Build out and amenities fee
 

I have a family member visiting me and his feelings are for what we are getting for the $149 a month is too good to be true and is being subsidized by the new home sales and once build out happens the fees are going to rise big time.
Can someone please explain the process, I feel he is wrong.

Might want to check out how much of the amenity fee goes to debt service.

You should look at the annual budget. How much is the builder putting in. Divide that by the new homes to be built. If the answer is less than you are paying now he is wrong.

Over 50% to debt service?

Build out is not going to happen in any of our lifetimes...probably much, much longer in the generally accepted meaning of the term imho. So whether your family member is right or not is a moot point.

While there have been many developments where the monthly fees have been subsidized by the Developer to make the homes look more attractive during the sales process and the subsidy goes away when the Developer pulls out, that scenario is not true for The Villages. If you want more information/clarification I suggest you contact John Rohan. Also, note that increases in your amenities fee (the name of the $149/month fee) is limited by the CPI.

You are right.

My new pace maker is keepin' up this morning but I need coffee.

You're visiting family member does not know or understand the intricacies of how The Villages amenities are owned and operated.

First and foremost the developer now has very little to do with the amenities in the established areas north of SR44, with the exception of the championship golf courses all amenities north of SR44 to CR466 are owned by the Sumter Landing CDD and from CR466 north by the Village Center CDD. Both of these CDDs have land owner elected supervisors who are responsible for their operation with resident elected representatives from either PWAC and AAC provided direction. Because of interlocal agreements the two amenity bodies effectively operate as one to prevent any preferential or differential treatment of residents from any area of The Villages with regard to amenity usage. So any impact from "buildout" would be unnoticed. "Buildout" would be tantamount to the developer saying they are giving up their multi-billion dollar business, closing the doors, and vanishing as TV is their primary business and income source, I just don't see it happening.

As has already been mentioned the budgets for the amenities are all now publicly available on the district web site. If you review them in detail, I have, you'll see no developer involvement except for the CDD12 (Fenney/VOSO) amenities operation costs, if and when they decide to sell these to the CDD this would also go away. A substantial portion of the fees do go for debt service to cover the purchase of the amenities, this will also eventually go away as the bonds are paid. There are substantial capital reserves for maintenance and replacement of the facilities and a significant amount is allocated to routine maintenance and upkeep.

With the 2016 purchase of the amenities between CR466 and SR44, the only surprise was that the developer had been contributing to cover the cost of production and distribution of the weekly recreations insert in the newspaper. While this was portrayed in certain on-line media sites as a massive cost increase and started an ongoing debate of the usefulness of the weekly distribution, the basic cost per copy has stayed relatively constant. The differences in carried costs by SLCDD and VCCCD is principally due to not having the developer contribution. When the development company owned the bulk of the amenities it was a profit (this is not a bad word!) center for them and they invested in the production and distribution to encourage utilization. Since they sold all the amenities to the CDDs now, they have only a minor interest and appear to be aggressively focusing on their primary business of developing the world's premier retirement community.

The amenities system here in TV is financially sound and will outlast most, if not all, of the current residents unless we as the residents decide to do something stupid to radically change a working system.

That is the answer.

Since the concern is based on "buildout" there is no need to be concerned.
I am compelled to make the following statement when ever there is ANY inference to residents being in control:

Beware the day of the residents running The Villages.

The amenity fee is tied to the national inflation rate. The builder has nothing to do with it.


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Billethkid your knowledge appears to be way out of date. 49 of the 50 CDD supervisors in CCDs 1-10 who are responsible for running The Villages are residents and were elected by the residents of The Villages, CDD 11's supervisors are transitioning to residents/resident elected with the first two to be elected in the upcoming November election. Also the AAC and PWAC members who are responsible for the administration of the amenities north and south of CR466 are all also full time residents of The Villages and elected by the residents. The only say the developer has is in CDD 12, the commercial districts, and the championship golf courses.

The inmates running the asylum seems to be working pretty good for the last 30 years.

Goldwingnut: Your accurate answers are always appreciated.

I agree.

Also, a bit off topic, but... we've lived in condos twice, with association fees. You can't get better amenities for your money than we have here in TV.