‘Legends Team' asks timeshare owners to drop their lawsuit

VERNON — Owners of timeshare units at Legends say they are outraged and weary of being jerked around, ripped off, and lied to by Hillel Meyers of the Metairie Corp., the company t hat owns the deteriorating Legends Resort and Country Club on Route 517. After having spent thousands of dollars to purchase the Legends timeshare and a significant amount of money for maintenance fees, owners say conditions at the building have continued to worsen. In the most recent stanza of a saga that’s been going on for nearly two years, the owners received an unsigned, undated letter from the “Legends Team” in which they were offered a chance to trade their unit at Legends for a “trade-in purchase price of only $1,500 to $3,000” for a week in Metairie’s resort in Star Island, Fla. They also were offered “a complimentary membership in “ICE Platinum Rewards,” which promises discounts on “cruises and resort purchases,” according to its Web site. Throughout the letter, the “Legends team” refers to itself as “the Developer,” spelled with an uppercase “D.” “The ‘Legends Team’ is offering us a poor excuse for an equitable substitute,” said Robin Barron, who owns a timeshare unit at the deteriorating resort on Route 517. “This ICE program is simply a discount vacation program. We still would have to pay for these cruises, rather than be able to trade our Legends timeshare for another one. “We have never received one letter of explanation or apology from ‘the Developer’ concerning the reasons why the ‘resort’ was allowed to fall into such disrepair.” The writer of the unsigned letter also blames an unspecified lawsuit for “stymieing attempts to redevelop the resort for the past five years.” Only a few of the 1,400 members know that one of Metairie’s own past partners, Marvin Keith, had filed the lawsuit in question, Barron explained. “This is ‘the Developer’s’ excuse for why 1,400 of us have been left with nothing to show for our money. This is the excuse to the town of Vernon for why Legends has become blight on our town and a safety and health hazard for those who visit and use the facilities,” Barron continued. In 1998, Metairie purchased the resort on the condition that fire codes and other safety violations were brought up to code. Recently, township officials received a list of fire code violations some 25 pages long from state inspection officials who oversee safety at hotels. The “Legends Team” also cites the $33 million they say they have poured into the renovation of the dark hulk of a building. But Barron says she and other timeshare owners wonder where the money has gone. Most of the owners have continued to pay their maintenance fees, but have seen no improvements. “The hotel could serve as a set for ‘The Shining,’ a horror film based on the Stephen King novel,” Councilman Austin Carew said. Timeshare owners have observed filthy, unflushed toilets, ceilings spotted with green mildew, swimming pools murky enough to hide a dead body, doors sprayed with graffiti, sinks fallen off the walls, and nails protruding from walls and floorboards. The only visible improvement was the removal of a collection of derelict cars from the parking lot. After years of repeatedly being in violation of what the N.J. Department of Community Affairs deemed mandatory repairs, Metairie was requested to set aside reserve funds to fix up the resort. In a class action suit a group of timeshare owners has filed recently, they demand to know what has become of the reserve funds. In the letter, the “Legends Team” entreats the timeshare owners to abandon the lawsuit, which, they say, would prevent the desired renovations from taking place. Although timeshare owners say they had been disturbed for years to see the resort going from bad to worse, they trusted the owners to make good on their promise of repairs and renovations. But in August 2005 they found out that their timeshare exchange privileges were worthless when RCI, the company that had that had been managing the timeshare exchanges for Legends, backed out of the agreement, citing the need for multiple repairs and renovations. Now, owners have gone for help to the N.J. Real Estate Commission, which began regulating timeshares in August 2006. Commission spokesman Marshall McKnight said that the commission couldn’t comment on or confirm ongoing investigations until an administrative action has been taken. Metairie Chief Operations Officer Al Warrington didn’t return telephone calls. Last year, Vernon designated the McAfee region where Legends is as a redevelopment zone. Today, township officials are thrashing out the terms of a redevelopment proposal for the area by unnamed developers. The plan, described as “nightmarish and grandiose” by several councilmen, took township officials and residents by surprise Proposed for the 633 acres that encompass the Legends property are five 8.5-story hotels with a total of 3,000 rooms, a 125-foot waterpark tower with an accompanying indoor waterpark, and a 27-hole golf course n in addition to a hospital, game arcades, amusement park rides, shops, nightclubs and restaurants. But township officials are worried that the owners of Legends might be trying to use redevelopment as the means to get around the zoning ban imposed on the property in 2005. The board then told Legends owner Metairie to complete the hotel renovation before it would consider allowing the building of 398 to 438 condominiums near the golf course. Metairie since has filed suit against Vernon demanding that the zoning board’s decision be reversed. Legends also is embroiled in a welter of other lawsuits. “We implore you not to allow ‘The Developer’ to continue to manipulate the Town of Vernon and to look hard and fast at his track record before ever considering to allow him to develop anything other than to renovate the Legends hotel,” Barron wrote in a letter to township officials.