You paid for it !
During the original development of Shanty Creek Resorts, the Summit Village stood alone and was simply known as Shanty Creek Resort. In1965 Shanty Creek Resort opened the Lakeview Hotel, Summit Golf Course and Summit Ski park. Schuss Mountain was a separate and competing resort that was developed at the same time (Cedar River was completed in 1999). Roy Deskin, the original developer of Shanty Creek, (now known as the Summit), intended for the entire Resort ( both Hotel and Private Residences) to share certain amenities. Access to these amenities was deeded into all of the private property sales, as an incentive to purchase land/lots and add value to this land . These rights were/are tied to the land and perpetual. Thus ensuring the value of the property sold – in short, Equity ! In 1969 The Shanty Creek Lodge Association was formed and Charted to help manage the operations of the growing private community's, condos and subdivisions. Later the Shanty Creek Lodge Association would become the Summit Village Assoc. ( after Schuss Mtn and Shanty Creek merged ). The Hotel would operate separately and under separate management. All would share and maintain certain amenities and infrastructure. The residences would maintain roads and other infrastructure ad the Hotel would maintain the Golf Course, Ski hill, outdoor pool, shuffle board courts and trout pond. Memberships to the Golf Course and Ski hill would be sold to residences at 50% of the advertised price to the General Public and access to the outdoor pool, shuffle board courts and trout pond would remain free, perpetual and tied to the property... think “mineral rights”. Much like Hotel guest and staff have free access to the roads that the SVA owners association fund and maintain, The trade off was clear and beneficial to all parties. You can find all of these legal documents in the original Shanty Creek Lodge Assoc. documents ( now SVA ). Roy Deskin passed away in 1969 and the Hotel along with the remaining lands of the Deskin Estate went under management. This would become the Deskin Land Trust and would be managed by Darrell Dinwiddie. On May 19, 1972, the plaintiff Shanty Creek Lodge Association, Inc. (the Summit Village Association) became a Michigan nonprofit corporation by filing its Articles of Incorporation with the Michigan Department of Commerce. Shanty Creek created this corporation, with Dinwiddie and two others as its incorporators. The purposes of the Association as set forth in the Articles are: To promote the welfare of the Corporation's members in matters relating to common areas in the vicinity of the property owned by the members and its maintenance and use by the members, as well as services available for use in common to the members in relation to their property and to do anything necessary or convenient to the owning, operation, management, and control of the real estate and personal property for the common use and benefit of its members, for the installation of utilities [sic] facilities, roadways, and maintenance thereof, and to generally promote and advance the welfare of the membership of the Association in relation to their ownership and use of their property included within the jurisdiction of the Association. Dinwiddie also served on the Board of Directors of the Association and initially controlled its operations. As lots were sold, the lot owners gradually assumed control pursuant to the bylaws. The availability of the Beach Club was promoted in sales pitches for the lots. On at least one occasion in 1977, a buyer was told that some day the Beach Club would actually belong to the lot owners. The property owners saw the Beach Club as an integral part of a package and understood it would always be a part of the package. Nothing in the property reports, however, indicated that the Beach Club would be conveyed to the Association. The Beach Club was also used to entice customers to the Hotel. Although the ski resort was a part of the hotel business, the summer activities accounted for a greater share of the business. ( see 1988 Beach Club Lawsuit and Opinion). In February, 1978, Meeske and his partner, Gerald Auger, bought the Shanty Creek Lodge, the A-frame pro shop, four chalets (now the Windcliff Condominiums) and more than 480 acres, including the Summit Village Golf Course and the ski slopes. The title to the remaining 1300 acres was retained by the Deskin Land Trust for future development. Meeske and Auger made over $400,000.00 worth of improvements and in March 1978, an affiliation with the Hilton Hotel chain became a fait accompli, launching a new state of development. The planned residential subdivisions began to be a reality under the Deskin Land Trust. Grant Rowe, who began to work with the Deskin Land Trust as an independent developer, then established an on-site real estate operation. Also, in 1978 ( see Michigan Condominium Act of 1978), several changes occurred. Shanty Creek sold the Hotel, ski slopes, and golf courses to Meeske Enterprises ("Meeske"). On February 17,1978, an "Agreement and Declaration of Trust" was entered into by General Steel as grantor, Dinwiddie as trustee, Shanty Creek, the Estate of Deskin, and a creditor. The document created a trust known as the Deskin Land Trust, to develop and market some of the lands not sold to Meeske. According to the agreement, some 1,200 acres were to be transferred by Shanty Creek to the Defendant ( Deskin Land Trust / Meeske ). Meeske sought a way to develop condominiums without borrowing money. His method was to offer land to a local developer, John Apfel, and a local real-estate agent, Grant Rowe, each of whom had a solid reputation and an established record with local banks. Apfel and Rowe jumped at the opportunity to develop Shanty Creek property. The local bankers were more than happy to lend funds to the land developer and realtor, both because their entrepreneurial records were strong and because the loan amounts were not so staggering as when tied to the entire resort financing package. Meeske returned to the bankers with the assurance that land development would proceed without the necessity of additional lending to the resort. With this assurance, the bankers worked out an agreement for lending the resort the money necessary for upgrading, and the resort subsequently received Hilton approval. Exhibit 1 shows the resulting trend in profitability from 1975 through 1983. Since its beginning in 1978 with Apfel and Rowe, the entrepreneurial concept at Shanty Creek has been extended to other parts of the operation. A shopping area near the main lodge has been developed by one entrepreneur, and another operator has purchased the original golf course, along with the rights to develop a new course. The sale of the old golf course and the rights to the new course generated a half-million dollars in cash for construction of a 10,000-square-foot meeting-room addition to the main lodge. The concept of allowing other operators to develop separate parts of the resort proved to be the only way Shanty Creek was able to get a loan approved in 1978. In addition, the terms of that loan and subsequent loans have been better than if one massive amount had been granted to the resort. This spreading of risk has led to lower payments, a more comfortable margin, and improved cash flow for operations. The entrepreneurial arrangement of Hilton Shanty Creek has attracted talent that would not have been available through normal hiring channels. Even compensation plans that provide bonuses and stock cannot replace the commitment that actual ownership of a business brings. Before implementation of the entrepreneurial concept, the resort’s general manager spent only 10 percent of his time worrying about the golf course because it brought in only 10 percent of total revenue. Because the golf-course owner receives his entire income from the golf course, he spends all of his time managing and promoting that course. In addition to providing better management of the course, the entrepreneur has used aggressive promotion to increase volume dramatically. In turn, this has meant moreResidential development of the Resort continued. Windcliff, Trappers Lodge, Sawtooth, Timber Ridge, Ridgewalk, Westwind, Pointes West, the Legend Cottages, Legend Cottages 2, Pinebrook, Snowshoe and multiple private homes exsisted at this time in some form or another. Whether that was completed or under construction/planning. In short, if the property is physically in the Summit Village, these rights are part of the property deed, transferable and perpetual. Again, “equity”. In 1998, development of the Cedar River Lodge began and a Mortgage was taken out by the Hotel owners to finance it's Construction. The rights to these amenities were expressly exempted, along with the mineral rights, from this collateralize mortgage. Why ? Put simply, the Hotel did not own theses assets alone. They are SHARED ASSETS ( see “Schedule A Exceptions” Go forward mortgage w/ CoMerica Bank) Cedar River lodge/Hotel construction was completed in 1999. The next year, the Hotel owners default on their mortgage and are foreclosed on by the lenders at CoMerica Bank. The resort would remain in Bank ownership/foreclosure status until 2006.
2006 - Tony Novelly is getting back in the resort business. Novelly, chairman and chief executive of Apex Oil Co., is leading a group of investors buying the Shanty Creek Resort & Club, from CoMerica Bank out of receivership. Put plainly, rights that were exempted inn the mortgage and foreclosure could NOT have been bought and extinguished by the purchase of a mortgage that DID NOT Include those rights. Imagine if the Private Owners of Summit Village Associations, shut off access to their privately owned roads and then charged a Toll, to the Hotel guest and staff, These roads are maintained by the private owners of the Summit Village Association . That's what is going on here. We are being denied access to property we all own and then told for $500 annually, we can access this property, that we already all own. Maybe you don't use the pool but it's is part of the value of your property. If 5% of property value is stolen from all 500 private owners whom are effected by this, it totals in millions of dollars in property values lost and transferred to the Hotel owners. This fact will need to be included in your property deeds in the future. How can the property owners sell their investments to others without disclosing that the rights taken by the hotel, from the property owners, no longer exist ? New disclosures will need to be included , amended for “ethical sales” in the future and that means a loss of the property value today..just given away quietly.
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