Carl G. Berry - Accomplishments

Many of the World’s Firsts!

Over the years many of the industry’s best and brightest made their impact on the shared ownership industry. Some of the world’s first successful shared ownership real estate ventures involved Carl Berry and his team.

Timesharing: where did it come from? During early 1972 as Berry and his team made presentation after presentation to lenders, title companies, advertising firms, publications, (any one who would listen) they continued to see eyes glaze over as we tried to explain ”multiple ownership”. Reading the Wall Street Journal in a cab on the way to a meeting in LA with an ad group Carl Berry saw an article about some bank offering timesharing on their mainframe computer. Twenty minutes later he gave the name a try. Timesharing. It stuck. The California Public Report cited that name and, as they say, the rest is history.

1969
Carl Berry founded Creative Leisure International, the first company to organize off shore condos for rent through travel agents and airlines, in Hawaii [association with United Airlines], Mexico [with Braniff & Eastern Airlines], and Caribbean [with Eastern Airlines]. The enterprise was backed by Clint Murchison [Dallas Cowboys] via Centex Homes, to provide individuals with condo vacations; people paid their own way to see the company's condos which were then sold to more than one person.

1972
When Centex bought Pacific Palisades and Foster City a change of direction took place. The decision was not to build condos to “sell to more than one person”. Berry joined a subsidiary of Hyatt, Innisfree Corporation. He convinced them to see if a condo sold to more than one person could gain the approval of the California Division of Real Estate, have title insurance issued and offer financing. In November, a ground breaking event occurred. Berry’s group received a California public report for the development and sales of two-week interests at Brockway Springs, Lake Tahoe, CA. This was the first fee ownership "timeshare" in the world. It still exists and is serving owners to this day. The group was determined to ‘do it right’ which meant California public report, title insurance, financing, all accomplished for Brockway Springs. It set the standard for the future.

1974
Dick Bass began the first large-scale project at Snowbird which is still in operation today. His lawyer, used the template of Berry’s group’s “docs.”

1975
Berry’s group developed the world’s first mixed-use timeshare project: Vail Run, incorporating apartments and retail space. Still there and serving its owners

1976
Innisfree went private from Hyatt. It designed the first hotel timeshare project in the world: Holiday Clubs International, a venture of Innisfree Companies and Holiday Inns, Inc. The framework was more of what would be called an advanced reservations program: 50% of rack rate, using 32 company owned hotels from Bermuda to Hawaii. The program provided an underlying guarantee that members could use the hotels for the term of the use period. Holiday bought Innisfree’s interest in early 80s, and ran the program out of Vegas until Holiday Inns was sold to Bass LLC in the late 1980s.

1982
Jackson Court, San Francisco, first urban timeshare project in the world. The property was predecessor to San Francisco Suites on Nob Hill, this was a B & B that Berry’s group sold. It is still serving its owners.

1987
In Sunriver, OR, Berry was involved in the sale of single homes which were sold on a 1/5th share.

1996
The Manhattan Club; beginning in 1994 Carl and his partners sought the right mid-town property, which they found in 1995 and began sales in 1996. It is now sold out. The Manhattan Club is the world's largest urban timeshare.

2002
Carl Berry founded the World's Finest Resorts, an exchange company designed to serve the luxury fractional market. It became the first successful company of its type, and was sold to Cendant in 2005.

2006
Star Resort Group, headed by Carl Berry, agrees to market and sell Meriwether Ranch, the first luxury, vertical fracational project with a focus on world class fly fishing.