March 3 - Resort Adventures - Supplemental (The Last Resort)

March 3, 2019

Day 62 - 303 Days to go

Base Camp Coffee of the Day: Lost on the Trail (Guatemala)

The Last Resort Project:

This is a supplemental posting strictly related to The Last Resort Project. With a total of four resort properties (And I suppose, four different Resort Adventure experiences) we've come to the point of choosing a new and different route for one of them. If you've read many of my Resort Adventures daily postings, you probably have figured out the new direction for our second resort property. It began life as the Hospitality Hill Resort in Rockaway Beach, MO. It's had very few owners as near as I can tell, but like many of the resorts in Rockaway, it began to get a little old, small, out of the way and outdated by the time much of the tourism began to shift 10 miles to the west to Branson back in the 70's. Easily affordable but more difficult to operate as nightly vacation cabins, many of these resort properties have fallen on hard enough times to either shut down completely or turn to monthly housing. When we purchased this one in 2012, it had already been converted to monthly housing. We brought part of it back to nightly, but after the purchase of our 3rd and 4th resort property, this one started to lose it's identity as a potential nightly property. In January, 2019, we decided it needed a mission and destiny (or an "Adventure") of it's own. Nightly didn't seem to fit the location very well like it would have back in the 50's and 60's. Monthly was already loosely attempted and didn't work very well. It needed something new and different to regain an identity and vibrancy. 

Sample "Pocket Neighborhood Site Plan

I looked at the possibility of a "Pocket Neighborhood" type of master plan. That didn't seem to completely fit the bill. I considered the idea of an "Urban Homestead" type of a design, That again didn't really fit the vision I might have for the place. I really liked parts of both those concepts but each one by itself either didn't fit the property well or didn't account for adequate income to sustain the property. It dawned on me while struggling with the idea that perhaps a combination of the two ideas could work pretty well. It could give an owner both income as well as some element of sustainable and interesting lifestyle in the process. 

The Last Resort Arial Photo

I took a drone picture of the property and began looking at it from a "Pocket Neighborhood" point of view and from an "Urban Homestead" point of view. The layout of the property fits either plan pretty much exactly the way it is. I also walked and measure the property and the structures to see where the assets and liabilities were. The challenge was to begin figuring out a way that it could do many things at once: 

1. Provide private residential housing for the owner.

2. Provide adequate income to sustain the basic costs of the property. 

3. Create a sense of "Community" among residents of the cabins.

4 Allow for some income options beyond simple housing.

The property has a total of one house, seven cabins, a large pool and pool equipment structure. While the plan is still being refined, I think we have decided to convert the four cabins on the north west corner of the property into long term "Pocket Neighborhood" type housing. In fact, they even resemble a square footage model of tiny home structures (but a little bigger) The main house is currently being renovated to serve as an owners living quarters. Cabin 1 in the upper right corner of the picture is still a question. Cabin 2, directly above the pool in the picture is a question. It needs enough repair that I like the idea of replacing it with a work shop. Cabin 7 below the pool in the pic is currently gutted out and was on our list of turning into a nightly cabin with fireplace and jetted tub for two back when nightly rentals was our main plan for the property. 

There's a lot of common area plus there is plenty of private space at each cabin so I think the possibilities are good to create an interesting "community" environment for property. As we continue to rebuild and improve the place, we would be happy to share our success, failures and interesting Adventures along the way. I think I'll even begin doing regular video's of the process to post on this site. The daily stuff can be a bit monotonous and will be mixed in with our other three "Resort Adventures" (that you are welcome to follow) If you want just "The Last Resort" (I need a new name for it) you can subscribe to "The Last Resort" form to the right. (will be available by the end of the day on March 3)  If you want summaries of all of the Adventure, then also subscribe to the "Resort Adventures" form.