Exclusive Resorts Launched in Denver

Brent founded Executrain, one of the first computer training services in Colorado, which he sold in June 1998. Filippini started First Tuesday in Denver, a way for high-tech individuals to informally get together a regular basis.

Now, they are in the real estate business.

They're selling one-time membership in Exclusive Resorts from $60,000 to $120,000, and yearly dues are $16,000. In the next few years, they expect the membership fee to rise to about $300,000. In return for their lucre, members can get unlimited access in vacation properties.

So far, the trio have bought a condo in the heart of the Colorado ski resort of Beaver Creek, a unit in Trump Tower, and the 3,100-sf Villas Los Conchas in Los Cabos, Mexico. It also owns a vacation home in the 3,200-acre Villages at Mauna Lani in Kona, HI.

Exclusive Resorts is negotiating to buy properties in Telluride; the West Indies; Lake Tahoe, NV; Whistler/Blackcomb in Canada; Scottsdale, AZ; San Diego; Tuscany, Italy; Naples, FL; Palm Springs, CA; Paris; and London.

The company is spending an average $150,000 to decorate and furnish each unit, about three times the national average, Brad Handler says. Members so far have included CEOs, people who cashed out of telecom and high-tech industries when they were still booming and professional athletes, Filippini says. ``They're basically people who could afford to buy a second home."

The trio's goal was to initially to raise $1 million, but they have $4.5 million in equity, Brent Handler says. "We're over-subscribed," he tells GlobeSt.com. "We have more people who want to invest."

Brad Handler says many people he knows in California are involved with start-up companies on such thing as speeding up streaming video and compressing data on the Internet.

"That's all well and good," he tells GlobeSt.com. "But after work, no one wants to talk about it. When I got to dinner parties and tell people what I do, they want to talk about it for hours."

He says people only have a limited amount of vacation time, and companies such as Exclusive Resorts can help them maximize it.

He says their concept is similar to the fractional ownership of jets, although members have no equity in the property. "Let's say you want to fly from San Jose to Denver at 3 p.m. on Tuesday," he tells GlobeSt.com. "If your jet isn't available, they have to put you on another one. That's the same concept by Exclusive Resorts. If everyone, let's say, wanted to go to Cabo on Christmas week, if your unit wasn't available, we'd have to put you into something that is equal or better."