Desert Oasis

 Quorum Article - December 2002

Lawrence Welk’s Desert Oasis is an 8,000 plus member timeshare resort located on Cathedral Canyon Drive in Cathedral City. The members share time in 162 villas and associated amenities, which lie on approximately 5 acres of long-term lease land surrounded by Cathedral Canyon Country Club. Desert Oasis is centrally located and close to the attractions of Palm Springs, Palm Desert, and Rancho Mirage.

The development started life as a hotel complex completed by Falcon Lake Properties in 1984. During 1990 and 1991 Welk Park North converted the hotel into a timeshare resort. The timeshares were marketed primarily to Southern California residents looking for a permanent Palm Springs area vacation facility and, when originally purchased, cost from $7,000 to $12,000 each, dependent on the time of year.

The 162 villas are each approximately 800 square feet and are all identical. They are contained in five 2 storey buildings. Each one-bedroom villa has a full kitchen, living room, dining area, along with a furnished patio or balcony. Amenities include a spa and two swimming pools, one of which is for all ages and the other reserved exclusively for adults. A separate building houses the offices and reception desk. There is also a weight/work out room and an activities room with table tennis and a video arcade. A full time activities staff oversees the use of these facilities.

A timeshare resort is operated by a Vacation Owners Association (VOA). It has many similarities with a typical homeowners association. However, there are some unique differences. While Desert Oasis has only 162 units, it has 8,262 owners, since each unit is sold 51 times. Thus every unit has 51 owners, each of whom owns one week of timeshare. The 52^nd week is retained by the VOA for maintenance purposes.

The VOA, in addition to being responsible for the common areas is also responsible for the maintenance and cleaning of the interiors of all the units. This includes maintaining all the furnishings and appliances, linens, towels, dish and cookware – basically everything. So not only does the VOA discharge the traditional duty of an HOA in preserving, maintaining and enhancing its property values, it also is responsible for ensuring that the vacationing residents have a good time!

A 5-member Board of Directors operates the Desert Oasis VOA. Since no one lives on the property, there are no committees. By contrast with a condo or PUD, the owners have zero maintenance responsibilities. This is a strictly resort ownership, which means that the burden on Management is heavier than usual in your typical homeowners association.

Desert Oasis Association dues run $420 to $470 per year and are billed annually to the unit owners. The dues include operating costs and reserve funding. The budget is designed to keep the resort in top-notch condition and maintain a healthy reserve fund to handle common area and unit interior replacement items.

While not skimping on maintenance, Management is constantly looking for ways to save. For example, energy issues are an ongoing challenge and the VOA has converted to fluorescent lighting throughout. Solar panels have been installed to help with heating for the pools.

Desert Oasis is in the planning stages for a comprehensive interior redecoration project scheduled to begin in the summer of 2003 and to be completed by 2005. This is designed to keep the resort fresh in a competitive market.

The Welk Resort Group provides management services. On-site General Manager is Bill Palmer. Bill relishes the unique management challenges presented by this marriage of the Common Interest Development with the Hospitality Industry. Says Bill, "This is a great place to come to work. The staff and I look forward to making our owners’ vacation dreams come true." Bill also points out that that this is truly a team effort and the Resort could not achieve its rating as one of the area’s premier vacation ownerships without the strong support of his dedicated employees and management staff, along with the ongoing efforts of the Board of Directors.