To the members of Massanutten Property Owner’s Association:
Picking up on my conversation from yesterday, I thought I would start with a summary of the specific issues we are discussing. There are two main areas in which Massanutten Resort and affiliated entities have an established and documented business relationship with MPOA.
The first is between our developer and MPOA regarding roads and security. This relationship is outlined in contracts dating from 1982, 1989, 1994, and 2013 that say MPOA maintains and the developer pays a “fair share” for roads and security services and how that is calculated. Their purpose was to ensure that Massanutten’s developer pays for its active use of MPOA’s roads and security services.
Our share of road costs in this area is not a focus for us; we actually expect (and are willing) to pay more than our “fair share” for the roads we use. Say, for example, it’s deemed that Resort guests, employees, contractors, and vendors are responsible for 60% of traffic on MPOA’s main roads. We’ve long ago offered to pay that much – and more. A similar approach was taken for security costs in the contracts, but the agreements allow more flexibility and for many reasons I’ll explain later, we don’t want to use MPOA-provided security.
The second area where we have a business relationship is the cost for expenses other than the developer’s use of roads and security—namely the use by members of timeshare owners’ associations. In the past, the associations have taken the approach, largely for simplicity’s sake, to voluntarily pay an assessment for each unit or building equivalent. It seemed to be the most efficient way to acknowledge the share of costs not directly accounted for in the roads agreement.
This second relationship has also been in place for many years, with the mutual understanding that the Resort’s presence means carrying costs that should be supported.
We continue to hold that belief, but the recent issues exposed by a reserve study commissioned by MPOA’s Board and unclear accounting have caused us, as a business, to hold on payment until we have a clear understanding of where the money is going. This second area of relationship clearly has many points to elaborate on; I’ll try to go over those in the next week or so.
Among the items I expect to address in coming weeks:
* Massanutten Resort – the roles of developer (Great Eastern Resort Corp.) the “Manager” (Great Eastern Resort Management), and the Timeshare OA’s
* History of the deeding, covenants, agreements & Bylaw updates
* Calculating costs- accounting and record-keeping
* Joint oversight & accountability
* Policing vs Security – as outlined in prior agreements
* The role of the County
As MPOA’s “Developer’s Representative,” I’ll attempt to outline these topics – and more, going forward. Sometimes, supporting documents will be linked for help with background. Certain information will likely be redundant for some of you, and some of it is rather dense. But we have nothing to hide here, and my hope is that the additional information will be helpful as we pave a new path forward.
More information to come in the following days. Meanwhile, feel free to pose your questions at community@massresort.com.
Cordially,
Matthias Smith, VP/General Manager, Massanutten Resort
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