the manhattan club

Many owners wondered what happened to MC lawsuite. Below is the article published in Crain's. Post your comment, support disgranted MC owners community. * * * Time runs out for owners of midtown time-shares

Overbooking brings Manhattan Club stakes down as owners scramble for exits. Late last year, Jimmy Cottone took drastic action. He dumped his share in the Manhattan Club, a ritzy midtown Manhattan time-share condominium, for a mere $1. That's $16,999 less than he paid for it nearly a decade earlier, but one buck more than what he figured was its actual value.

"The time-share is completely worthless," said Mr. Cottone, a Long Islander who has not only seen his annual maintenance fee quintuple to $2,000, but found he was unable to book time to use his share no matter how far in advance he called to make reservations, owing to overbooking.

In the end, after finding no takers for his stake on eBay, Craigslist and other online sites, Mr. Cottone handed it over to the Manhattan Club's owner-operator, Ian Bruce Eichner, chairman of Continuum Co., and other firms, for a dollar.

Mr. Cottone has loads of company in a once-glistening project that has drawn a growing army of detractors over the course of nearly five years. A Yahoo online group where owners voice their complaints has drawn 493 members since it was created in 2007. Three years later, a website called the Disgruntled Manhattan Club New York Timeshare Owners, which chronicles the owners' plight, went up. More recently, a similar site appeared on Facebook, and TimeSharing Today published an article by a former owner titled "My Manhattan Club Experience: A Tale of Frustration."

It's all a far cry from the situation in 1997, when the club opened. At the time, it was billed as the first major time-share condominium in New York, where visitors could have a high time in the city at a relatively low cost. The property at 200 W. 56th St. was a bankrupt hotel that Mr. Eichner bought and converted into two properties, the 286-suite Manhattan Club and the Park Central Hotel. The cost of work on the club alone came to $141 million, according to Continuum's website. Initially, shares were marketed at prices starting at $10,000, depending on the size of the unit. Today, they start at $35,000.

Back in 1996, Mr. Eichner, who declined to be interviewed for this article, told The New York Times that if all the time-shares were sold, 18,000 customers a year would buy seven-day stays or the flex-time equivalent. As of 2010, exactly 14,872 had been sold. Since then, there has been a growing number of resales—including owners turning their shares back to Mr. Eichner, who rose to prominence as a developer 30 years ago but lost several properties in the real estate collapse of the 1990s and three years ago surrendered his $3.9 billion Las Vegas casino resort to a bank.

While time-shares are relatively rare in Manhattan, some have been quite successful. Shares in 78 units at the New York Hilton that were set aside for time-shares in 2001 sold out in about four years, according to Kim Kreiger, senior vice president of Club and Resorts at Hilton Grand Vacations. That led to the ground-up construction of Hilton's second time-share, West 57th Street by Hilton Club, with 161 units. That launched in 2009 and is 90% sold. Washing their hands

At this point, many Manhattan Club owners simply want to wash their hands of the whole experience.

"I am trying to get out of it, and it is almost impossible," said Zenon Hac, a teacher in New Jersey, who paid $20,000 for his time-share in 2002 and wants to give back his share for $1.

Other angry owners like Mr. Hac say they, too, would love giving shares back to the sponsor, but they say the developer is only compiling a waiting list and is not buying any shares back. In retaliation, Mr. Hac and others have recently stopped paying their annual maintenance fees, ranging from $1,800 to $2,500 a year, in protest of how the club is being run.

"I refuse to pay," said Tony Caliguire, a firefighter in Albany, who attempted to sell his $20,000 time-share online for $10,000 last year, but got no bidders. "My credit is at risk, but why should I pay for something I can't use?" All too widely available Others are going to court. Last year, five owners sued Mr. Eichner and related entities, accusing them of fraud and other misconduct. They accused the manager of "intentionally overselling the occupancy capacity of the 286 time-share units by renting them throughout the year to the general public through Expedia, Hotels.com and other travel websites."

"This has been going on for a long time, and people are getting ripped off," said Steven Blau of law firm Blau Brown & Leonard, which represents the plaintiffs. "I can get a room faster by using an online travel site, while owners are paying taxes and maintenance fees during the year."

Two months ago, however, a federal judge dismissed the suit. Now, with a different time-share owner as a client, Mr. Blau has filed a suit in state court alleging "deceptive business practices."

"I think we have a very good chance; otherwise, I would not be wasting my time," said Mr. Blau, who has been contacted by about 200 Manhattan Club time-share owners since filing the first lawsuit. "I think justice will be served."

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120722/REAL_ESTATE02/307229976

as manhattan club owners, we all rolled over and are playing dead. eichner and his crew has us by the balls and he knows it. we had some great, proactive ideas in the yahoo forum for owners, but it seems we let those ideas fade into the sunset. so fellow owners, if we're willing to sit there and be spit upon by mc management and not really ACT, simply putting out ideas on what to do............, then we deserve the all the crap and dung that mc management is throwing our way. unless a majority of mc owners are willing to put forth some pressure and legal tactics to halt eichner and company from treating us like scum, we deserve everything he throws our way.

fibon wrote:

Many owners wondered what happened to MC lawsuite. Below is the article published in Crain's. Post your comment, support disgranted MC owners community. * * * Time runs out for owners of midtown time-shares

Overbooking brings Manhattan Club stakes down as owners scramble for exits. Late last year, Jimmy Cottone took drastic action. He dumped his share in the Manhattan Club, a ritzy midtown Manhattan time-share condominium, for a mere $1. That's $16,999 less than he paid for it nearly a decade earlier, but one buck more than what he figured was its actual value.

"The time-share is completely worthless," said Mr. Cottone, a Long Islander who has not only seen his annual maintenance fee quintuple to $2,000, but found he was unable to book time to use his share no matter how far in advance he called to make reservations, owing to overbooking.

In the end, after finding no takers for his stake on eBay, Craigslist and other online sites, Mr. Cottone handed it over to the Manhattan Club's owner-operator, Ian Bruce Eichner, chairman of Continuum Co., and other firms, for a dollar.

Mr. Cottone has loads of company in a once-glistening project that has drawn a growing army of detractors over the course of nearly five years. A Yahoo online group where owners voice their complaints has drawn 493 members since it was created in 2007. Three years later, a website called the Disgruntled Manhattan Club New York Timeshare Owners, which chronicles the owners' plight, went up. More recently, a similar site appeared on Facebook, and TimeSharing Today published an article by a former owner titled "My Manhattan Club Experience: A Tale of Frustration."

It's all a far cry from the situation in 1997, when the club opened. At the time, it was billed as the first major time-share condominium in New York, where visitors could have a high time in the city at a relatively low cost. The property at 200 W. 56th St. was a bankrupt hotel that Mr. Eichner bought and converted into two properties, the 286-suite Manhattan Club and the Park Central Hotel. The cost of work on the club alone came to $141 million, according to Continuum's website. Initially, shares were marketed at prices starting at $10,000, depending on the size of the unit. Today, they start at $35,000.

Back in 1996, Mr. Eichner, who declined to be interviewed for this article, told The New York Times that if all the time-shares were sold, 18,000 customers a year would buy seven-day stays or the flex-time equivalent. As of 2010, exactly 14,872 had been sold. Since then, there has been a growing number of resales—including owners turning their shares back to Mr. Eichner, who rose to prominence as a developer 30 years ago but lost several properties in the real estate collapse of the 1990s and three years ago surrendered his $3.9 billion Las Vegas casino resort to a bank.

While time-shares are relatively rare in Manhattan, some have been quite successful. Shares in 78 units at the New York Hilton that were set aside for time-shares in 2001 sold out in about four years, according to Kim Kreiger, senior vice president of Club and Resorts at Hilton Grand Vacations. That led to the ground-up construction of Hilton's second time-share, West 57th Street by Hilton Club, with 161 units. That launched in 2009 and is 90% sold. Washing their hands

At this point, many Manhattan Club owners simply want to wash their hands of the whole experience.

"I am trying to get out of it, and it is almost impossible," said Zenon Hac, a teacher in New Jersey, who paid $20,000 for his time-share in 2002 and wants to give back his share for $1.

Other angry owners like Mr. Hac say they, too, would love giving shares back to the sponsor, but they say the developer is only compiling a waiting list and is not buying any shares back. In retaliation, Mr. Hac and others have recently stopped paying their annual maintenance fees, ranging from $1,800 to $2,500 a year, in protest of how the club is being run.

"I refuse to pay," said Tony Caliguire, a firefighter in Albany, who attempted to sell his $20,000 time-share online for $10,000 last year, but got no bidders. "My credit is at risk, but why should I pay for something I can't use?" All too widely available Others are going to court. Last year, five owners sued Mr. Eichner and related entities, accusing them of fraud and other misconduct. They accused the manager of "intentionally overselling the occupancy capacity of the 286 time-share units by renting them throughout the year to the general public through Expedia, Hotels.com and other travel websites."

"This has been going on for a long time, and people are getting ripped off," said Steven Blau of law firm Blau Brown & Leonard, which represents the plaintiffs. "I can get a room faster by using an online travel site, while owners are paying taxes and maintenance fees during the year."

Two months ago, however, a federal judge dismissed the suit. Now, with a different time-share owner as a client, Mr. Blau has filed a suit in state court alleging "deceptive business practices."

"I think we have a very good chance; otherwise, I would not be wasting my time," said Mr. Blau, who has been contacted by about 200 Manhattan Club time-share owners since filing the first lawsuit. "I think justice will be served."

http://www.crainsnewyork.com/article/20120722/REAL_ESTATE02/307229976

Hi all,

In case you missed it, there is an article about the status of the lawsuit here:

http://www.redweek.com/resources/ask-redweek/manhattan-club-lawsuit-info

And, we just published a brief update in this other RedWeek forum. Please stay tuned to that forum for updates. The lawsuit is still alive in New York for a small group of owners, and is moving toward class-action status. Though, ext court date won't be until early September.