Legends timeshares OK to trade again,resort manager says

VERNON-Legends timeshare exchange privileges have been restored, according to Al Warrington, chief operations officer for Metairie, Inc., the owner of the Vernon resort. At press time, Legends still did not appear in the inventory of New Jersey resorts offered through Resorts Condominiums International (RCI), the timeshare brokerage through which timeshare owners trade their time at one resort for the same span of time at another. Owners of time-shares at the resort wanting to trade their units should call Legends for assistance and placement, Warrington said. Late last month, timeshare owners at Legends received a letter from RCI in which they were told their exchange privileges had been suspended. The letter cited "ongoing concerns reported by members" as the reason. Warrington told The Advertiser-News that one cause of the suspended privileges was that new computer software was being installed on his computers and was not yet operational. He invited a reporter to view the database on the new program to verify that it was working. After RCI suspended timeshare privileges, some owners reported that they couldn't reach the resort by telephone, instead getting a message that the number was no longer in service. Warrington said that a worker inadvertently cut a telephone wire when doing electrical work, and that caused the disruption in phone service. He said the wire has been repaired and phone service restored. In recent years, Legends has had other difficulties with utilities, including having its electrical power turned off for failure to pay its bills. Timeshare owner Howard Weiss of Bergen County said he had tried repeatedly to call Legends in late August, and reached only an out-of-service message. Weiss was calling to find out if he could exchange his time at Legends for equal time at a Florida resort, as he usually does. "I think I'm an intelligent person, but think I may have made a big mistake by spending $10,000 on this timeshare," Weiss said. The timeshare purchase should entitle Weiss to a week every other year at another resort of his choice. "All I wanted was to exchange my week for a week in Florida," Weiss said. Warrington told The Advertiser-News that the owners are committed to renovating the 1971 building, which has gone through a series of owners and bankruptcies since Hugh Hefner of the Playboy Foundation built it. "Hefner never made penny one from this place," said Warrington, and he showed a Playboy Foundation report to prove the truth of his words. Although the current owners still are contending with a tangled web of lawsuits, they now are seeking to consolidate the lawsuits into a single suit, Warrington said, showing court papers in which the company is making its plea for consolidation. As evidence of Metairie's commitment to renovate the building, Warrington gave The Advertiser-News a tour of the hotel's infrastructure, including a new laundry, a new water purification and filtration system, a new 14,000-head sprinkler system, and a renovated sewage treatment plant. During late spring through late fall, purified water from the plant is used to irrigate the 27-hole Great Gorge golf course owned by Shinnihon and managed by Crystal Springs. "We've poured over $20 million dollars into the infrastructure. Before we begin the second phase of the renovation, we also must replace the obsolete wiring," Warrington said. Phase 2 of the renovation is projected to cost an additional $29 million, Warrington said. He showed the 28 timeshared suites on the 6th floor of the building, and said that guests come from all over the world to stay there. At any given time, he said, on average, four to six suites are occupied. Gene Mulvihill also owns condominiums on the 5th floor, which he rents. The indoor swimming pool was darkened and there was no lifeguard, but it was open for use. The restaurant requires new wiring before it can be reopened, Warrington explained, and there is insufficient business to warrant reopening the shops. The old Hugh Hefner suite has been partially gutted and is on the list for a complete renovation. Of its former décor, only multiple mirrors, a double-headed shower, and an immense Jacuzzi remain. "Much of what we removed from this room is not fit for a lady's ears to hear about," Warrington said. Vernon Police Athletic League (PAL) director, Sergeant Randy Mills was unstinting in his praise of Warrington's generosity to the approximately 1,000 children who use the indoor basketball courts at Legends. Children in the program also use the cavernous indoor gymnasium for baseball and football practice during the winter months. Warrington says he pays around $18,000 for the electricity to light and heat the gym. "I have two children," said Warrington, "and I do this because the children of Vernon otherwise would have nowhere else to go." In addition, Vernon High School varsity hockey team coach Tony Selimo and Sussex County businessmen Ray Zimmerman and Tony Catalano have been talking with Warrington about creating a local ice rink by flooding the unused outdoor tennis courts at Legends and capping them with a plastic bubble top. "The project is still alive, but for the moment is it on hold," Selimo said earlier this year. Warrington said he was bitterly disappointed when the Vernon zoning board denied Spring Creek Holding Company's petition to construct several hundred condominiums on the 600-acre property. Spring Creek is owned by Metairie, Inc. The board unanimously agreed that the owners had to promise to renovate the hotel and provide a timetable for the task before they could build a single condominium. The applicants did not meet that condition. "Vernon isn't business-friendly," said Warrington. "There's no sense of rapprochement, no sense that you're arriving anywhere."