ILX Resorts Who?

By Staff Writer | Sedona.biz

(Sedona, Arizona) -  Sedona visitors and residents have likely heard of Los Abrigados, but may not be familiar with ILX Resorts. 

The owner of Los Abrigados is a publicly traded company called ILX Resorts, Inc. (AMEX: ILX) founded in 1986 with 840 employees.  Its headquarters are in Phoenix and Sedona resident, Joe Martori, a lawyer by background, is its Chairman & CEO.

Sedona residents will know them better by the resort properties they own in Sedona: Los Abrigados Lodge, Los Abrigados Resort & Spa, The Inn at Los Abrigados, as well as the Bell Rock Inn & Suites in the Village of Oak Creek, and Timeshare Resale Brokers, Inc. in West Sedona.  They also own other properties in Arizona, Indiana, Colorado, and Mexico, for a total of ten.  The company also sells its own line of spa products under the name "Sedona Spa."

If you hang around town long enough, you'll read articles touting them as an environmentally friendly company that's also a good town citizen.

You're probably waiting for me to tell you that it's all a lie.  Sorry, they are good citizens.  Whether it's their annual Labor Day picnic for Sedona residents, their Christmas Red Rock Fantasy light displays, or their Institute of Ecotourism, this company knows how to bring tourists and tax dollars to Sedona and they know how to partner with the City of Sedona.

ILX CEO, Joe Matori, at the ILX Community Picnic

Maybe it's because they have big hearts or maybe it's because they're business savvy; or both.  As an indication of their financial success, ILX recently announced that it increased its 2006 dividend to shareholders by 6.8% to $0.47 per share on an annual basis.

To make additional money, the company proposed a major plan amendment that was recently approved by the City of Sedona in November 2006 called the Villages at Heritage Park;  land in Sedona that the company purchased from the Forest Service through a joint venture in October 2005 for $8.4 million (ILX owns 92% of the joint venture). 

The Villages at Heritage Park will be a mix use development on 22 acres of land on both sides of Brewer Road, south and west of the Ranger Road intersection, that will include 82 timeshare units, 8 residential condominium units, 9 workforce housing units, public parking, open space, a school administrative office and approximately 2,700 square feet of retail space. 

There will also be a "science institute" that will comprise a consortium of several significant universities that will sponsor innovations in environmental sustainability.

ILX had also proposed a 12 unit hotel and a parking structure but eliminated it from its plan to address City staff concerns.

For the nine months ended September 2006, ILX generated revenue of more than $40 million, largely from the sale of vacation ownership interests and earned almost $2 million in net income.  The company's average sales price of a vacation unit in 2006 was $16,500 (excluding upgrades).

As of 10/06, Joe Martori owned approximately 100,000 shares of ILX stock directly and 917,000 shares indirectly, as trustee, through Martori Enterprises, Inc.   As of year end 2006, ILX shares closed at $9.42.  The company's current market value is approximately $32 million as of year end 2006.

This article is neither a solicitation or recommendation to buy ILX and, at the time of this writing, the author of this article did not own any ILX stock.