Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 27, 1990 TAG: 9007280385
SECTION: SMITH MOUNTAIN TIMES PAGE: SMT-1 EDITION: BEDFORD
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY and
DATELINE: HARDY LENGTH: Medium
Eight months ago, Semones thought he had found another inexpensive way for his wife and two daughters to enjoy the lake.
Real-Vest Inc. was offering 10-year memberships at the Harbor Club on the upper Roanoke River channel in Franklin County. For $3,000, members would get use of one-bedroom villas, boat docks and cut-rate rentals of houseboats from Beacon Light Marina.
"It was an inexpensive-type thing," said Semones, a salesman from Vinton. "Only 20 minutes from my house and I would be in another world."
But Semones never got his money's worth from his Harbor Club membership. "I never spent the first night there," he said.
Semones and more than 60 other members found themselves locked out of the property last week following the Bank of Floyd's foreclosure on the 30-acre site.
Harbor Club members are the latest victims in the financial troubles of Real-Vest Inc. and related Smith Mountain Lake development companies.
The list includes 134 Beacon Light Marina members who paid about $8,500 each for houseboat time shares; a dozen people who invested a total of several hundred thousand dollars in a resort hotel that was never developed; and dozens of people who bought lots in subdivisions where promised roads and amenities have not been built.
Harbor Club was launched in 1988 as a low-cost alternative for familes and sportsmen who had been priced out of the Smith Mountain Lake real estate market.
"Finally," a brochure said, "a place at Smith Mountain Lake that is designed for the fishing enthusiast."
The brochure said that "owner/members" could store their boats at one of the club's covered boat docks, stay overnight at one of the villas or relax in the clubhouse.
The original officers in the Smith Mountain Lake Fishing Village Inc. were David "Red" Dean, a lake developer who declared bankruptcy earlier this year; William T. Wilson, a former state delegate from Covington; and William H. Moody, a Covington businessman.
In August 1987, the company bought the 31-acre site located on a steeply sloping lot, built several docks and brought in modular units for a clubhouse and villas.
A display inside the clubhouse indicates that Harbor Club memberships were sold by Real-Vest Inc., a land sales company headed by Dean's nephew, Dwight, and John Meteney, a time-share specialist.
Real-Vest sold many of the memberships last fall or early this year. Prospective buyers were told that Real-Vest was one of the most successful lake developers with 15 subdivisions to its credit.
Buyers did not know, however, that Real-Vest did not develop several subdivisions for which it took credit. The company actually had bought and resold lots in subdivisions developed by others.
Buyers also were told that Real-Vest would pave the mile-long gravel road from Virginia 677. The paved road - also promised in brochures - was never built.
Nora Guilliams recalled that salesmen assured her that a membership would be a good investment because the land was paid for. "They said there was no way to lose out," she recalled.
The fact was that the Bank of Floyd held two notes totaling $650,000 that were secured in part by the Harbor Club property.
The bank foreclosed on the land earlier this month, buying the property at public auction for $455,000. The land, villas and docks are appraised at $679,000 for tax purposes, according to Franklin County tax records.
The Bank of Floyd recently wrote members telling them they would no longer be welcome on the property after July 21. The gate is now padlocked.
A month earlier, Harbor Club members met at the clubhouse with Meteney to discuss Real-Vest's financial woes.
Meteney - who blamed problems on adverse publicity and his partners - explained that whoever buys the property from the bank will have no obligation to Harbor Club members. Meteney suggested they try to recruit new members to persuade the new owner that it would be profitable to continue with Harbor Club.
Semones, who was elected to the membership's executive committee, said recruitment efforts have been slow.
"Some of the people aren't going to be real receptive to doing anything, because they feel they've been burned once and they don't want to be burned again," he said.
by CNB