- April 19, 2024
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Middleburg, Va.-based Salamander Hotels & Resorts introduced itself to invited guests at a special “under the tent” event at the Hammock Beach Resort Oct. 27, the same day the company took over operations of the Hammock Beach and Reunion resorts. Salamander joins resort owner Lubert-Adler by taking an equity position in the resorts.
Lubert-Adler and Bobby Ginn developed Hammock Beach and Reunion. Ginn-LA had several other luxury golf communities planned or under construction carrying the Ginn brand when the real estate bubble popped.
Facing several legal and financial challenges, the Lubert-Adler/Ginn team began to fade, eventually ending with Ginn’s departure and the removal of the Ginn brand from the projects. While the other projects faced severe challenges, the two amenity-rich resorts remained viable.
LA filled the void left by Ginn’s departure by bringing in outsiders to manage the various projects. Noble Investment Group and a Reynolds Plantation subsidiary took over hospitality and club operations at the resorts under management contracts. When Reynolds faced mounting financial problems of their own, key executives departed the company to form Front Door Communities. Front Door assumed Reynolds’ operational role with LA.
Salamander replaces Noble and Front Door at the two resorts, not under a management contract but as equity partners. Front Door will remain to run real estate sales and to work with LA to evaluate future development opportunities at local LA-owned properties.
The Oct. 27 event was about Salamander and the resorts. Lubert-Adler executives were present, mingling with guests, but did not make a presentation.
Salamander’s founder and CEO, Sheila Johnson, was the main event. Following her introduction by Salamander president Prem Devadas, Johnson spoke of her career path.
First she was a concert musician and instructor. Then, she moved on to the entertainment industry, where she founded the highly successful BET television network. Her third career, the hospitality industry, resulted in the founding of Salamander.
Johnson emphasized the company’s success at Innisbrook, near Tampa, which, like Hammock Beach and Reunion, is a golf-centric condo hotel. She also highlighted the quality of the other properties currently under management or development by the company.
It was an impressive event, especially when juxtaposed with the email announcing the arrival of Salamander’s predecessors. Ginn-LA was always short on communications. Salamander has ambitious plans for it is calling Grand Golf Resorts of Florida and the Legends of Golf Trail.
Salamander does not have a long track record, something pointed out to me by more than one guest. I also heard a few once-burned/twice-shy skeptics say, “I’ve heard that story before.”
But generally the guests, myself included, looked beyond Salamander’s brief history to Johnson’s long string of successes and are optimistic about the future of Hammock Beach. Hammock Beach’s future is important to more than its property owners and members. It is important to Palm Coast, too.
