Colebrook Financial Presents Its Annual Lender Education Seminar

The genesis of Colebrook’s Lender Education Seminar was the Great Recession of 2008. In those dark days, every timeshare developer was looking for money and only Colebrook and one other lender were willing to listen. But unless, in the midst of the worst financial panic since the Great Depression, Colebrook could keep generating bank financing, they wouldn’t be able to do anything but listen.

With most lenders on the sidelines, Colebrook saw a rare opportunity to establish relationships with some of the leading developers in the industry. It needed a forum to explain to our banking partners the nature of this unique window and why it was a sound proposition. We scheduled a seminar for June 24, 2009 and assembled a panel consisting of ARDA CEO Howard Nusbaum, Concord Servicing Corporation EVP Shaun O’Neill, and Attorney Rick Polivy. The session was a success, and over the next several years, our panels included timeshare luminaries like Craig Nash, Don Harrill, Dave Pontius, Jon Fredricks, and many others.

Attendance was always good, feedback was positive, and the bankers learned that (i) a well-structured timeshare loan is a sound investment and (ii) there are some pretty sharp people operating the most prominent companies in the industry.

On June 10, more than 15 years after the first session, Colebrook hosted the 2025 version at Tate’s Restaurant in its headquarters city of Middletown, Connecticut. All of Colebrook’s banking partners were invited, as was any banker interested in learning about the industry. About 35 attendees heard Colebrook’s Bill Ryczek present and explain statistics on the timeshare industry, Vacation Club Loans CEO Debbie Ely talk about resale financing and the growth of her company, and Lemonjuice Solutions COO Scott MacGregor discuss the concept of re-purposing legacy timeshare properties to other uses.

Debbie, whose company is an affiliate of Colebrook, explained the differences between standard hypothecation financing and financing for the resale market, the main distinction being that first-generation timeshare sales generally take place over a couple of hours, whereas a resale takes 60 days or more to consummate, which eliminates buyers’ remorse. Further, resale purchasers seek out the purchase opportunity and generally get a lower price, which leads to much stronger receivable performance. VCL, whose portfolio consists almost exclusively of receivables from the resale of memberships in Disney Vacation Club, has experienced credit losses of a miniscule 0.1% per year.

Perhaps the biggest challenge Debbie faced, she told the audience, was convincing resale brokers to refer clients to her. They were afraid that any change in the sales process would cause the purchaser to back out of the sale. It took years of patient nurturing before they realized that offering financing helped rather than hurt their sales and would result in higher prices.

While most of the industry talks about re-purposing, Lemonjuice describes its process as re-imagining. Whatever the label, the more than $100 million they’ve returned to timeshare owners since 2017 is no figment of anyone’s re-imagination. At the present time, the company manages 32 properties, of which 14 are in the transition process. Scott related the story of the Bay Club in Ocean City, Maryland, whose transition was financed by Colebrook, as a case study. There were not enough dues paying owners at Bay Club to support the operation, so Lemonjuice facilitated the sale of about half the units as whole unit condominiums and consolidated the timeshare owners into the remaining condominiums. The “right-sized” property now has sufficient revenue to cover operating expenses and got an extensive and much-needed facelift in the process.

After the presentations, the group remained for networking, appetizers and cocktails, including the Colebrook signature drink, Liquid Assets, something every banker needs. Many attendees told the Colebrook principals they found the session interesting and informative, but the proof was that most stayed for quite some time afterwards, and it wasn’t just the lure of some Liquid Assets. Both speakers mingled and answered questions informally and the bankers, many of whom know each other, spent time catching up.

For Colebrook, one of the ancillary benefits of the conference is the fact that each set of bankers realizes that they’re not the only institution out there on a timeshare lending limb. A lot of their respected colleagues are involved as well, which is reassuring.

“Knowledge itself is power,” Sir Francis Bacon wrote in 1597, and Colebrook takes the words of Sir Francis seriously. They’ve always believed that the more their banking partners know about the timeshare industry, the better the relationship and the stronger the commitment. A commitment based on faith is less stable than one based on a thorough understanding, and that is why Colebrook invites its bankers to hear the wisdom of industry experts each year.