Eichner talks to AREW.

Developer Ian Bruce Eichner couldn't believe the numbers when he started exploring the idea of time shares. As a $4 billion worldwide industry, with sales in 25 Orlando time shares totalling $400 million, he was astounded to learn that in New York City, the next biggest tourist market in the world, "it was nothing."

"When I first realized this 10 years ago, I thought there has to be a reason, why am I so fortunate to have this great idea?," Eichner wondered.

Today, Eichner has created a product for this market and is hoping that area brokers can take part in the sales process.

Last year, Eichner acquired the Omni Park Central Hotel in a bankruptcy sale from VMS Partners for $60.225 million. The hotel is more than 1,430 rooms and is the fifth largest in the city with more than 800,000 square feet. That translates roughly into a purchase price of $42,115 per room. Upscale hotels have transferred recently for per room prices ranging from $75,000 to $200,000 and there is still an active pool of hotel buyers.

The hotel is being completely divided into north and south sections to correspond with the elevator banks and are more than just separate tax lots.

"They will have separate lobbies, separate entrances, separate heating systems," Eichner noted.

While the southern portion continues to be rented as regular Park Central hotel rooms - at least for the time being - the north side is being turned into The Manhattan Club, a weekly timeshare resort. And if The Manhattan Club ever sells out, there is a whole other side-full of rooms to tap.

"Intervals" or weekly shares will sell for $15,000 - which can be financed at four percent to seven percent through arrangements Eichner has made - and will have annual carrying charges of $500.

That entitles the owner to set up their week in any manner. "You can either fix it or float it," Eichner quipped. A Toy Week participant, for instance, Eichner explained in one example, can request the same week each February, while more local owners might prefer taking one, two or three days at a clip.

Eichner explained the concept to a luncheon gathering of the Association of Real Estate Women at the Grand Hyatt Hotel early this month and was later approached by a line up of members eager to reap some of the dollars the project is expected to generate.

"We're doing something in which the overwhelming preponderance of the expertise in the industry is located in Bosnia - it's not here," said Eichner with some dry humor.

He is using two sets of lawyers - one from Florida - because the New York lawyers have never seen a "use plan" before. And neither has the New York State Attorney General.

He even negotiated with the hotel unions to come up with the "first and only set of job rules and qualifications for a time share project.

Eichner, his wife, Leslie, now president of the Manhattan Club; and partners, Senior Vice Presidents Stuart Eichner, Carl Berry and Charles Zanowski, who are time share experts from other parts of the country, hope to have their product ready for sale by June.

The 26-story building was purchase from the VMS bankruptcy court and the time share side is currently under renovations. Each of the rooms is being turned into a suite that will include a kitchenette.

Eichner did extensive research on what is desired by the time share market. Owners will also be able to swap their New York weeks for weeks in other parts of the world through the time share exchange organization, RCI of Indianapolis. Their two million members own weeks in nearly 3,000 resorts, "and their number one request is New York."

Eichner sees his buyers coming from many segments of the market. He is running ads already that read "New Yorkers come home," hoping to draw those who have moved or retired away to come visit.

He sees corporations that want to ensure visiting executives a hotel room as another wide open market.

There will be suburbanites who live within 90 miles of the city who want that pied-a-terre without the expense of owning or renting an unused apartment, and "want to take advantage of the 27 things they never did when then lived in New York."

The foreign tourist market of about 10 million visitors a year is another untapped time share market.

"There are potential users for which there is no experience. We defined a product that has never been offered."

Eichner's plan calls for 70 to 80 sales people involved in off-premises sales centers. The group is hoping, however, that local sales brokers can bring their customers and reduce that first number.

A sell-out of half the hotel represents $300 million. Time shares historically have a much higher sales and marketing costs than other real estate projects and are projected at 40 per cent of the gross.

As Eichner noted, "No real estate project ever exceeded 12 percent of sales, and that's a wild number."

Keeping that number down will be one of the goals of The Manhattan Club investors and another reason to ensure the city's real estate community jumps in as part of the sales force.

Meanwhile, Eichner is running ads in other parts of the country headed with the slogan, "New Yorkers Come Home."