Bay Hotel
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In the Beginning….. Fairfield Bay was energized by Fairfield Communities, Inc., a real estate developer, advertising widely into America’s heartland and inviting people to stay 3 days & 2 nights in a resort in order to sell property and time-shares. For this purpose, FCI built many condos such as Fairways, Chelsea and Shadow Ridge for temporary lodging. FCI was very successful and went on to other, more diverse venues across the country. Then FCI filed bankruptcy. The condos were committed to timeshare or sold to individuals and eliminated the availability of mass “rental” lodging. A Convention Center that drew around 30,000 people a year to the Bay was sold and never redeveloped. Since then, visitors wishing to experience Fairfield Bay’s terrific amenities have had to find the occasional house or condo on a rental management program or stay with family or friends, or stay in Clinton’s Super8 and drive 15 miles each way.
The Community Club has for years been seeking a hotel to again provide temporary lodging for Bay guests coming for golf and tennis tournaments, corporate retreats or for vacations.
The long-term goal of bringing visitors to Fairfield Bay is to encourage new permanent residents, new homebuilding and growing Club membership. This managed growth will build a financial foundation for the Bay to change the trend of increasing dues to support our amenities by a limited number of members. This goal does not seek to change the character of the Bay to become a small Branson or another Eureka Springs, but simply to grow large enough to support restaurant and recreation venues in sufficient quantity & quality to satisfy the needs of our residents and visitors.
The Community Club is pleased that with the support of the membership, the city and our local businesses, we are close to groundbreaking for the Fairfield Bay Resort Hotel. The opening will be a major step in sharing the magic of Fairfield Bay with the world.
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I think a hotel is a much needed asset to FFB. Five years ago, my husband and I stayed at the Wyndham Condos for a long weekend. We loved the area so much, we bought a lot on Grand Isle and would love to retire there someday. We love golf at Indian Hills and play there often, but can’t always find a condo rental available on weekend we want to visit. A hotel would be awesome!
If an hotel were a much needed asset, then I would assume a hotel developer would have, after doing a solid feasibility study, constructed one. The association does not need to own a hotel. I would much rather see the association provide land and, perhaps, a financial incentive to a company that might want to come into that market. What do we do if the hotel fails? Who is going to hire the management company to run the hotel? What is the current occupancy in the area? What’s the average rate? What occupancy does the hotel have to reach and at what rate in order to be profitable? The board has worked with “numerous potential hotel investors and numerous sites trying to secure a hotel.” We have been in the hotel and tourism industry for 30 years and I can assure you that if you were not able to interest someone 4 years ago when the market was white hot, the feasibility studies did not forecast a profitable operation. I do not favor this proposition and am not happy that so little information has been provided for such a critical decision. This will affect our financial position for years to come and I don’t think in a positive way.
Ken,
You have raised many legitimate questions, and in the absence of answers, they would support your position against the Club operating a lodge. However, all of these questions have been asked multiple times and satisfactorily answered. You simply haven’t been close enough to the discussion to have heard. Our hotel team has been meeting weekly or more often since April to consider all the ramifications of the Club owning and operating the lodge. Our local residents are replete with skeptics, including some on the zoning board, who required indepth investigation to get answers on viability and impact. They voted unanimously to proceed. I hope that you will visit the Bay after the April 2011 opening and see for yourself.
Thanks,
Robert McBride, Vice President
Sometimes a new member of the community can add a perspective that might be helpful. (Having been a clergyman for many years, I know this is true of churches.) My wife and I were attracted here because we got to stay here short term at Wyndom properties. Without that, we probably never would have come. So, in my opinion, short term stays will help build this community. However, unless there is an aggressive long term ‘marketing’ strategy (with appropriate funding) for the future hotel, I believe it could fail as an enterprize, no matter how well run it is. Could the Club better spend its new-found money on marketing the ‘experience of FFB’ to a wider segment of the population through the media? After all, baby-boomers like me are coming down the pike–we need to give them an exit ramp to FFB. Just an opinion.