Report: Sunriver shows age, needs upgrades

Published 4:00 am Friday, January 27, 2006

When President George W. Bush stopped in Central Oregon stumping for his Healthy Forests Initiative in summer 2003, he toured the Sisters area and spoke to an invitation-only crowd in Redmond.

But he slept in Sunriver, where he stayed in a private condominium and snuck in a round of golf at the exclusive Crosswater course.

Sunriver is no stranger to dignitaries. The community has long enjoyed stature as the preeminent resort in Central Oregon. But more than 30 years after the first homes were built in Sunriver, the community located about 20 minutes south of Bend is beginning to show its age.

A recent report commissioned by a consortium of Sunriver property rental agencies and the Sunriver Owners Association found that the resort lacks some of the essential ingredients, such as a covered swimming pool and community gathering center, that will attract future homeowners and guests.

Other aspects of the resort community need more than just a fresh coat of paint. The resort’s retail shops, for example, need to be expanded, according to the report. Additionally, the resort’s 1970s-esque ”welcome” sign is ”outmoded,” the report found.

While nothing new, the issues have gained a greater importance in recent years as Sunriver faces increasing competition from other destination resorts that have sprung up around Central Oregon.

Since Sunriver was built, developers have created similar resort communities at Black Butte Ranch outside Sisters, at Eagle Crest near Redmond, and at Pronghorn in eastern Deschutes County. All told, there are seven resorts in Deschutes and Crook counties. Two more, Cascade Highlands in Bend and Caldera Springs in Sunriver, have been approved and are developing. Another, Thornburgh Ranch, is pending before Deschutes County commissioners and several more are said to be in the preliminary planning stages.

While most of the new resorts are geared toward the second-home market, they are also competing for a slice of the $470 million annual tourism business in Central Oregon. The changing landscape, in part, has prompted Sunriver to rethink its long-term strategy.

”Sunriver has a lot of unique attributes that the new resorts can’t offer,” said Bill Chapman, Sunriver Owners Association general manager. ”Part of that is our size and location. But we didn’t want to rest on our laurels. Because they have some amenities we don’t have. We want to make sure that we don’t become a dated facility.”

The owners association, which controls the community’s common areas including tennis courts, roads and paths and pools, is separate from Sunriver Resort.

The resort owns the main lodge and conference facilities, golf courses and more than 400 rental homes and condominiums.

But the two entities have a shared interest in maintaining the overall vitality of the roughly 3,400-acre resort.

Sunriver isn’t the only resort looking to modernize. Black Butte Ranch, the other granddaddy of Central Oregon resorts, is pushing an aggressive plan to update many of its facilities.

Homeowners there approved a $12-million plan in September that includes the construction of a new indoor pool and fitness facility, as well as a welcome center. The ranch recently completed the construction of a new clubhouse and restaurant and is in the middle of a multiyear plan to renovate both of its 18-hole golf courses.

To finance the project, Black Butte homeowners agreed to a $7,800 assessment payable in a lump sum, annual payments or 60 monthly payments of $145.

In Sunriver, homeowners and property management companies looked around and saw more competition for visitors and second homes as resorts have sprouted out of the High Desert in recent years with an ever-quickening pace. At the same time, the population that has driven the resort-tourism business, mostly young families, is declining relative to the rest of the population, the report found.

The gradual shift has already had an impact on the resort’s property rental market. According to the study, which was discussed at a community meeting that drew more than 150 people on Jan. 14 in Sunriver, property rental rates have been stagnant in Sunriver over the past five years. By contrast, the rest of the regional tourism economy has rebounded from the decline in travel following the 9/11 terrorism attacks.

The report suggests that Sunriver should boost its advertising in several key West Coast markets outside of the Pacific Northwest, including Los Angeles and San Francisco.

The report, also suggests that Sunriver should capitalize on the demand for vacation and retirement homes by increasing the number of permanent residents. Such a move also would reduce the local supply of rental units, possibly allowing remaining homeowners to boost rates.

At Black Butte Ranch, the resort is responding to different forces – namely the march of time, said General Manager Loy Helmly.

The resort, which was built in the 1970s on former range and timber lands outside Sisters, has about 1,250 homes – less than one third of the number in Sunriver.

Unlike Sunriver, Black Butte Ranch does not have a hotel. While some homeowners at Black Butte rent their property, the overall rental business is a fraction of what it is in Sunriver, Helmly said.

Helmly estimates that roughly 400 homes and condominiums might be available for rental at any given time of the year at Black Butte Ranch. By contrast, the Sunriver Resort alone has more than 430 homes and condominiums plus another 33 rooms at the lodge available for rent. That total doesn’t include the hundreds of private homes in Sunriver available to visitors.

”We work to attract that type of business, but not as much as the more commercial resorts do,” Helmly said. ”It’s an element, an added element to the way Black Butte Ranch runs, but it’s not the ultimate element.”

As a result, he said homeowners, who passed the $12 million funding measure by a 60-to-40 majority, looked at how they would personally benefit from the planned modernization projects.

”They don’t see that they’re doing this to compete with Brasada or Sunriver,” Helmly said. ”They see doing this as a way to maintain their homes on (Black Butte) Ranch.”

Sunriver homeowner Frank Brocker said there are people in the Sunriver community who are concerned primarily about property values and the rental market. But many others, like himself, are concerned about maintaining and enhancing the Sunriver area for their own enjoyment, he said.

It’s not yet clear what it will cost Sunriver homeowners to make some of the desired upgrades in the community. Brocker, who is the current president of the Sunriver Owners Association, said the organization will foot the bill for improvements with its existing revenues, which are collected in part from a $37 monthly homeowner due. But any major capital project would have to be approved by the property owners, similar to what happened at Black Butte Ranch.

Brocker said the initial feedback from residents who attended the recent meeting was positive for the owners association’s efforts.

”I think the overall spirit was excellent that this was moving in the right direction,” he said.

Brocker said an ongoing effort to incorporate the results of the recent study into a long-term strategic plan for Sunriver – which includes 3,900 homes, dozens of businesses and the Sunriver Resort – should seek to balance Sunriver’s commercial interests with the needs of its residents.

”Sunriver is a destination resort and a very good one,” Brocker said. ”But it’s also a residential community. One of the concerns we have is that we not just focus on just better marketing of Sunriver and keeping up property values, but also to make the wonderful community of Sunriver more livable.”