PH Towers Westgate opened this past December and currently says only about 20 percent of its timeshare units have sold. But the rest of this Las Vegas timeshare’s units are not sitting empty; they are being used as hotel inventory by Planet Hollywood resort (which is owned by Harrah’s Entertainment Inc).

The 52-story, 1200-room Las Vegas timeshare is described by Westgate timeshare as both the world’s largest timeshare building (all units contained within a single structure) and the only timeshare in the world that is fully integrated with a casino.

The timeshare’s builder, Tutor-Saliba Corporation, has filed a foreclosure lawsuit in Nevada’s Clark County District Court against Westgate Planet Hollywood Las Vegas LLC. Tutor-Saliba alleges that Westgate owes the company $19.3 million based on the terms of the 2007 Las Vegas timeshare construction contract. According to the Las Vegas Sun, Westgate Resorts timeshare plans to fight the lawsuit against their newest Las Vegas timeshare property and says that liens filed against the resort by Tutor-Saliba and liens filed by subcontractors cover duplicate issues.

Westgate Timeshare Tells Its Side of the Story

Mark Waltrip, chief operating officer of Westgate Resorts, was quoted as saying, “We have exhausted every effort to work cooperatively with Tutor-Saliba to resolve these issues. We have previously provided Tutor-Saliba a well-documented position that has been independently verified by a third-party construction management firm and proves that not only are these claims totally without merit, but in fact Tutor-Saliba owes Westgate in excess of $18 million. In addition, Tutor-Saliba signed an agreement subordinating its claim to the lenders on this project and therefore has no right to pursue this course of action. We not only intend to vigorously defend these claims brought by Tutor-Saliba, but also seek recovery of millions of dollars in claims due to Westgate, including overcharges, credits due for unperformed work, liquidated damages for untimely performance and failure to comply with the plans and specifications of the project.”

So Westgate timeshare and the construction company for this Las Vegas timeshare agree that somebody owes somebody between 18 and 19.3 million dollars. One thing is certain, until this is resolved, only the attorneys involved benefit by the situation.

In March of this year, Westgate timeshare founder and CEO, David Siegel, put a number of the company’s assets up for sale. Knowing that he and his wife Jacqueline have suspended construction on the mansion they were building in Windermere, just outside of Orlando, Florida, many speculated that the home might be the next asset to go.

Listed at 66,800 square feet in size, the Siegel’s uber-mansion was intended to be the largest private residence in the United States. Occupying roughly 10 acres of real estate on pristine Lake Butler, the home was planned to include 13 bedrooms, 10 satellite kitchens, 23 bathrooms (each with spa tub), 7 half-baths, a ballroom, an indoor roller-skating rink, a bowling alley, and a movie theater patterned after the Paris Opera House with a second theater in the children’s wing of the home. On the grounds, which include a quarter mile of private beach, there is a large gatehouse with residence apartment, a baseball field, three swimming pools, two tennis courts, a boathouse, a two-story wine cellar, and a rock grotto with three spas located behind an 80-foot waterfall. The master bedroom alone is planned to be some 8000 square feet in size.

Although the house is not completed, it has been under construction for three years. The Siegels are asking $100 million for the house “as is” or $75 million and they will complete the construction for the buyer, which implies that the house is approximately three-quarters completed.

Yes, I know what you must be thinking. It’s a shame this mindboggling house is located within residential-only zoning, because it sounds like it would make an incredible Westgate Florida timeshare resort!

Click here to see the real estate ad as featured in the Wall Street Journal.

Other Westgate timeshare developer news from The Timeshare Authority:
Westgate Timeshare Lightens the Load, Selling Select Assets
Westgate Timeshare Founder’s Spouse Joins in the Buzz about Elin and Tiger Woods
Orlando Timeshare Developer Played Landlord to Michael Jackson

Travel + Leisure Magazine recently tracked down the top-ten best hamburgers in the US; fortunately, you can plan your timeshare travel to enjoy them all.

Burger Joint in San Francisco took the honors for the numero uno best burger. Burger Joint is a 1950’s-style restaurant that boasts an old-fashion burger made from hormone- and pesticide-free beef.

Recommended San Francisco timeshare to accompany your Burger Joint hamburger is: Shell Vacation Club’s The Suites at Fishermans Wharf timeshare resales and rentals, where you are just a cable car ride away from Chinatown, Ghirardelli Square, The Cannery, and Pier 39.

Dyer’s Burger in Memphis took second place honors with their thin-patty burger, fried in oil in a cast-iron skillet. Once you order this burger, you might as well go all out and add Dyer’s famous chili cheese fries and a deep fried Twinkie for desert.

An ideal destination for a Memphis timeshare vacation is just 30 minutes away in Robinsville, Mississippi. The Westgate Tunica Resort, designed to look like an anti-bellum southern mansion, is centrally located for enjoying the hot jazz and cool blues of Memphis as well as the casinos, golf, and southern charm of Mississippi.

Duchamp’s Burger in Chicago is no greasy diner, yet this restaurant proves it still knows how to cook a burger, serving an eight-ounce ground chuck special on a Czech cottage-cheese-and-dill bun.

You may decide to day trip into the city for your Duchamp’s burger while spending your timeshare vacation in Silverleaf’s Fox River Resort timeshare, located a little over an hour away in Sheridan, Illinois. There you can choose between waterskiing, boating, hiking or picnicking in the peaceful rolling hills, or grab your sightseeing gear and head for Chicago, famous for its museums, shopping, and dining.

Timeshares at Every Top Burger Destination

Here are the next seven (NYC scores two great burger destinations, turning the top ten into an actual count of eleven) destinations for world-famous burgers…and a few of the outstanding timeshare vacation destinations that will get you there:

Lüke in New Orleans, LA., where you can vacation in a Chateau Orleans timeshare resale or rental in heart of the French Quarter.

Quinn’s Pub in Seattle, WA, when you are enjoying a WorldMark Seattle timeshare resale or rental at The Camlin.

Ranch 616 in Austin, Texas, where you can stay in Austin timeshare resales and timeshare rentals in a city known for its live music and western fun.

Kua’Aina Sandwich Shop in Hale’iwa, Hawaii. You know Hawaii timeshares are outstanding, so just pick an island and pack your Hawaiian shirt and your flipflops.

Kemble Park Tavern offers you and excellent dinner spot during your Washington, DC timeshare resale or rental vacation.

Back Forty and Black Iron Burger Shop in NYC. Two great burger destinations only a few blocks apart and both worth visiting during your Big Apple New York City timeshare stay.

Murphy’s on the Green in Hanover, NH, where you can enjoy New Hampshire timeshare resales or rentals, here in our own headquarters home state for Sell My Timeshare NOW.

David Siegel, founder of Westgate timeshare, will reportedly attempt to sell some $350 million in assets. On the “for sale” list is the former Grenelefe Resort, near Haines City, Florida, which includes 432 condominium units, two golf courses, a marina, and 277 acres of undeveloped land.

Grenelefe Golf and Tennis Resort was, not so many years ago, as a popular Florida vacation destination. With a 50,000 square foot conference center, Grenelefe was a favorite site for smaller convention and meeting groups, boasted golf courses of such quality that they were frequently early stage qualifying sites for the PGA and Champions Tour events, and offered a tennis venue where Martina Navratilova and Andrea Jaeger both competed.

But time has not been kind to the resort since it was purchased by Westgate Resorts in a 2002 U.S. Bankruptcy Court proceeding from Sports Shinko, a Japanese company, for $12.75 million. During Westgate timeshare resort’ ownership there have been buyers interested in purchasing the property, but none has been able to gain sufficient backing and close the deal. As if to add insult to injury, Grenelefe Resort was hit by tornado-like winds last week, damaging 28 condo units and leaving 5 uninhabitable.

Westgate Resorts to Focus on Timeshare

Among other properties and assets scheduled to be sold by Westgate timeshares are River Ranch, which is a 1,700-acre dude ranch on the Kissimmee River (south of Orlando); real estate in Nevada, Missouri and Tennessee; a 500-room Ramada hotel in Kissimmee, FL; two private aircraft; and the rights to develop lodging on land near the entrance to Disneyland, Anaheim, California.

David Siegel was quoted by the Orlando Sentinel as saying, “We’re selling our non-time-share assets to raise cash for our time-share operations. We’re selling anything that we don’t currently need for our time-share [business].”

This is the second blog we’ve posted here on The Timeshare Authority in the past year about a timeshare resort’s renovation creating a windfall for a local charity.

With the scheduled renovations of the Wyndham Nashville timeshare resort, located near the Opry Mills in Nashville, Tennessee, the updates will result in nearly a quarter million dollars in appliances, artwork, mattresses, and furniture going to charity. The recipient will be the GEAR Foundation’s Our Thrift Store located in downtown Franklin, Tennessee. The facility provides employment for people with special needs.

GEAR founder, Dave Krikac says, “This is a template that we hope will attract other caring hotel organizations who might find this an attractive option for dealing with room furnishings that must be disposed of after a renovation.”

Wyndham Nashville resort manager Mike Sellge notes that making the donation is both helpful to the community and environmentally responsible.

More about the Wyndham Nashville Timeshare Resort

The Wyndham Nashville timeshare resort is located approximately one mile from the Grand Ole Opry and near the Opry Mills outlet mall. Formerly a Fairfield timeshare property, the Wyndham Nashville timeshare offers one-bedroom timeshare units that sleep up to four and include an efficiency kitchen; one-bedroom deluxe timeshare units that sleep up to four and include a full kitchen; and two-bedroom timeshare units that sleep up to eight people, also including a full kitchen. All deluxe timeshare units at the resort include a full-size refrigerator, dishwasher, microwave, dinnerware for eight, and even a margarita blender.

Opportunities are available now in Wyndham Nashville timeshare resales and Wyndham Nashville timeshare rentals.

Related posts on The Timeshare Authority blog:

Westgate Timeshare Developer, David Siegel, Thinks Recycle, Not Rubbish

There are some anniversaries you don’t want to see roll around. Such is the case of Jennifer Kesse, a missing person case we have followed on The Timeshare Authority blog since it first became national news in January of 2006.

Investigators believe Jennifer Kesse disappeared either while preparing to go to work or en route to her job at Orlando-based Westgate timeshares. She was 24 years old at the time. Despite a massive search effort there has been little in the way of leads. Three months into the search, David Siegel, founder of Westgate timeshare, posted a $250,000 reward to anyone who provided information that lead to the safe return of Jennifer. He reportedly said that the money could be considered a reward, or a ransom but it would only be available for one month.

Now, frustrated with the lack of progress on the case, the Kesse family is again offering a now-or never reward; this time for $1,000,000. But, the clock is ticking. This reward money is available only until February 24, 2010.

For more information on the case read The Criminal Report Daily as well as these previous posts on The Timeshare Authority:

• New Update on Missing Westgate Timeshare Employee, Jennifer Kesse
• Remembering Missing Westgate Timeshare Employee, Jennifer Kesse

To help spread the message of Jennifer Kesse, described by law enforcement as, “an endangered adult,” post information about her on your blog, your Facebook page, your Twitter account, and anywhere that helps spread the message. Jennifer’s family and many of the investigators involved with her case believe she is the victim of human trafficking. Remember that other missing persons have been found and returned to their families, long after their abduction, and someone, somewhere, DOES know what has happened to Jennifer.

Jennifer’s picture and the flyers about her disappearance are available at www.jenniferkesse.com for printing and copying. Her family asks that you visit the website, print copies of the flyers there and:

• Tape them to your car windows.
• Ask everyone you know to put one on his or her car window.
• Send copies to anyone in your family that doesn’t have a printer and lives in Central Florida.
• Ask others to put them on their cars.
• Stop by every truck stop you see and talk to some of the drivers and give them flyers. Ask them to drop them off at their next stop.
• Stop by businesses with fleet vans and ask them to put the flyers in their side windows.
• Most grocery and department stores use front windows for displays, display these flyers there.
• Phone booths are rare, but tape flyers on the ones there are.
• If you have family in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana or South Carolina, send them the links and ask them to do the same thing.
• And remember – The objective is to turn Central Florida into a moving billboard of Jennifer’s profile. The more flyers moving through the area, the more eyes we’ll have out looking for her.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if Jennifer could be found and we never again have to write this tragic story on The Timeshare Authority blog?

The long-awaited 52-story Westgate residential, vacation ownership, and timeshare resort, PH Towers at Planet Hollywood, officially opened this week. Grand opening of the 1,201-room resort began with room availability to timeshare owners and will be followed on December 28 by rooms available to the general public.

The resort’s timeshare units account for approximately 20 percent of the total number of rooms at the property and include studio timeshare units, and one and two bedroom timeshare units. Many feature dramatic city views with floor to ceiling windows, marble accented bathrooms, spa tubs, and other luxury amenities. But perhaps the real draw of Las Vegas timeshare at the PH Towers is its location at the heart of the Vegas Strip, on four acres next to the Miracle Mile Shops. At build out, you’ll find some 170 specialty stores and thirty restaurants in what Westgate timeshares describes as “retail bliss” for the “semipro shopper”.

The PH Towers at Planet Hollywood Resort and Las Vegas Timeshare is a partnership development between Planet Hollywood Resort and Westgate timeshare. In opening the PH Towers, more than 800 hospitality professionals have been hired.

It seems like everyone is trying to get into the conversation about Tiger Woods these days, including Jacqueline Siegel, wife of Westgate timeshare developer, David Siegel.

Both the Siegels and the Woods live in the gated community of Isleworth on the southwest side of Orlando, just in the edge of the otherwise quiet town of Windermere. Last week, the Orlando Sentinel quoted Mrs. Siegel as saying this of Elin Woods, wife of Tiger Woods, “I see her in the neighborhood jogging or pushing her babies in a double stroller. She’s a very healthy mother. She looks wonderful for having two babies in a row.”

According to the Sentinel, Siegel went on to say, “She seems to be a really sweet, maybe shy type of person. I’ve tried to get a few favors from her for some of our events, but didn’t have any luck. She’s more the type of mother who stays home and takes care of the children when her husband goes out. She doesn’t go out to a lot of clubs.”

While the much of the world waits, hoping to catch a glimpse of either Elin or Tiger Woods (despite the fact that security is tight in the exclusive community) boaters who frequent the Butler Chain of Lakes on which Wood’s home is located have been known to spot them (in the past) or other celebrity residents of the community. Situated just north of Arnold Palmer’s famed Bay Hill Golf Course, Isleworth is not far from the attractions area of Central Florida and many of the most popular Florida timeshare destinations including: Orlando’s Sunshine Resorts, Orlando International Resort Club, Cypress Harbour, Cypress Pointe At Lake Buena Vista Timeshare, Cypress Pointe Grand Villas Timeshare, and Westgate Lakes Resort and Spa Phase I Timeshare

No news is good news, as Director of Communications Steve Luba explains.

 

 Timeshare News, or lack thereof.... [2:23m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Since the disappearance of Jennifer Kesse three years ago, The Timeshare Authority blog has tried to keep you updated on developments in this very sad and mystifying case.

Kesse, then 24 years old, went missing on January 24, 2006, from Orlando where she lived and worked for Westgate Timeshare. All signs of Jennifer seem to vanish around 7:30 AM on a busy Tuesday morning, as she was preparing for work or perhaps had already left.

A massive local and national search campaign has been carried out by her family and friends, turning up remarkably little. The police hold her case as ACTIVE and continue to aggressively search for any information about her disappearance. At one point, David Siegel, founder and CEO of Westgate timeshare, where Jennifer was employed in accounting, even offered a quarter million dollar reward for information that led to her safe return.

Last week, approximately 70 highly trained professionals searched an area in Orlando near Kesse’s condominium, in response to possible new information from a confessed murdered, currently awaiting sentencing in an Orlando jail.

Anyone with information that might help in solving this case can call the Orlando Police Department at (407) 246-2470 or the Kesse family tip line at (407) 722-2162.

Related The Timeshare Authority Blog posts:

• Remembering Missing Westgate Timeshare Employee, Jennifer Kesse
• Video Recently Released in the Case of Missing Timeshare Company Worker, Jennifer Kesse