Mammoth represented in NY Marathon

We're pretty excited here in Mammoth Lakes, CA, about tomorrow's Men's Olympic Marathon Trials in New York. We've got some pretty awesome dudes entered who trained in Mammoth all summer.

• Meb Keflezhigi (go Bruins) will be running for the chance to defend his silver medal from the Athens games in 2004.
• Ryan Hall (pictured at far left, fastest marathon debut by an American-born man at London this year and a client of mine) is looking to make his first Olympic team.
• Dan Browne (pictured below, 2004 Olympic marathoner and 10k)
• Josh Cox (pictured in above picture at right, of TV's Bachelor fame, a long lost Cox brother, and getting married in December).
• Mike McKeeman (Deena's training partner and cool-guy)
• Antonio Arce (fast dude and a client)

It was fun to have these guys in town this summer (some live here and some came to try the high altitude regimen - let's see if it works). They graced us with their presence at our local running races and were seen flying down he green church road or down in Round Valley or doing core workouts at the gym.

They are all extremely focused and motivated on their own goals and yet work together as a team as if they were competing in a true team sport like crew or soccer. They also socialize together in the evenings, like to sample Yordanos' Eritrian cooking, Doug's homemade pasta or pomegranate salads, or compete against the locals at the Paiute palace casino poker tables. They are a great group of guys and I wish they all could qualify.



Cheering them on in NY will be Ian Dobson (pictured in middle, 5k and 10k Olympic hopeful and a client of mine), Andrew 'duuude' Kastor (3-0 this year in races including the Leuven 800 and Wild Iris Half Marathon, 'go to guy' for the Mammoth Track Project), and his wife Deena Kastor (clients of mine), Sara Hall (Ryan's wife), Cristan Browne (Dan's wife), Bob Larsen (Meb's coach, go Bruins), coach Terrence Mahon and wife Jen Rhines (clients of mine), and Doug Napp (wine aficionado and party host extraordinaire).

The Women's Olympic Marathon Trials will be held at the Boston Marathon next spring. The gals who have trained in Mammoth are Deena Kastor (go AHS Chargers), Kate O'Neill, Jen Rhines.

Me? (My marathon debut was 3:48 in Chicago 2005). I'm lucky these days if I can squeeze one run in per week in between real estate and raising two young girls. But I am excited for our cozy little town with a big ski resort to become better known than just for skiing. The formula of putting high quality long distance athletes together at 8,000 feet in a supportive environment has already produced two Olympic medals in '04 - let's see if it can double the results in '08.

So be sure to watch the 2008 Olympic Men's Marathon Trials online (4:35 am PST) at http://www.nbcsports.com/ !

Mammoth Mountain Ski Area improvements

Get excited! Cloud Nine Chairlift is nearly complete. I took this picture while mountain biking on Oct. 28. The 6-pack chairs (or 'couches' like MMSA's Tom Hodges likes to call them) are just awaiting the seat cushions and a load test. The ride will now take half the time to access some great powder runs.

Opening Day of the Ski Season is 1 week away from today! Althought the skies are clear and daytime temps are in the 50's, they are dipping low enough to blow snow at night, so I suspect just the runs around Main Lodge will be open.

But the mtn biking is still great. With recent weekly snow and rain storms, the dirt is compact and the snow level is just above Paper Route. Many trees are marked for removal down on lower Juniper for the paved bike path planned along Lake Mary Road.

Other upcoming developments include the following:
- High speed quad chair at Chair 5 (summer 2008)
- Eagle Lodge (starting summer 2009 - another year delay from what was expected). The 'temporary' white tent at Little Eagle is going on its 7th year, I think.
- A gondola from Canyon Lodge to the top of Chair 15 Eagle Express (2009). Helps to spread traffic to that side of the hill and towards the new Cloud Nine chair.
- The proposed ski-back trail (along Minaret, or along the uptown/downtown mtn bike trail) is open for public comment right now, which is an important step to getting approval for the trail. The whole point is to help elleviate car traffic from Main Lodge down to town after ski lifts close on busy weekends. Instead, you can right ski down to The Village.
- Real Estate: Altis will break ground again, instead of being a fractional concept, Starwood will be releasing them for 24 whole ownership units. These are located along Bridges Run near Chair 15 and have incredible views. Also planned are 68 condo-hotel units at Eagle Lodge and 19 townhomes at Canyon Lodge (on the lot between 1849 and Snowbird). Rumors swirl about the planned "1" Hotel, but a Starwood developer assured us that they will be releasing the project for sale in Fall 2008.
- Keep an eye out for charter air service (30-seater turbo-props) from Vision Air with a route from Las Vegas to Mammoth to Carlsbad and back again possibly starting this season.

Mammoth - Come As You Are, Do What You Love

Mammoth ReBrands Itself

I participated in a branding workshop last week in which siegel + gale presented their findings from research done on Mammoth as a brand and requested our ideas on ways to improve certain touchpoints where guests experience Mammoth.


Classic MBA stuff, so I loved it. I have heard many presentations by branders in the past and have felt many of them were filled with fluff, but these guys were good. The research done was thorough and relevant. It was comissioned by the Mammoth Mountain Ski Area and by the Town of Mammoth Lakes as a combined investment in creating a future where we all try to attract visitors together and make their experience one they wish to repeat.


I won't go into all of their findings or our ideas (the main one we tackeld was how to improve aprés ski activities), but will share their idea on the re-branding of Mammoth as a city, as a ski resort, and as a mountain getaway. Why try to compete with the other great ski areas on basis of days of sunshine, number of ski runs or amount of vertical when we all can claim #1 in some area. Don't compete based on the position of superlatives (best pow, most beautiful terrain, highest peaks). Let's differentiate. Duh. We are not an Aspen/Vail.


And why try to be something we are not. We do not have the most amazing service in the world and probably never will. Let's elevate and align expectations to embrace a new brand of hospitality...California hospitality. We're casual in California and we're definitely casual in Mammoth. (Just go to a church service or a wedding and you'll see what I mean). But when is laid back too laid back? Gotta be careful there.


We can enable our guests to create their own kind of vacation on their own terms. Our guests want meaningful experiences, not just ones where they check the "been there done that" box.

We'll welcome you and help you create your own adventurous and athletic or even spa-filled vacation. Loyal Mammoth visitors love to be thought of as locals. They are always quick to tell me how many years they have been coming here or what ski runs they broke their leg on or or what peaks they've climbed or name drop what ski instructor they had. As if they yearn a local's acceptance of them and wish not to be thought of as a tourist. (I'm usually the one that makes them feel good, because I have not yet climbed every peak or even skiied every run.) I think it's great. It is what makes Mammoth more than just a po-dunk map dot. It connects us with the culture and vibrance of SoCal. And if you're a locl who's lucky enough, you have a SoCal friend who will stock you up with Trader Joe's every time they come up.

And while you Mammoth loyalists are hopefully not going to ditch Mammoth any time soon, marketers know we need to cater to you and encourage you to spend more money while you are here. And you will influence people back home. And since 'back home' is one of the most trend-setting cities in the world, many other places will notice Southern Californians going to Mammoth.


So, it's all well and good to release a new brand and tag line, but it is an entirely other thing to implement the change that is wanted. How are the ski area and the town going to motivate the 18-yr old ski rental employee to engage with visitors with California hospitality instead of hiding behind their hat to hide the hangover in their eyes?

It's hard to appeal to any competitive juices when Mammoth does not have any visible competitors within 200 miles. And it's hard to motivate them with money when most businesses are strapped anyway with the seasonality of their businesses. Altruistic approach? Nuh-uh.


It is going to take a long time and money. It is going to take the constant training of supervisors everywhere (at gas stations, retail shops, at resaurants) to instill a higher level of service. Again, not the service expected at a Four Seasons, but a new kind of service that says "Here is your key, help yourself to a drink and make yourself at home."


So, in your opinion, did siegel + gale come up with a good idea? Does this speak to you and help differentiate Mammoth from other mountain resorts?

Are we on track to have a brand like Harley Davidson or like K-Mart? Like Nike or like Enron?

Now is the hard part....delivering consistently on Mammoth's promise to customers at every customer interaction.

Labor Day review, 60 Days 'Till Ski Season

Mammoth Lakes, Labor Day-style:


Arts & Crafts festval at Sam's Woods site. Fun to walk around, run into locals, chat it up and get a Brat at Red's hot dog cart. Steven White's furniture is always amazing.


Free Mountain Biking: Took my brother (F-15 pilot) and his buddy (test pilot) mountain biking. If you don't want to pay to mountain bike on the ski area, here are two trails that are just as good, if not better than most of the trails on the mountain:



Mountain View Trail: Drive up Minaret Rd all the way past the ski area's Main Lodge and park at the Minaret Summit parking lot. Follow the signs (brown sign with yellow arrow and with little mtn bikes in all four corners of the sign) down and away from the main lodge on nice hard packed dirt. Emerges into a pumice field with criss crossing snowmobile paths. Then along hillside with brief bet great views of the Inyo craters. The trail basically parallels Minaret Rd down to the earthquake fault. 1 hour.



Lakes Basin - Panorama Dome - Mammoth Rock Trail: Fun single track / hiking trail around Horseshoe Lake, on past the west side of Maime, and then taking Lake Mary Rd down to the Panorama Dome trailhead. Talk about short but sweet. Feel like you are an Ewok on one of those antigravity speeders winding through trees, dodging branches. Packed dirt, fun banked curves. Lets you out onto Old Mammoth Rd. Cruise down a 1/4 mile to the Mammoth Rock trailhead. Great views of the Snowcreek meadow and of town. Cruise past old avalanche paths and beneath the monstrous Mammoth Rock. Lets you out on Sherwin Creek Rd. Turn left and head back to town. 1 hour.

Mammoth Rock Race: Speaking of the Mammoth Rock trail, Andrew Kastor (High Sierra Striders) and Ilana Levin (High Sierra Tri Club) put on another fantastic 10k race. Starting at Mammoth Creek Park, head out Sherwin Creek Rd, up Mammoth Rock Trail and down Old Mammoth Rd. I was 29 seconds shy of meeting my goal of breaking 50 minutes. Photos here: http://stimbo.myjalbum.net/Mammoth%20Rock%20Race/

Real Estate over Labor Day: NO condos went into escrow during this past week that included Labor Day. I'm finding it better to go out and meet people at outdoor social events and talk real estate than to sit an open house - my colleagues report dismal attendance at their open houses.

60 Days 'Till Ski Season! If you are a buyer and want to get into a rental condo before Ski Season, September 8th is 60 days (i.e. a good escrow period) away from Opening Day.

• Ten condos are reduced 15%+ from their original list price.


• I like the Bridges (ski-in/ski-out)2bd/2ba for $731,000 (which you could probably get for $715,000).


• I like the Eagle Run (ski-in/ski-out) 2bd/2ba for $799,000. Sierra Megeve 2bd/2ba for $525,900 is walking distance to Canyon Lodge and a good deal.


• The Pointe owner is desperate to sell - listed at $839,900 for 3bd/3ba/garage.


• Timberridge 2bd/2ba/garage owner is also willing to sell for a loss (he bought for $665k but will probably take under $600k). You can ski-in/ski-out from this property, too.


• Western Slopes Villas 1bd/1ba/garage for $375,000 is becoming more of a deal. Great condition, walk to Canyon Lodge.


• If you are in to Crowley Lake, for $650,000 you can get 3bd/2.5bath/2-car garage/ 2300 sqft house on 1 acre with stream and view of Crowley Lake.
  

Cool Health Website: Saw a cool website today, http://www.wellfolio.com/, where you can input key health statistics and see how you match up with celebrity athletes, like our own Deena Kastor.



Fall Colors: While anxious about summer coming to and end soon, the fall colors are always such a beautiful site. Don't worry, they are not here yet, but some of the Aspens have started fading to a yellowish-green. Great areas to visit include the June Lake Loop and Lundy Canyon. Even South Lake above Bishop is great.



See you around town!

Real Estate Price and Foreclosure update

Quick Mammoth Lakes real estate update:

Condo Sales pace down by 53%
So far this year, 114 condos have sold (annualized rate of 176) vs. 374 in 2006. For homes, the pace is better with 30 selling so far this year (annualized rate of 46) vs. 55 last year.

Prices are basically the same
CONDOS: 2006 Average price = $662,000 (median $560,000)
CONDOS: 2007 Average price = $680,000 (median $546,000)

HOMES: 2006 Average price = $1,092,000 (median $895,000)
HOMES: 2007 Average price = $1,090,000 (median $905,000)

Yesterday someone called me asking for the complete list of foreclosures here. Others have called to ask how much our prices have crashed. They are surprised when I tell them there is only 1 foreclosure and that prices have not crashed.

Mob psychology is a funny thing. Most of our visitors come from Southern California and they hear about the real estate mess in their areas and assume the same thing is going on up here.
But our product is still fundamentally sound (4.5 square miles of private land surrounded by amazing natural beauty) and so are our buyers, who come in with healthy down payments or 1031 exchange money and therefore do not have crazy sub-prime loans.

Most sellers are able and willing to hold on until they get a reasonable offer or until the market improves. There are very few fire sales right now. So if you are a buyer with good credit, use a full time real estate agent (such as myself) to determine which listings are priced reasonably, buy for the long term and don't worry about the short term market fluctuations.

Good news for high-end property owners; a house in Juniper Ridge that was listed at $4.89M just went into escrow. Only two homes over $2M have sold in the last year. And a 3-bedroom at The Village just sold for $1.36M ($933/sqft)! So, nope, our market is not crashing. I think sellers are setting the tone about where they feel their properties should be valued. Unfortunately, buyers are not agreeing with them at this time.

Corporate purchase of approx. 6.5 acres in Mammoth

We in the Mamoth real estate community learned about this about two weeks ago, but this article just showed up today on Business Wire:

"Cypress Equities Acquires Hillside Property at Mammoth Lakes

DALLAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Cypress Equities, an affiliate of The Staubach Company, announced today they have acquired the “Hillside” property at the intersection of Lake Mary Road and Canyon Boulevard in Mammoth Lakes, Calif. Cypress Equities is currently working on a management agreement with a Five-star Hotel Operator for private, ultra-luxury residences featuring the finest in hotel amenities.

Chris Maguire, CEO of Cypress Equities, said, “We know Mammoth Lakes is not a secret - the mountain and the surrounding area makes for a phenomenal year-round resort. We also know that the real estate here in Mammoth is undervalued, so we plan on making this the ultimate destination for those who are seeking a luxurious and serene lifestyle with excellent skiing, biking, fishing and hiking.”

Currently, the “Hillside” property floor plans, sizes, amenities and services are in the design and review phase and the complete project consultant team is being assembled. A marketing campaign is expected to launch later this fall.

More information regarding the new Mammoth development will be released when the Hotel agreement is completed.

About Cypress Equities
Cypress Equities was formed in 1995 as the development affiliate of The Staubach Company. With seven development offices in Dallas, Atlanta, New York, Phoenix, San Francisco, Fort Lauderdale and Nassau, Bahamas, it is an independent company with a dedicated staff that focuses on portfolio acquisitions, build-to-suits, project development, sale-leasebacks and other development services for retail, automotive, hotel and resort property. Cypress Equities is currently developing over $3 billion in projects across the country. "

We like to hear the part about Mammoth real estate being undervalued, but be wary of this as a marketing ploy to try and hype up Mammoth to justify the price they just paid for the land. Hope they researched our town's development impact fees and housing mitigation ordinance.

Here is a Google Earth image of the approx. 6.5 acre parcel that Cypress Equities has purchased for an unconfirmed $53,000,000:

The parcel is adjacent to the Westin "Monache" and across the street from the Village gondola.

And yes, Cypress Equities is an affiliate of The Staubach Company... as in Roger Staubach (http://www.staubach.com/). I'm pretty happy to own a rental condo right across the street at Hidden Valley, hoping that values can only rise with this news. And while the construction right at our condo entrance should put a damper on things for a few years, there is talk of putting in a traffic circle nearby at Lake Mary Rd and Canyon Blvd.

Early August update

Just waiting for our 2nd daughter to be born. Due date was Aug 13th, which would have been cool to have our 2 daughters exactly 18 months apart, but that came and went and we are left trying to decide to either wait and run the chance of another big baby (our first daughter was 9 lbs 9.5 oz) or induce by any of a number of methods. The one they tried last night didn't work, so we're back home and will try again tonight.

But we get to experience the brand new wing at the Mammoth Hospital. The facilities are very nice and the nurses love their new ward. But what we heard about the hospital running out of money seems true, as TVs are missing from all of the labor & delivery rooms. Regardless, the rooms are nice and big and the care given to us by our small town hospital is outstanding. It's funny when asked so often, 'so are you having the baby down in Bishop?' Many out of towners don't realize that Mammoth even has a hospital! You got to when so many snowboarders are breaking wrists in the winter (like I did back in '99 here) and when so many elderly get altitude sickness in the summer.

I overheard a Vons manager saying that last week was their best week of the summer. That confirmed our feelings what with all the 'traffic' and such. The Bluesapalooza event had cars parked on both sides of the entire length of Minaret Blvd from Meridian to Main Street. The opening night was one of those times when Mammoth gets overbooked. The local Mammoth Lakes Theatre Company was in action doing a small play and the Felici Trio also had their closing concert. I opted for the latter as I had a free ticket and joined the standing room-only crowd in applauding the musicians who again played flawlessly.

And because of my wife's pregnancy, I had to miss the entire week's worth of concerts and events surrounding the 30th Sierra Summer Festival. I felt cheated as I put in month's of work lining up housing for 70 musicians and didn't even get to hear them perform, let alone perform with them as I usually do. Next year...

In addition to the music events, high school running groups have been swarming all over town. It's so great to see them training together in groups, exploring all of our trails. I even got to compete against them in the Footloose/Charthouse 5k/10k last weekend. I ran the 5k in 20:40, just fast enough to take 1st in my age group, showing you the lack of competition in my age group! Pancakes and coffee right afterwards were the true reward.

Real estate wise, things are still very slow. Buyers and sellers are still staring each other down, waiting for one to blink. The most recent offer I wrote up ended up expiring as my buyer decided to wait a while to see if the seller becomes more motivated. Yesterday I told a condo owner who was thinking of selling to wait half a year and reassess; he didn't really need to sell. Just enjoy Mammoth right now and wait for conditions to improve.

Enjoy the last few weeks of summer!