Developers want to build a casino just outside of a Civil War battlefield at Gettysburg. But many local residents and Civil War buffs say their town and nearby battlefield is the wrong place for gambling.
Developers want to build the 3,000-slot-machine Gettysburg Gaming Resort and Spa less than a mile away from East Cavalry Battlefield, where Confederate Gen. Jeb Stuart was defeated by George Custer, then a young Union officer, in 1863.
The U.S. Forest Service has failed to allow sufficient public involvement in plans for development of a large resort near the Wolf Creek Ski Area, an environmental group alleged in a new lawsuit.
Colorado Wild of Durango filed two lawsuits in Denver federal court on Thursday demanding access to certain records and seeking to bar the Forest Service from giving the resort developer access to his landlocked property without public participation in an environmental review.
Texas billionaire B.J. “Red” McCombs is planning the Village at Wolf Creek, a $1 billion, 288-acre property east of Pagosa Springs in Mineral County that would have room for about 10,500 residents and more than 220,000 square feet of commercial space.
Link: Environmental group sues Forest Service over Wolf Creek resort development.
Since its introduction in March, Harmon Media Group’s eBooks has seen a 46 percent jump in subscribers. This reflects the trend that more and more prospective buyers and sellers are going online to find real estate information and services.
eBooks, Harmon Media Group’s (HMG) online real estate marketing service, has seen a 46 percent increase in subscribers since its introduction in March. By providing digital editions of over 250 HMG print real estate magazines, eBooks combines the established conventions of print advertising with the dynamic reach of Internet marketing to connect the real estate industry with prospective buyers across the country.
Link: Innovative Real Estate Marketing Solution Sees 46 percent Jump in Subscribers – HMG’s eBooks Provides a Valuable Tool for the Industry.
About 10 miles up the Hudson River, developer Town & Country plans to include a hotel-condo project as part of a large mixed-use community in Fort Lee. The hotel, which does not yet have a brand name, will have 242 guest rooms and 63 condos, said Paul Kaufman, an attorney who represents Town & Country.
In 2002, Ritz-Carlton opened two Manhattan hotel-condo buildings. The units range from $600,000 to $5 million at the Battery Park location. One unit at the hotel’s Central Park South building sold for $21 million, said Matthew Hall, a spokesman for Millennium Partners, which developed the condos.
There are many reasons behind the trend. For one thing, condo- hotels are efficient. Guests and residents share amenities, common spaces and employees. And most hotels will rent out condo units for the owners when they are out of town, with the receipts being divided.
Link: Smith Travel Research.
Redwood Custom Communications, an international marketing communications agency that creates custom branded content, announced it has been awarded the contract to publish a custom magazine for the exclusive Sea Island Resorts. The 84-page quarterly magazine will target and inspire a select group of guests with editorial that reflects the distinctive Sea Island lifestyle. The Sea Island magazine will be published four times per year, with the first issue scheduled for late fall 2005.
Link: Canada NewsWire Group.
Site excavation has begun on the 300-unit RiverStone Resort, which will be built in two phases starting this summer. The first phase of construction, consisting of 126 units, is expected to start within weeks. Schular Contracting Inc. is the general contractor for the project.The resort is located on a 13-acre site between the Little Pigeon River and the No. 7 fairway of the Gatlinburg Golf and Country Club. The price of the condominiums will range from $299,900 to $439,900.
Link: The Mountain Press.
Viral is today’s electronic equivalent of old-fashioned word of mouth. It’s a marketing strategy that involves creating an online message that’s novel or entertaining enough to prompt consumers to pass it on to others spreading the message across the Web like a virus at no cost to the advertiser.
Marketers have caught the bug and are increasingly weaving viral components into their marketing plans. Not only is the approach relatively inexpensive, but also it can sometimes be more believable than standard ads.
“All viral means … is that you’ve created a message that people want to share. It’s proof that your message is resonating,” says Gregg Spiridellis, who co-founded animation and design studio JibJab with his brother. “If people want to pass it along, that’s what brand marketing is all about.”
Though specific viral spending is difficult to measure, overall spending on Web advertising continues to rise. Last year, marketers spent $7.4 billion, a 21% increase over 2003, on Internet ads, according to TNS Media Intelligence.
Link: USATODAY.com – ‘Viral’ advertising spreads through marketing plans.
WASHINGTON (AP) Rates on 30-year mortgages resumed their decline this week, falling for the 10th time in the past 12 weeks.
Mortgage giant Freddie Mac said Thursday its weekly survey showed that rates on 30-year, fixed-rate mortgages averaged 5.57%, down from 5.63% last week. It was the second-lowest level recorded this year.
The decline in mortgage rates over the past two months has helped push sales of both new and existing homes to record levels this year. The National Association of Realtors reported Thursday that sales of previously owned homes declined a tiny 0.7% in May after hitting an all-time high in April. However, the May sales pace of 7.13 million units at a seasonally adjusted annual rate was the second-highest level on record.
Link: USATODAY.com – Rates .
In a closely watched case, petitioners from New London, Conn. challenged the government’s use of eminent domain to take and pay for private property and use it for private economic development.
Home and business owners’ contention that economic development doesn’t qualify as public use “is supported by neither precedent nor logic,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority. The decision was 5-4, with Chief Justice William Rehnquist, Justices Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissenting.
The case’s wheels were set in motion in 1998 when pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. agreed to build a $270 million research facility next to the area in dispute. The New London City Council later adopted a redevelopment plan to transform 90 acres of the targeted neighborhood.
The City Council then transferred power of eminent domain to a private, nonprofit group of residents and business owners called the New London Development Corp., which seeks to build a hotel complex, conference center, offices and other structures.
(I’m betting this a more significant decision than the media recognizes…bc)
Link: Supreme Court rules against property owners .
This interview with Mike Strantz took place less than two months before he succumbed to cancer on June 10, 2005. It’s adapted from the forthcoming book “Golf Charms of Charleston” by Joel Zuckerman (Saron Press LTD.) to be released in autumn, 2005.
(June 16, 2005) – The Awendaw, South Carolina home of Mike and Heidi Strantz is spectacular. It’s like a Soho loft in a forest clearing, like an industrial warehouse on stilts, set somewhat discordantly but majestically upon the Ponderosa.
Link: Golf course designer Mike Strantz remembered Golf course design news.
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