Crony capitalism, no finer example exists.
Where are the three richest zip codes in the United States? California? New York? Maybe Connecticut?
It might surprise you to learn the two richest zip codes are in Florida (Jupiter is #1) but the third one down on the list is a tiny slip of land off the Georgia coast named Sea Island located just outside of Brunswick, Georgia.
If you want to stay in the finest motel in all of the United States where would that be you figure? New York? San Francisco? Los Angeles?
It might surprise you the best Motel in the United States is, according to Forbes (formerly Mobil),
The Cloister located in the tiny town of Sea Island, Georgia.
Sea Island
is the most beautiful place I have ever set foot in. Very few of us have and if you think you are just going to show up to have a look around you're sadly mistaken.
If you have to ask the price of anything you can not afford it.
To give an idea the motel with wings totals 170 rooms and cost $150 million to build and furnish. That comes to
$882,000 per room and contrast that with a Hampton Inn that costs $35,000 to $45,000 to build and furnish. Obviously, at $882,000 per room, the rates are a little higher than your standard Hampton Inn we see along the highway.
To give an idea of the unsurpassed quality how much would you figure the
sink fixture set in this photo would cost at discounted contractor pricing with quantity (over 300 purchased) discount? Not the sink mind you, just the fixture with the two handles and water spigot.
Betcha you missed it.
Over $6,000.00.
Each room has two full bathrooms and the average cost for all the fixtures in each unit was right at
$30,000.00. We had a lot of Mexicans on the site and I remember security going nuts with visions of a couple faucets ending up as replacements in some rented mobile home parked in a south Georgia trailer park.
To say it is breathtakingly gorgeous place to stay is an understatement.
Want to see an amazing transformation? Here is
the front of the motel during construction taken August 19, 2005.
Here is the front of the motel again taken March 7, 2006 from very near the same location looking in the same direction less than seven months later. Yeah, all the trees were transplanted... the worlds largest tree spade is owned by Sea Island and moving a 400 year old coastal oak 600 yards up the road wasn't considered all that special.
You like wood paneling for that old time rustic look? If you do
you will really like this. It's recovered cypress and depending on the quality runs between $100 and $150 per square foot. You could panel an average family room for $70,000.00.
Turns out it was all borrowed money and now Bill Jones is facing bankruptcy.
Sea Island Drowning in Debt (Jacksonville Times March 8, 2010)
Continuation Page 2
How Sea Island Became a Paradise Lost (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/How-Sea-Island-Became-a-bizwk-3623158781.html?x=0&.v=1 - broken link)
Quote:
How Sea Island Became a Paradise Lost
businessweek
Peter Waldman, On Friday January 1, 2010, 8:08 am EST
A.W. "Bill" Jones III had an eye for the finer things. After taking over his family's sprawling golf resort on Sea Island, Ga., in 1992, he toured
America's top clubs for a sense of what the competition had to offer. Soon Sea Island Co.'s clubhouse locker rooms boasted antique wood beams, overstuffed couches, fireplaces, libraries, and mounted game from Jones' hunting trips to Africa.
snip
|
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
