NEARLY to decades ago, in 1993,
Laguna Phuket started
residential sales for their Allamanda condominium. Asia was a rising star, the
baht surged in appreciation and foreign investment into
Thailand Property was
still in its early days.
Though residential-led hospitality, or condo-hotels, was
hardly new on the scene, here the book was blank on how, why or what the future
of the product would be. Over the years, the plunge into various realms of
alternative ownership has proved to be a rocky road for the
property market.
Initially Banyan Tree operated Allamanda as a low cost entry
point into the destination resort of Laguna. Positioning it below the Sheraton
Grand (now Angsana), Dusit and Laguna Beach Resort. Blending the management
culture of a luxury and mid-scale offering is never an easy task and this
proved equally cumbersome.
Later two more Allamandas came on board over the year, know
as 2 and 3. Legally these are each individual condominium juristic persons and
the only binding entity was the namesake.
Timeshare or what we now often refer to as gentrified
vacation ownership kicked off in 1998, with the then Allamanda Vacation Club
(now Laguna Holiday Club) taking inventory in the condo blocks and selling time
based stays.
After the 1997 Asian contagion, selling one week timeshare
units was deemed to br far easier compared to unit sales and looked to be the
way forward to spur the pace of sales in the project. However, as Asians second
property wave took off in the early part of the lase decade, product demands,
especially those seeking large town homes and villas, changed the marketplace
in a dramatic fashion. Instead of one and two bedroom units, buyers wanted
those scarce
pool villas and more space.
As market sentiment flourished, Laguna took the opportunity
to develop a purpose built vacation ownership complex; the Laguna Holiday Club.
Tension between unit owners and management, and a better alignment of business
interests dictated the move. Traditional hotels and on-the-spot-resort-sales
make strange bedfellows so going from a shared room into a separate space made
sense.
Being an observer of the property market, it puzzled me
during those boom y
ears why waterfront duplex units and condos along the golf
course failed to experience the same rise in capital appreciation as the larger
marketplace. A prime location near the beach with complete infrastructure and
life in an intergrated resort. If it were boxing, Allamanda was fighting below
its weight.
It’s known within the industry about the fracturing of
relationships between the various Allamandas, the developer and owners.
Eventually this came to a head with part of the complex becoming the Best
Western Allamanda. One portion elected not to operate as a hotel.
Enter hospitality veteran and long time
Phuket resident,
Robert de Graaf with an impressive resume and whose Albatross
Travel Agency and
dining outlet have been mainstays in the community. Under his watch things are
clearly on the upswing. With a bit of care and navigation of murky waters
needed by a technocrat, the rental operation has a new lease on life. A
recently staged upgrading of units it ongoing and improvements to the food and
beverage operation have lifted up the entire atmosphere. Robert has worked tirelessly
and with passion which is exactly what has been needed.
As for the ugly beast of
condo-hotels, communal resort
living and the power keg of political infighting is hardly specific to Phuket.
Just visit a coop in any world class destination. Annual owner meetings often
mimic Gadaffis last days of power in Libya. Ever since Caine and Abel when you
put one person in close proximity with another, there is bound to be troupe.
I had coffee recently with Robert, and its nice to see
things moving forward in the right direction.
As I write this, the word on the grapevine is that perhaps
interests may be aligning among the various components of the project and that
a uniform property offering may be in the works. For
Phuket Property owners the timing
could not be better with the island gearing up for a terrific high season.
Allamanda continues to show great promise going forward and a united condo
clearly remains the ultimate solution.
