Refurbishment & Design for Today’s Timeshare – Case Study – Atlantic Terrace located in Daytona Beach, FL

Written by: Mary A. Daust, Vice President Hospitality Resources & Design

When planning for a refurbishment on your property a lot of things need to be considered. There will be lots of moving parts and pieces included but not limited to timelines, budgetary restraints, board members and their objectives and intentions, owners, financing and special assessments, design intent, ADA and local building codes, and restrictions along with many other things.  As you are well aware, timeshare renovations are an extremely large investment and require months and often years of planning and preparing in order to facilitate a smooth renovation. As the plan is created and formed, there ultimately needs to be a clean understanding of the final goal and how it can be achieved.

For the purpose of this article I am going to use a case study: Atlantic Terrace located in Daytona Beach, FL. Atlantic which is managed by NHG/SPM Resorts. The onsite general manager, Zsuzsanna Noviello, and Regional Vice President Trish Docherty spent well over a year planning and preparing with the board members to ensure everyone’s concept of how this project should flow was heard and evaluated, along with the options and the monetary correlation. Early in the process, Trish Docherty created a team that included our firm, an architect, and a general contracting company. Collectively, the team that was assembled is very familiar with the hospitality renovation industry. In addition to being familiar with the industry as a whole, the team was also very familiar with the local codes, municipalities, local labor pool, the expectation of production schedules, how imperative it is to stay on schedule, and the necessity to specify and use products that will withstand the hard use of timeshare.  The planning and preparing phases began in 2014. The project started in 2015 and was completed in 2016.

It’s imperative in a timeshare renovation to build your team with professionals that thoroughly understand our particular market and industry. There are numerous great GC companies and design firms, but the specific understanding of an operating timeshare and the hard use they receive will make or break your renovation. The GC needs to grasp completely that you can’t miss due dates, because the property needs to get back online for the guest and owners so there is no loss of revenue. Your selected design firm needs to understand the vast amount of information that is involved in commercial product for hospitality vs. residential product. Often there is a misconception that timeshare has a residential component and follows different local, state, and federal codes. This is incorrect. There are mandatory fire rating finishes that must be on the majority of your fabrics in a commercial application vs. residential. If the wrong product gets placed in your unit, your local fire marshal can require you to stay closed until all the items are corrected.

Atlantic Terrace is an  outstanding property. It sits directly on the ocean and was in dire need of updating. The rooms at Atlantic Terrace are by far the largest or one of the largest units I have seen and are extremely desirable to their owners and guests because of the large open floor plan and huge wrap around balconies with views of the ocean from almost every room . The kitchens are big, open, and very inviting. The entire unit has a very comfortable family, light, bright, and beachy feeling now. In addition to completely renovating all their 22 units they also did their lobby and public spaces so the entire property is new as of 2016. In 2017 Atlantic Terrace received the “Resort of the Year” award from NHG/SPM Resorts and the property was also nominated by RCI this year for the “HOA Unit Refurbishment” category in the 2018 ARDA Awards Program.