Bluegreen Corporation (NYSE: BXG), a leading provider of Colorful Places to Live and Play®, today announced the expansion of its fee-based services business to include hotel management. Bluegreen recently commenced hotel management services for an existing client, South Mountain Resort in Lincoln, New Hampshire, and for a new client, The Sandhurst Hotel in Ft. Pierce, Florida. The addition of hotel management expands the Company’s portfolio of fee-based service offerings beyond its previous offerings of vacation-resort operations management and sales and marketing. Bluegreen launched its fee-based services business in 2009 at resorts in Arizona, the Bahamas, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Virginia. For the year ended December 31, 2009, Bluegreen generated fee based services revenues of $20.1 million compared to no such revenues in 2008.
“In 2009 we announced that we would actively pursue growth through fee-based services. We couldn’t be happier with the interest shown in our services and the quality of properties we now have under contract,” said David Pontius, President of Bluegreen Management Services. “Now that we have expanded into hotel management at these particular locations, we can continue to broaden our service footprint, delivering the true Bluegreen service experience, from the moment our hotel guests plan their vacation, to the moment they leave the resort.”
South Mountain Resort is part of the InnSeason Resorts collection of properties based in the Northeastern United States. The South Mountain Resort is located at the foot of the White Mountains in Lincoln, New Hampshire, approximately two hours from Boston, MA, and offers a northeast countryside retreat with golf, hiking, sightseeing, canoeing/kayaking, snow skiing and other popular outdoor activities.
The Sandhurst Hotel, located on Hutchinson Island in Ft. Pierce, Florida, is designed for leisure and offers waterfront accommodations just steps from popular area attractions and local businesses. Although Bluegreen owns, operates, or manages many other Florida resorts, this particular vacation destination extend Bluegreen’s specialized hotel management services into a boutique hotel location.
“We have continued to focus on ways to expand our business by leveraging our service and management expertise, while conserving capital,” says Bluegreen’s President and CEO, John Maloney. “We believe that the expansion of our fee-based services model into the boutique hotel arena validates both our ongoing commitment to and successful execution of these strategic initiatives. We believe that there is a sizable market for our style of hospitality services in the hotel business as well as in our core business of vacation ownership.”
“Our philosophy at Bluegreen is to provide all of our guests and club owners with a complete vacation experience from start to finish,” says Pontius. “We believe that we are unique in that we deliver more than a clean room and a smile. When our guests return home, we want them to look back and realize that their vacation was a memorable one and that Bluegreen was an active contributor to that experience.”
