District Property Management
 

For folks who didn't get today's paper, there was a pretty decent article about District Property Management by the guy in charge, Sam Wartinbee. Might answer some questions and will at least provide a good POC,

http://www.thevillagesdailysun.com/c...ns/recnews.pdf

It's on page 2.

Muncle - Interesting article. Thanks for posting.
Sam said in the article they have a $25.4 million budget. By quick math, if everyone in the 30,000 homes paid $100 per month (I know there are more homes and they pay more, but I like easy math), that's an income of $3,000,000 per month, or $36 million a year.
Any idea where the more than $10 million goes each year? I always figured the amenity fee would take care of all the stuff Sam mentions in the article.

Could it be the debt service costs on the bonds?

He's one department mgr - there are other departments that also have budgets.

Rounding down to $100 per unit instead of say $135/mo lowers the annual income by 12 Mil and then there is the annual special assessments which probably bring in about 15 mil or so.

Also rental income from the squares, golf fees, etc., etc..

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Like I said, I was doing "quick math" just to sanity check the overall number. Which other departmens would be covered by the amenity fees? Would the store rentals at the squares contribute to that same fund? Seems like that might be a separate venture.

He said the funding was used for just about everything in TV (he had a long list of things that included the squares) so I would imagine that the income producing entities would contribute to their upkeep. I don't think amenity fees pay for broken windows or heating/cooling stores etc. But all the monies collected go into one pocket (TV CDD's) and costs are paid out of that same pocket.


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Chuck - I saw the long list of things covered and that's exactly why I was wondering what other departments are funded from there. Seems like everything was covered in that list. And then you point out that there are also income producing features as well - greens fees, trail fees, etc. Presumably the country clubs are subsidized by the fees (since "membership" is included), but the enhancement packages are more income. I'm sure there is more.
To use somewhat more precise math: at $135 per month from 35,000 homes there is a monthly income of $4,725,000. That's $56.7 million per year. That's a heck of a lot more than the $25.4 million in the budget for this department. So where does the other $31 million go? I'm sure there is a good explanation, I just don't know what it is! :shrug:

Steve and Chuck,

His department is property management. I would guess some of the budget goes to the Community Watch/Gatehouses, other monies to the debt payments, etc. If I wasn't sick of looking at numbers all day for work, I would try to dig up a copy of the overall budget....

Thanks - That helps some! I was having a hard time thinking of anywhere else the expense were coming from.

I am participating in the Resident Academy at which we have 2-hour lectures every week for 6 weeks where each of the departments that comprise the VCDD gives a presentation. One week was spent with the budget and finance department. Here's what they said concerning the amenity fees and how they are dispersed:

We paid almost $57 million during the 12 months ending this past June. Of that about 47% went to pay the debt on the bond used to buy the amenities. About 10% went to operation/maintenance of the executive courses. Another 10% went for other maintenance services. 15% for professional services. 3% for fire services. 4% for other operating expenses. 4% for utilities. Plus other misc expenses.


As you will note, the largest chunk of the amenity fees goes toward paying off the bonds for the purchase of the amenities from the developer. Another complicating factor is that organizations like maintenance are funded by different districts. While the amenity fees are used to support the two amenity districts and their respective maintenance, there is also funding that comes from the numbered districts that gets their funding from the maintenance fees. So, its hard to look at any single department like maintenance and attribute the origin of their funds to a single source.

Other interesting tidbits that we learned include:

- most of the amenities south of 466 are still owned by the developer. He collects the amenity fees and then pays the Sumter district a fee to provide the various services (as well as a fee to collect the money from the residents).

- none of the town squares are controlled by the VCDD. They are owned and managed by the developer.

- none of the entertainment that we have in the town squares is provided out of our amenity fees - it is the developer. Same for the Savannah Center and Katie Bells.

- Contrary to popular opinion, the water for irrigation of home lawns south of 466 does NOT come from recycled wastewater from the houses. It comes from two sources: storm water runoff and deep wells in the lower aquifer. The golf courses get their irrigation from the above two sources plus the recycled wastewater from the houses.

Blue,

This is great info - thanks for taking the time to reply....

So what happens to the entertainment at build out when the developer walks away?

Everyone will be given a Kazoo!

I think your statement assumes an awful lot.

developer/entertainment/squares
 

If the developer owns the squares and leases/owns some of the businesses/stores I think it's to the developer's advantage to keep the entertainment going to attract people to the squares. Seems to me that a lot of the restaurant/store traffic is at night when people (both residents, guests, visitors and outsiders) come in for the combination of shopping/sightseeing/dancing/eating.

Sometimes there seems to be a feeling of upcoming abandonment that maybe isn"t really justified, plus it's looking like several more years of development to come anyway. Look how long and how much land there is on the southwest part and still north of 466A