Private Residence Clubs and Luxury Fractional Property

Bruce Shugart has lived in the Colorado Rockies since 1975 and currently lives between Vail and Aspen. We recently talked to Bruce about his latest development The Porches and discussed all the recent activity in Steamboat Springs.

His company Structural Associates typically builds high-end custom homes that can range in price up to $20m. He's been in the building industry for 30 years and his company, which he founded with Shane Evans, recently celebrated its 25th anniversary.

According to Bruce (pictured right), Steamboat was long considered the "last frontier" with its location in the north west of Colorado, but with the purchase of the resort by Intrawest in 2006, it is now undergoing a major transition. The new owners are already replacing some of the chairlifts with a new 6 person high speed chair and have plans in place to extend the gondola.

The town is at a slightly lower elevation (6,800 ft) than either Vail or Aspen (each 8,000 ft) so it can be easier for folks to acclimatize to the altitude. Bruce describes it as a very friendly, very outdoorsy town, where it doesn't matter what you're wearing or driving. As well as the 3,000 acres of skiing there's also great hiking, biking, rafting, tubing, world class fishing and golf. The Steamboat website shows they average 331" of snow per year and they even have trademarks on the phrases "Champagne Powder" and "Ski Town, USA".

The Porches is on a very open 20 acre site which is currently a 4 minute walk to the Gondola or in Bruce's words its "limo-in, limo-out" (not quite ski-in, ski-out at the moment) on the shuttle service that the Porches provides. The Gondola extension will eventually be just across the street in about 2 years time. Overall The Porches will consist of 42 lots and so a total of 84 homes plus a 6,300 sq ft club house with a pool, spa, steam room and exercise room.

The homes (picture below) are 4,000 to 5,000 sq ft each and are constructed as duplex attached townhouses. Bruce and his partner drew on their custom home building experience using hand-hewn beams, hand-distressed floors, fine cabinetry, granite countertops and exquisite fixtures. The living rooms and master bedrooms each have large, custom masonry fireplaces to add to the overall sense of quality and mountain ambience. To keep everyone entertained each residence also has a home theater, billiards tables and fussball tables. In addition each home has a garage hidden at the back.

The size of the homes, with 4 or 5 bedrooms, encourages extended families or provides room for hosting friends. Bruce mentioned he'd often see 3 generations - grandparents, parents and kids - in residence. From the SherpaReport perspective these are certainly good size homes and larger than the size we typically see in private residence clubs.

The homes are available as both fractional (private residence club) and whole ownership. The fractional ownership offers 1/8 shares (6 weeks) for $320k to $400k and the whole ownership of a home is in the range $1,995k to $2,884k. Fractional owners have three weeks in the summer and three weeks in the winter, plus they can have unlimited additional usage at any time if space allows. The fully inclusive annual dues for members of the private residence club are about $10k - $11k, depending on the unit you own.

There's also a rental program for owners. Members of the private residence club can put up to 4 weeks (of their 6 owned weeks) into the program. The rentals vary from $600 to $2,800 per night depending on the season.

Both full and fractional owners can take part in an exchange program through the Registry Collection. This allows owners to exchange their weeks with other private residence clubs around the world.

Just like other private residence clubs The Porches provides a full concierge service to owner/members. The concierge will pick up groceries or even have a Christmas tree ready for your arrival. They can also organize bike rides, hikes, sleigh rides or fishing trips and pretty much anything else so that owners can fully relax and enjoy their vacations. Members can also store their skis or other personal items and sports equipment when they are not in residence, saving the hassle of shipping things back and forth.

Several destination clubs also have homes in Steamboat, you can see a list in the Colorado section of our luxury homes directory.