Andre
Agassi turns his hand to flogging property: to watch the video clip, click
here
You wouldn’t normally get excited about meeting a property salesman: but it’s
different when Andre Agassi wants to sell you a condo. Since retiring from
tennis last year, Agassi, 37, a Wimbledon champion, has devoted his time to
the property company he and his wife, the tennis superstar Stefanie Graf,
38, set up a few years ago. She retired in 1999 after winning Wimbledon
seven times (six more than her husband).
The couple, who are estimated to have earned at least $50m in prize money, as
well as endorsement cash galore, have dabbled in the booming property scene
in Las Vegas, where they now live, briefly owning the Golden Nugget casino
and building a bank.
But today I’m in Agassi’s office in the city’s Howard Hughes Parkway because
he wants to tell me about a project far, far away. In remote western Idaho,
in fact, an area of rushing rivers, wild mountains and woodland, 850 miles
north of the neon-strafed desert gambling and entertainment megalopolis.
Agassi bounds in for our appointment in the suite of offices where a dozen or
so minions are busy organising a gala event for the Andre Agassi Charitable
Foundation, which has taken over one of the city’s sink schools with
gratifying results. No longer the professional sportsman, he’s still what
the Americans call “buff”: all-over-the-head tan on his shaved cranium,
piercing blue eyes and a well-muscled physique in white jeans and a
shimmering metallic T-shirt.
Does he miss tennis? “No!” He’s quite firm on that point, but then he relents
a bit. “But I do miss the people.” Tennis was, after all, his life from his
earliest childhood. But now he’s happy to be settled with Stefanie and their
children in his home town – her mother has moved there, too – and having a
regular family life, doing the school run and playing with his kids.
In fact, when he starts to tell me about the new Idaho development, his eyes
soften and what he talks about is an idealised family life. He seems almost
painfully aware that his own childhood – his obsessively driven father
started his tennis training before he could even walk – is not what he wants
for Jaden Gil, 5, and Jaz Elle, 4. So, he and Graf “looked for a second home
where we could enjoy memories with our children”. A strange turn of phrase,
strongly suggestive of wistful gaps in his own memory banks. “I didn’t get
to do much at all that wasn’t tennis,” he says.
Their quest took them to the shores of Lake Cascade, about two hours north of
Boise, and a mountainside that, three years ago, was empty but for a few
newly built log cabins. They spotted the potential and bought, for a sum
Agassi is not prepared to reveal, one of the largest.
So, he was in at the beginning of Tamarack resort. Since then, it has acquired
more houses, an award-winning golf course, ski lifts and a hotel. The
creation of Tamarack was not universally welcomed, however: when, in 2000,
Jean-Pierre Boespflug, a former executive with the computer giant Cisco, and
Alfredo Miguel, a Mexican investor, bought land at the foot of West
Mountain, bordering Lake Cascade, they had to mount a strenuous campaign to
persuade the authorities to let them go ahead. Eventually, they were granted
a government lease on the mountain, where they have installed ski lifts and
pistes to serve the resort that is taking shape on their 1,500 acres.
It is still in its infancy: three years ago, cows grazed on what is now the
golf course. The plan is to keep it small and exclusive, and avoid the
sprawl of other upmarket American mountain resorts such as Vail, in
Colorado.
Agassi, not content with owning the house in Idaho, is building a hotel – and
selling it room by room. In the five-star Fairmont Tamarack, all 300 fully
furnished suites and condos are for sale, with prices ranging from $700,000
(£345,000) for a 600 sq ft studio to $5m for a three-bedroom penthouse. One
analyst reckons the project could bring in $600m for Agassi Graf Development
and its partner, Bayview Financial.
The condo hotel will not be ready until 2011. Building hasn’t even started
yet, but the first release of 125 units, earlier this year, sold out within
a day. In December, more will come onto the market, to be secured with a
10%-15% deposit.
So, here comes his sales pitch: “It’s not time-share, it’s full ownership,
with all the amenities of a five-star hotel – 24-hour room service, maid
service. Vacations used to be for families to get away from each other. Our
lives are so different now. We use vacations to get reconnected with each
other and ourselves. The best way is to provide something effortless: you
don’t want to work hard to relax.” Absolutely, Andre – if you can afford it.
On top of the purchase price there’s a condo service charge of $1.85 per sq
ft per month – that’s about $14,000 a year for the smallest unit. “Fairmont
Tamarack,” Agassi says smoothly, “allows the opportunity to be away from
your second home while it’s being taken care of. And you can put it in the
hotel’s rental pool.”
Here, he stops. The US Securities and Exchange Commission, which regulates
companies listed on the stock exchange, forbids the popular European sales
flim-flamabout thriving condo occupancy rates and earnings. Instead, he will
have to sell the resort on its other features, such as the year-round
activities, from golf and water-sports to skiing and snowboarding. You may
even meet Agassi on the slopes – after years in which he wasn’t allowed near
skis, he has taken up snowboarding. But there is to be no Agassi-Graf tennis
school. “Tennis is a difficult animal at that altitude,” he says.
The couple are involved in all areas of the hotel’s design. “We’re not
engineers,” Agassi says, “but we recognise quality and we’re full on with
design and development from the ground up – that means down to the closet
dimensions. To take this beautiful land and put a building there, a lot of
decisions start to form. It’s a place you try hard not to screw up.” The
condo furniture is designed by Agassi and Graf – including a woven-leather
couch and cool retro fabrics – from the range they did for the interiors
specialist Kreiss.
The masterplan is for a “boutique” resort: Tamarack will ultimately have just
2,043 “units”. That includes the Fairmont condos, or you could buy one in
the existing Lodge hotel, where prices start at $500,000. There will be 129
flats above the shops and restaurants in the village (all sold), with
apartments and detached houses dotted discreetly among the trees. The
grandest of these go for about $4.5m, or you can buy a plot for $500,000 and
build your own. Resale prices on the first homes built at the resort start
at $700,000 for a two-bedroom chalet – a cool $200,000 up on what they cost
in 2004.
Step away from the rarefied confines of the resort, and property becomes
substantially cheaper: a few miles away, a 1,000 sq ft detached house on two
acres is valued, according to its owner, who works at Tamarack, at just
$350,000.
So, with such an apparent mark-up – and with the broader American property
market in crisis – why pay Tamarack prices? Lawrence Yun, a senior economist
with America’s National Association of Realtors, says the market for such
upmarket developments is booming.
“We saw a modest increase in vacation-home sales in 2006, a slumping year
generally,” he says. “We’re still tallying the 2007 figures, but the
demographic of baby-boomers nearing retirement and buying resort homes
indicates a strong year. Resort-community locations, facilities and security
have a big impact on prices.”
The market appears to justify Agassi’s confidence. Though he might end up
sharing his family getaway – and the half-pipe – with the oldies.
Fairmont: 00 1 208 325 1500, www.fairmonttamarack.com
Tamarack Resort Realty: 00 1 208 325 1001, www.tamarackresortrealty.com
Call of the wilds
Colorado:This five-bedroom property in Vail Village has eight
bathrooms, a guest suite, two studies and an indoor swimming pool with a hot
tub. For sale for £10.3m, through Joni White Taylor (Sonnenalp Real Estate);
00 1 970 477 5300, www.vailrealestate.com
Colorado:One of 18 new-build homes in Aspen, at the foot of Red
Mountain, this five-bedroom, 4,815 sq ft property will be ready to move into
later this month. For sale for £3.4m, through Craig Morris (Morris &
Fyrwald); 00 1 970 379 9795, foxcrossingaspen.com
Idaho:Set in 1,100 acres in Sun Valley, this lodge-style house has six
bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a large kitchen with wine cellar, an indoor
swimming pool and a barbecue area. For sale for £5.8m, through Sherry Daech;
00 1 208 726 3317, www.sherrydaech.com
Nevada:Set in landscaped grounds in Glenbrook, near Lake Tahoe, this
secluded estate consists of a 5,000 sq ft villa with a pool and a home
cinema, as well as a separate one-bedroom cottage. For sale for £3.34m,
through Dickson Realty; 00 1 800 368 7252, www.dicksonrealty.com
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