Reprinted from: Real Estate Transfer
Week of Jan. 26 – Feb. 1, 2007
By ED FORBES – EDITOR
LAKE PLACID – The Whiteface Lodge, the luxury private residence club and resort that opened in 2005, has been sold.
T-Rex Capital, a Stamford, Conn.-based real estate firm, has purchased the resort from Joseph Barile, the Lake Placid developer who built it. The sale was announced in a joint statement on Tuesday morning. Neither party disclosed the price, and as of press time, the Essex County Clerk’s Office had not recorded a property transfer.
Still, the sale, which has been rumored for more than a week, is expected to break Adirondack real estate records.
In a Tuesday interview, Barile said T-Rex’s interest in the property is more than a year old and that T-Rex and his firm, Resort Holdings, had been negotiating for a number of weeks. He added that the sale was precipitated by the numerous national awards the Whiteface Lodge has received in its 18 months of operation. In that time, the resort recently announced, $45 million in sales have been recorded at the property.
“I think through all the endorsements and accolades we received… a lot of people took notice,” Barile said.
Indeed, praise for the property has been plentiful. Last year, it was one of the only two North American resorts named to the Robb Report’s Best of the Best. It made Condo Nest’s 2006 Hot List and was recently given the American Automobile Association’s Four Diamond Award.
Barile and the property’s unique offerings set it apart from other Lake Placid properties and, in turn, set Lake Placid apart from other Northeastern resorts.
“This product, it’s such a dynamic, powerful product for a resort-driven economy,” Barile said. “The impact we’re having has been huge for Lake Placid. We’re bringing people here who’ve never been to the Adirondacks before.”
Barile, who admitted he’d put a lot of himself into the resort, said the property’s success was due to its team, which he praised at length.
“This is not about me,” he said. “It’s about a lot of people really believing and falling in love with (the Lodge).
“I have to say this that this has been nothing short of heroic for everyone involved.” Barile said of his staff’s efforts to make the resort a success.
Negotiations with T-Rex were not a cakewalk, Barile said, but in the end, the new company, which is also investing in a 10-acre resort site on the Caribbean island of St. John, plans to retain all the Whiteface Lodge’s staff. Barile will remain a part of the property’s day-to-day functions as a consultant.
“The deal was well-balanced,” Barile said. “They’re tough negotiators, and we’ve been at it for a number of months.”
Colleen Holmes, director of real estate sales at the Lodge, said she was sorry to see Barile leave the resort, but she also said she was confident in the new owners.
“It’s very exciding for the resort and it’s very exciting for the community,” Holmes said Tuesday, adding that about half of the resort’s shares – which allow owners to use the property for varying lengths of time each calendar year – remain unsold.
“I think they were really surprised at what we’ve accomplished,” Holmes added.
Olivier Bottois, who has served as chief operating officer of Resort Holdings, will continue his role in the Whiteface Lodge with T-Rex. He shared Holmes’ optimism about the new owners.
“They’re not trying to make any changes.” Bottois said Tuesday. “We’ll do what we do always – we’ll do our best.”
He added that he was particularly pleased about the decision to retain current staff.
“We have an exceptional team and I am delighted that we have been chosen to continue operating what has become one of the best resorts in the country,” Bottois said.
He also gave praise to Barile and his wife, Pat Barile.
“We were given a fantastic product to work with and Joe and Pat’s vision has allowed us to position the resort as one of the very best Luxury hotels/Private Residence clubs that exist today,” Bottois said. “Their support and vision have been instrumental in getting so quickly national recognition in the past year. We all look forward to working with the T-Rex Capital team to maintain and enhance our current service levels and continue to strive for excellence.”
T-Rex president Clifford Preminger, who has family in Lake Placid and has been a visitor to the region for more than 30 years, said today that the acquisition grew from a curiosity he’s had about the Whiteface Lodge since construction began.
“When Joe (Barile) started building the property, I was curious,” Preminger said. “It kind of grew from there.”
Preminger said the private residence club concept employed at the Whiteface Lodge is one he and his partner, T-Rex CEO Tom Mulroy, have been interested in for some time.
“The private residence club is something we’ve been watching,” he said. “This acquisition fits very nicely into the program we’re engaged in.”
The program, Preminger said, is to create a chain of resort properties like the Whiteface Lodge around the world. The Lake Placid property, he added, would be the flagship of the new chain. The St. John project would also be part of the new chain, Preminger said.
Preminger said he doesn’t expect any major changes at the Whiteface Lodge. Instead, he said, T-Rex will aim to sustain the success the property’s enjoyed on Barile’s watch.
“The only major change will be in the marketing of the project,” Preminger said. “We’ll probably try to market it … to a larger audience.”
As for the future of the resort’s hotel business, which could diminish as more units and shares are sold, Preminger said he doesn’t expect it to ever completely dissolve.
“People don’t always use their weeks,” he said, explaining that, from week to week, the resort will probably always have some open suites.
While it’s based in Connecticut, T-Rex maintains regional offices in Washington, D.C. and in Boca Raton, Fla. In June 2005, according to the South Florida Business Journal, the company notably sold its sale of T-Rex Corporate Center, an office complex in Boca Raton, for $193 million. That transaction was one of the largest in the state of Florida that year.
As for Barile, who also developed the Outpost Plaza shopping center, across state Route 86 from the Whiteface Lodge, he said he and his wife Pat and their family would remain in Lake Placid. He added that he’s looking at new investment and development possibilities all around the United States, including some winter resort properties in the west.
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Contact Ed Forbes at
523-4401 or eforbes@lakeplacidnews.com