Kemmons Wilson

"Holiday Inn founder to build
timeshare condos near Disney"
Sentinel Star
Saturday, March 7, 1981
By Jack Snyder

Kemmons Wilson, the founder of the worldwide Holiday Inn® motel chain, has purchased 352 acres adjacent to Walt Disney World® for a $25 million timeshare condominium resort.

Wilson, in Orlando Friday for the closing on the property off U.S. 192 3.5 miles west of the Disney World main entrance, said he will launch the project immediately.

The property, with 2,630 feet of frontage on 192 and a half-mile of frontage on 80-acre Raccoon Lake, sold for $2.25 million.

Wilson said he will build 600 condominiums clustered in quadplexes around a 27-hole golf course. Every apartment will overlook the golf course or the lake, he said.

The golf course is being created by architect Joe Lee who designed the Magnolia, Palm and Buena Vista courses at Disney World. Also planned are 20 tennis courts and a 50,000-square-foot clubhouse with dining facilities for 600 persons.

Wilson said, "The resort will be designed for children. I found out through Holiday Inn that if you keep the children happy, you can keep momma and poppa happy," he said.

Bike paths and a beach on Raccoon Lake will be built, he said.

Wilson said he expects to build the first 100 units this year. The project is being patterned after Sunrise, a golf course/condominium development in Palm Springs, California.

Under the timeshare concept, buyers purchase the use of a particular unit for a specific time of the year. Sales are usually in increments of one week. The owner then can use the apartment each year for his vacation or he can swap his unit for time at other timeshare resorts.

Wilson said his resort will belong to Resort Condominiums International, a worldwide network for timeshare swapping.

The businessman said he is enthusiastic about the time share business. He noted timeshares can place a buyer in a luxury resort at a modest cost. Apartments in Wilson's resort will be priced around $3,500 to about $8,500 per week, depending on the time of the year.

Wilson candidly admits profits can be big for the developer. Speaking at a recent Resort Condominiums International meeting, Wilson said that when he learned a 1,000-square-foot apartment could sell for $250,000, "this got my attention."

He also told the group his research had convinced him that "Orlando is the greatest location on earth for timesharing."

Wilson was already a successful businessman - a home builder and owner of a chain of theaters - when he built the nation's first Holiday Inn in 1952 at Memphis, Tennessee.

He had gotten the idea for the venture the preceding year because he disliked the motels available to him on a family trip to Washington, D.C.

Additional motels were built in the Memphis area and Wilson later expanded the business, first throughout the nation, then worldwide, through franchising. He developed strict quality standards and included such features as no charge for children in the same room with their parents, ice making machines and free television sets. General motel practice at the time was to charge for television.

The resort property was listed by Windermere Realty and Village Realty of Winter Park. Wilson was represented by Clement J. Ford, Jr. who operates an Orlando investment real estate firm.