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The Next Wave.

By Lisa M. Jensen

Come cold, blowing snow, the action at the state’s top splash escapes heats up. Right along with it is a real estate trend that first flickered in major ski resort regions out west, in winter hot spots such as Aspen, where the cost of buying a second home catapulted over common and financial sense.
Fractional ownership — buying into a quarter or less of a resort-inspired property unit — washed ashore.
“It’s become the newest logical way for people to own real estate when they as second home owners typically only use that home about 28 days of the year, during the summer or winter,” observed LaMarr Hope, who manages real estate sales at Boyne Mountain in Boyne Falls. “High-end fractional ownership across the nation serves a niche market — people who would rather buy one or multiple vacation spots rather than one full-blown second home.”
To help offset the already lessened costs of ownership, four-season Michigan resorts offer rental management of full and fractionally owned properties, including high quality, finished log cabins, condominiums and luxury hotel suites. In every case, the units are fully furnished, include housekeeping and are otherwise professionally maintained. Property owners are privy to all of the resort’s amenities, such as world-class golf, full-service spas, fine dining and premiere indoor water parks.
“Fractional ownership has very much caught on (on) the West Coast,” Hope said. “And the high-end hospitality industry — The Ritz-Carlton, Marriott — has embraced it. Unlike a time-share purchase, fractional ownership is handled more like traditional real estate. There is a deed. There’s flexibility in usage. The investment will appreciate like traditional whole ownership.”
The rest is all going down the tubes — and then some.

Boyne Mountain, Boyne Falls
When Avalanche Bay Indoor Waterpark opened in connection with Mountain Grand Lodge and Spa at Boyne Mountain in May of 2005, it gave visitors a big reason to visit during Boyne’s “shoulder” season — spring and fall.
The 84-degree, 88,000-square-foot playground — enhanced by the state’s only surf simulator and recently named the state’s best indoor water park by Detroit News readers — elevated real estate interest in Boyne’s new four-star, luxury condominium hotel.
As a package, the allure is understandable:
Surfing one hour, snowboarding the next. A rejuvenating Swedish massage at a world-class spa. Fine wine and European cuisine or casual pub fare. A night-time dip in an outdoor pool, surrounded by snow, stars and billowing steam. Respite in a spacious, Swiss-Austrian-inspired suite near a stone fireplace to watch movies on a flat-screen TV, play a game or converse, topped afterward with a white mountain of plush custom bedding.
“The exciting difference about this project is the investment that went into the details and finishes,” noted Randy Dzierzwski, president of New Frontiers Capital, LLC, which constructed the lodge in tandem with Boyne USA Resorts. “Guests immediately notice the attention to detail, with items like custom carpeting, wrought-iron work, hand-carved chairs and hand-hewn timbers in the expansive lobby and suite mantels.”
Units range from a 484-foot efficiency parlor with queen bed and sleeper sofa to a three-bedroom, two-level family suite with full kitchen. The 1,300-plus feet of living spaces include a creative, chalet-themed bunk room kids love. Fractional ownership (12 weeks split throughout the year) starts at $115,900.
Boyne Mountain offers additional fractional ownership opportunities as well: Hand-crafted cedar log ski-in/ski-out Mountain Cabins epitomize a Northern Michigan retreat; Deer Lake Villas neighbor steep ski slopes and a serene inland shoreline; and the new Creekside condominiums offer upgraded kitchens, expanded living configurations and high-end interior furnishings.
Quarter-share property offerings complement full ownership real estate opportunities, such as hilly wooded home sites above and around Boyne’s award-winning fairways, or the Alpine-styled Mountain Villas, next to Avalanche Bay.
“Full and fractional owners can participate in Boyne’s vacation club, similar to Marriott’s and Disney’s,” Hope said. “You can trade for a different unit or location — go to the Inn at Bay Harbor, Boyne Highlands or Big Sky Montana for a change. It’s a big benefit.”

Double JJ Ranch & Golf Resort, Rothbury
Meanwhile, the Wild West is expanding just north of Muskegon.
This November, a mining-themed, 60,000-square-foot indoor water park — Gold Rush — opens as part of a New Frontier entertainment complex at Double JJ Ranch & Golf Resort in Rothbury. The project — featuring a fitness center, luxury day spa, sports pub, night club, live theater, arcade, deli and Italian restaurant, among other amenities — inspired the friendly resort’s newest real estate opportunity as well: Thoroughbred Suites, upscale condominium units that connect to the water park and offer views of the resort’s renowned Arthur Hills championship golf course.
Initial full-ownership prices for a suite through January 2007 start at $199,000. Each unit includes a full kitchen, in-room Jacuzzi, private balcony, fireplace and lower level parking. Quarter-share ownership opportunities are available for Back Forty Log Homes — 1,331-square-foot, fully furnished accommodations with varying floor plans and screened rooms, starting at $139,000 — and Homestead Condominiums, beginning at $109,000 for an up to 1,304 square-foot, professionally furnished unit near the new water park.
Time-share packages for the resort’s Back Forty Log Cabins are also available, as is membership to an on-site RV park. After the second phase of Thoroughbred Suites is completed, the resort will begin construction of new log homes for fractional purchase.
There’s no denying the allure of a Double JJ log retreat or the action-packed resort’s appeal and warmth. First opened to guests in 1937, the original “Jack and Jill Ranch” maintains its unique Old Western charm, complete with General Store Ice Cream Parlor, non-smoking saloon and Wagon Wheel Bar. The atmosphere is casual and friendly: Everyone meets in the “town square” for special events like sleigh and stagecoach rides, bonfires and pig roasts. Activities range from horseback riding, dog sled runs and cattle drives to world-class golf and water park fun, indoors and out. Tennis, tetherball, arts and crafts, biking and other pastimes are also within reach.
Feeling blue? Outside of the resort’s numerous offerings, Lake Michigan’s sprawling shoreline is less than 20 minutes away.
“When we built the golf course in ’92, many guests who loved the property expressed an interest in purchasing real estate, and that put us in a development mode,” said Joan Lipsitz, who purchased Double JJ in 1988 with her husband, Bob, and business partner Wally Wojack. “It became a partnership everyone enjoys.”
Buying a piece of the ranch opens the door to other properties around the world that can be exchanged through Interval International; full and fractional owners also can place their property in Double JJ’s rental program.

Great Wolf Lodge, Traverse City
When it opened in March of 2003, just before spring break, Great Wolf Lodge made more than a splash: “It was a madhouse,” recalled Rex O’Connor, director of sales and marketing. “There hadn’t been anything like this — the slides, the down-pouring bucket, the spacious suites. The response was powerful, and the guests were happy.”
The gigantic log lodge and everything in it inspires Disney-like arrival reactions from Great Wolf’s niche market: families with kids up to 12 years of age. Towering totems and soaring stacked timbers in the 7,500-square-foot, four-story lobby offer warmth and excitement to a little person who walks in; a giant, animated clock tower is “enchanted” by a brown bear, owl, turtle, talking trees and a singing moose.
After a full day in the water park, parents especially appreciate the short, 8 p.m. “Rhythm of Nature” show and story time that settles down squirrelly children (most already in their PJs), slumber-party style, before bed.
A wide glass window allows youngsters to drink in the sight of a 1,000-gallon water bucket dousing an eager crowd 40 feet below; an interactive tree house fort; curving bright-colored tunnels; and squirting fountains in Bear Track Landing. The 38,000 square-foot indoor water park and conference center is scheduled for a major expansion beginning in early 2007.
With the expansion comes a new real estate venture, now in pre-sale mode: 74 single-unit condominiums offering full kitchens and from one to four bedrooms, priced from $189,000 for full ownership only, will accompany the resort’s extensive planned future amenities. Owners will be able to rent out their condo through Great Wolf management.
“It’s important to come out with new rides and opportunities,” O’Connor said, noting a wave pool and other attractions will target older kids and teens. “But we will remain very family-focused. We have people who come here to celebrate their 50th and 60th wedding anniversaries, because there’s something for everyone here — and when the littlest people are happy, everyone can relax.”
In addition to seven configurations of spacious family suites that create privacy for adults by separating kids in creative bunk rooms with their own TV and Nintendo, Great Wolf offers an Aveda Concept Spa; an ample arcade; children’s arts and activity club; family restaurant; a bar and grille; outdoor pool; 7,000 square feet of meeting space for business or reunions; and a confectionary café — the Bear Claw — that brings to mind all the delights of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts Express trolley, combined with Starbucks, bistro sandwiches, fresh fruits, salads, real ice cream and deluxe desserts.
Arguably, the lodge’s greatest achievement is a simple scavenger hunt out by the front desk. Kids of varying ages who have money for the arcade in hand often choose instead to run around exploring the lodge and count how many wolves are above the lobby fireplace.
Sometimes, the littlest things make the biggest splash.

Lisa M. Jensen is the editor of Michigan BLUE. For more information, visit www.boyne.com; www.doublejj.com; and www.greatwolflodge.com.


Sidebar

Where To Find Water

**In 1986, Judy Zehnder Keller opened the Bavarian Inn Lodge in Frankenmuth. The family resort offers five indoor pools (one with a waterfall, one with zero-entry), complete with gushers, geysers and sprinklers. (There’s also one for adults only — minus gushers — and three whirlpools.) Keller is respected as a pioneer in the Michigan indoor water park industry, although the Bavarian Inn has no slides. www.bavarianinn.com