedroomed duplexes.

Some 42 000 guests stay at the resort every year, a large number of them coming from Germany and Britain during the European winter. More and more Americans and Asian guests are also visiting.

Cabana Beach has a high 93% occupancy rate, and has a waiting list of people wanting to buy timeshare at the Spanish-themed resort which offers "a good, quality family holiday".

The resort also won two other honours at the awards ceremony in Gauteng: one in recognition of the front-office team, and a "gold crown", the highest achievement for service excellence. Cabana Beach has won more than 10 gold awards over the years.


Why did Cabana Beach pick up more votes from satisfied guests than other worthy contenders?

KlŠmbt put it down to his "brilliant" staff, many of whom have 20 to 30 years' service.

"I'm very happy for the staff. This award is such recognition for them," said German-born KlŠmbt who, with his wide international and South African experience, impresses on his staff the importance of everyone - from porters to receptionists and the cleaners - having a smile on his or her face.

"Everyone greets everyone here with a smile. And the answer 'no' is not an option to a guest's query."
Good staff selection was "everything", KlŠmbt said.

"Everything is about personality. It's much harder to teach someone to smile than it is to teach them to make a bed."
KlŠmbt says that everyone will have to maintain the hard work to stay "at the top of the hill".

The resort undertakes a big project every year and this year will be renovating one of the pools and building a new restaurant.

Cendant to buy Sotheby real estate brokerage

Cendant Corp., which already owns Century 21, RCI, Coldwell Banker and ERA, plans to solidify its position in the high-end real estate market by acquiring the residential division of Sotheby's International Realty.

The auction house will reportedly get $100 million for the operation. Sotheby's has handled the sale of many of Hawaii's most expensive homes.

Cendant isn't a household name but the conglomerate plays a big role in American life and especially in Hawaii. Coldwell Banker, for example, has 450 sales associates in Hawaii alone.

The company is also active in the travel industry: it owns the car rental brand Avis and is the world's biggest hotel franchisor with the Days Inn and Super 8 brands. It owns Fairfield Resorts, which has timeshare properties in Hawaii. And its Galileo travel selling division includes Honolulu-born Cheap Tickets.

Cendant recently reported quarterly earnings of $288 million, up 16 percent from year-before levels.

The first timeshare property in Saudi Arabia is being built in the holy city of Mecca, next to the Grand Mosque.

The Zam Zam Tower Complex will offer leases ranging from royal suite to studio for periods of one or two weeks over 24 years, the newspaper Arab News said.

A studio during the close season would cost $5,000 a year, $22,000 during the first three weeks of the fasting month of Ramadan and $80,000 over the last 10 days of Ramadan.

The project, which enjoys official backing, is funded by Sharia-compliant finance based both on an Islamic bond, Sukuk al-Ijara, and on a Sukuk al-Intifaa or timeshare bond.

Internet

Bondholders may trade their stake via the internet, the daily said.

Interest in the timeshares has been so strong that plans for similar projects in the twin holy city of Madina are underway, it added.

The Waqf religious authorities who own the land adjacent to the mosques in Makka and Madina leased the land for 28 years to the giant Bin Ladin Construction Group (So this guy builds them as well as knocking them down ! Ed)on a Build-Operate-Transfer agreement, involving a shopping centre, four towers and a hotel.

The Bin Ladin Group in turn leased the project to the Kuwait-based Munshaat Real Estate Projects KSC.

Munshaat in December issued a $390-million sukuk, which, according to Munshaat managing director Mishal al-Amri was oversubscribed within the first two weeks.

It's high noon for Scots Hollywood

AMBITIOUS plans to bring a taste of Hollywood glamour to Scotland have sparked a revolt in the tiny community that will neighbour on the controversial project.

A Glasgow businessman has submitted a scheme for a £250m national film studio in rural Perthshire that would attract big-budget films and big-name actors.

But the 300 residents of Aberuthven are far from star-struck. They fear the studio with its plans for a timeshare and new housing will quadruple the size of the community and ruin their tranquil way of life.

Aberuthven believed it had seen off Toni Antoniou’s grand scheme after his original plan to call the studio complex Gleneagles was opposed by the nearby hotel of the same name, which fought a successful battle against the name’s use in the Court of Session.

Antoniou has scaled down his plan, renamed his vision the Strathearn Film Studio Project, and resubmitted it to planners. He is now campaigning to win over locals by stressing the economic benefits to the area of having a major film studio.

The early signs are not good. Yesterday, anti-studio campaigners Aberuthven Community Threatened (ACT) mounted a protest in a neighbouring village. This evening , ACT is due to hold a "council of war" in the village hall to drum up support for a new planning battle.

"If anything, the strength of the opposition will be even greater this time round," said Julia Hubbard, ACT’s former chairman. "We are not against progress in Scotland but we are not happy with an 800-acre development in the heart of the countryside and tacked on to a wee village of 120 houses."

At the heart of the plan is an attempt to build a 14-stage studio complex of high enough quality to attract international film-makers to Scotland. But it is the related developments on the site, just off the A9 south of Perth, that are needed to finance the studios, which have brought a local revolt.

The original plan also envisaged 500 luxury houses, a 200-bed, five-star hotel, a casino, a private country club and two golf courses in what is largely a rural area.

Although the housing plans have been scaled down by almost half and the casino dropped, protestors claim the scale of the project will still overwhelm the rural character of the area.

They also suspect that the film studio is simply a smokescreen.

"We are concerned that the luxury houses will go ahead but the rest of the plans will fall by the wayside," Hubbard said.

If the plan gains approval, the huge, glass-fronted film studio complex will be aimed at capturing a slice of the global £60bn-a-year international movie-making market.

Antoniou is convinced he can bring Hollywood-style productions to Scotland. He says the studios will be built by a privately-financed consortium with no call on public money and would bring around 1,000 temporary and permanent jobs into the area.

As well as 14 sound stages, there will be dressing rooms, workshops, a film museum, preview cinema, exhibition space and a restaurant. Film-makers and technicians working on all aspects of film-making, including production staff, technical services, actors and editors, would be able to stay in the hotel and time share cottages.

Antoniou, a management consultant who runs a company called Quillco100, which has an option to buy the site, said he had spent the past six months consulting with planning officials, government agencies and the local community to make the plans acceptable to all.

"Some people in the area believe the studio is a ’Trojan Horse’ development for the housing. It is not. I want Scotland to have the facilities to attract the best film-makers in the world f and bring all the benefits that entails to the local community."

At one time Lord Attenborough, one of Britain’s most respected film-makers, was said to be backing the project, he later made it clear he was not linked to it in any way. The company is still claiming that Scots actor Brian Cox is a supporter. Cox, now filming in Berlin, was unavailable for comment.

Government agencies have also done little to support the Perthshire plans. Scottish Enterprise ruled in 2002 that proposals to build a national film studio were not commercially-viable following a lengthy study. The agency is currently considering financial support for a smaller production studio, in which TV and commercials could be filmed, in Glasgow.

Scottish Screen, the agency which provides film funding, said it had no plans to back any studio.

FAILING THE SCREEN TEST

SEVERAL business consortiums have announced plans to build top-quality film studios in Scotland.

Ambitious proposals were put forward in 1997 to build a studio complex at Hermiston Gait near Edinburgh airport. It had the backing of Sir Sean Connery (right), businessman David Murray, then Rangers FC chairman, and entertainment giant Sony.

The £90m project also had the key backing of Edinburgh financier Sir Angus Grossart, but was vetoed by Edinburgh City Council on the grounds of being in the green belt.

A much smaller project to construct an £11m Highland Studios complex at Milton of Leys, just south of Inverness was granted planning permission in May 2002, but since then there has been little progress, despite chairman Roy Davis’s insistence this month that it would open this year.

A third project is a £10m studio, which could be built under the Erskine Bridge west of Glasgow. MTP, which produces around 80% of Scotland’s TV commercials, is waiting to learn if it has Scottish Enterprise’s support.

Timeshare conversions tighten Kauai hotel market.

Kauai hotel inventory has declined more than 15 percent in the past three years as timeshare conversions take rooms off the market. That's why Garden Isle hotel occupancy reports have been consistently good even during slow weeks for the rest of the state.


That's what happened in last Friday's weekly report from Hospitality Advisors LLC, which found statewide hotel occupancy down about two and a half points from the previous week and about nine points from the previous year, but Kauai occupancy was up 25.2 percent year-to-year.

Hospitality Advisors President Joe Toy explains that timeshare sales have removed hundreds of rooms from use by hotels on Kauai. "Previously, if a timeshare unit was not yet sold, it was rented as a hotel unit and counted as such in my survey until it was sold, e.g. a timeshare property has 300 units, 200 of which were sold as timeshare, 100 still to be sold but rented as a hotel room in the meantime," Toy says. "These units were then finally sold, and removed from rentable hotel inventory once all the week intervals were sold."

In the past two to three years, this process has intensified until timeshare units now make up 25 percent of all visitor accommodations on Kauai and are sold out. "Kauai saw improved hotel performance during that time due in part to the shrinkage of rentable hotel rooms," he said.

The effect has not yet been noticeable on other islands to anything like the same degree as on Kauai. Maui timeshare conversions hotels, for example, are still selling a lot of their inventory as hotel rooms, Toy said.

Macdonald Hotels aiming to win back timeshare contract.

Macdonald Hotels will attempt tomorrow to wrest the lucrative management contract of the Loch Rannoch timeshare resort back from the club committee of owners which deposed the hotel group last summer.
The committee, elected by an overwhelming majority of votes cast by lodge owners at an annual meeting last May, appointed a new management company – TMSL – set up by former committee members to run the resort, despite a threat by Macdonald that it would bar owners from its hotel and swimming pool on the site if it was not re-awarded the contract on unchanged terms.
Macdonald, which runs nine resorts, lost the contract and (as The Herald reported last June) barred timeshare holidaymakers from entering its facilities. It has also refused to hand over the address list of 4000 owners to the club committee until it has been paid an alleged debt of £803,000 for historic uncollected fees.
The committee disputes the club's liability, has continued to contact almost all owners through its own ingenuity, and says it has received no reply from Macdonald's lawyers since October.
In another skirmish, Macdonald took out an injunction to prevent the resort's manager, Margaret Noble, from continuing to work at Loch Rannoch. The injunction lapsed, and Noble immediately began working as resort manager again.
Now Macdonald has written to members asking them to vote, at a reconvened annual meeting in Perth tomorrow, for a change to the club's constitution which would enable members to overrule any transfer of the management contract for up to nine months after a committee decision.
The Electoral Reform Society had been allowed access to the owners' list to ensure everyone can vote, but it will not be able to count the votes as Macdonald has asked for proxies to be returned to itself. The club says Macdonald is acting outwith the club's constitution, but is confident of seeing off the challenge.
Meanwhile, the committee has told members that management fees are 16% lower this year than in the last year under Macdonald, and a third lower than they would now have been.
Allan Kenneth, elected committee member, said: "Had (Macdonald) been awarded the new contract, access to leisure facilities and hotel would have cost the average member around £157 for each lodge week. The only advantages would have been access to the leisure facilities and hotel. That is expensive swimming."
He added: "We know there are a minority who are angry about the temporary loss of an on-site pool … We expect to replace most of the facilities except hotel access, over the next year or two."
The committee has told members that according to reports from the club auditors, official inspectors, and the RCI resort exchange club, TMSL is "doing a fine job". Its newsletter says: "Demand for rentals is outstripping supply – a far more buoyant market than in the past."
The club takes a commission of 20% to handle rentals, against 40% or 70% under the old regime, and owners only pay £60 to register a transfer, compared with up to £690 previously.
It says that Macdonald's proposed rule changes would hand complete control of the resort back to the hotel group on an indefinite basis.
Macdonald has said it has a "duty to its shareholders to recover losses, irrespective of whether the management agreement comes back to Macdonald or not". It was unable to comment further yesterday.

STAFF from a Lancaster-based timeshare company which was bought out last week are waiting with baited breath for news on whether their jobs are safe.


Thurnham Leisure Group went into administration last Tuesday because of financial difficulties.
Just two days later a deal was signed with Sunterra, which is based on Caton Road, to buy the company.
While jobs at the company's resorts, which include Thurnham Hall near Glasson Dock, are safe, those working in administration are not.
A spokeswoman for Sunterra said the company was "still undecided" on whether any staff will be transferred.
All of Thurnham's properties will be rebranded as Sunterra resorts with all customer service, reservations and other systems transferred to the head office.
Nicholas Benson, Sunterra's chief executive, said: "We are familiar with the Thurnham Leisure Group, who have been our neighbours in Lancashire for some years, and we believe this transaction is undoubtedly the best outcome for all of their members and staff in the present circumstances.
"We have developed, and will implement, a detailed plan to ensure the seamless integration of the Thurnham Leisure Group assets into the existing Sunterra organisation."