Shawnee on Delaware – Thomas R. Wilkins, CEO of the Wilkins organization announced the court ordered sale of 49 timeshare townhomes at Northslope II sold out in two weeks, one week ahead of the projected time schedule. The sale was deemed a huge success by all involved. Wilkins & Associates Commercial Brokers, the company who handled the sale, announced earlier this week that all the units sold at the asking price or above.
Said Thomas R. Wilkins, Broker who handled the auction-style sale, “We, as well as our clients (referring to the 196 interval owners) are very pleased with the proceeds that were collected.”
Wilkins, with Attorney Joseph S. Wiesmeth and Craig Roberts led the consolidation team in conjunction with Attorney Michael V. Gazza who represented the Association. Said Wiesmeth, “We began this project in mid-2011 by giving a presentation to select members of the Board of Directors. We then, through a detailed procedure, filed suit in the Monroe County Court of Common Pleas; after which, with a final decision by the Honorable Judge Arthur Zulick, got us to where we are today. This is one of those win-win-win cases.”
The Shawnee interval owners can expect a check in the amount of $13,000 – $18,000 in mid-April. Roberts, who developed the distribution plan stated, “The distribution of net funds to the interval owners will be overseen by the Association’s attorney, Michael V. Gazza, as well as Scott A. Miller, CPA from the firm Riley and Company, Inc.”
Northslope II was a timeshare project developed by Shawnee Development, Inc. (SDI) in the mid-80s. Over time, and through attrition (most of the interval owners had owned since the beginning of the Association), delinquencies, collections and non-paying members, as well as other mitigating forces earmarked the development as not being able to continue as a timeshare. The possibilities were filing for bankruptcy—the Association owed $790,000 in delinquent real estate taxes–and liquidating the units as timeshare (which each interval had a market value of between $100 – $300) or successfully selling the townhomes as fee simple ownership and delivering to each of the owners proceeds that were well above their estimated market value if sold as timeshare.
The concept of a consolidation team was one that was developed by Wiesmeth, Wilkins and Roberts. Said Wilkins, “The model that we used for the conversion of NSII is one that can be used anywhere in the continental United States. This is the third project that I’ve been involved with by selling units in bulk and the second project whereby we converted timeshare into whole ownership.” The net amount estimated to be shared by the interval owners is close to $1 million.
When asked, the consolidation team is excitedly exploring new projects in and around the Pocono region, as well as timeshare properties in Ocean City, Maryland; Florida and Upstate New York.
For timeshare associations having questions or wanting to learn more about the process, they can contact the law offices of Joseph S. Wiesmeth, Esquire, Stroudsburg or Thomas R. Wilkins, Broker of Wilkins & Associates Commercial Brokers, also located in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania.
