NEWPORT, Ore. – Back when they owned a basic camper, Mike and Marina Wolfgram parked it on riverbanks, in rustic campgrounds and on the sides of highways.
That all changed when they bought their first luxury motor home – a 45-foot coach the size of a yacht and at $1 million just as expensive.
But driving in luxury created an unexpected problem for the couple – parking. So, after buying their coach and outfitting it with a state-of-the-art navigation system, a queen-sized bed, two phone lines and three TVs, the couple went on to invest in three lots at three different luxury RV resorts.
“If you own a Porsche, you don’t want to park it in a dump,” said independent equity analyst Ruthanne Williams.
At the resort here, the Wolfgrams paid $150,000 for a lot ringed with flowering shrubs, facing Oregon’s crashing coast. In Surprise, Ariz., their lot backs up to an 18-hole championship golf course, while their third property in Indio, Calif., has a private waterfall.
“You get to this age in life and you want a certain level of comfort,” said Mike Wolfgram, 62, who sold his house in Yuba City, Calif., to finance the new life he shares with his wife.
For the last five years, the fastest-growing segment of the RV industry has been the sale of luxury-end rigs – a market that has grown 120-fold since 1991. That year, only 100 RVs costing $200,000 or more were sold. Last year, the number soared past 12,000.
The demand for luxury rigs like the Wolfgrams’ has given birth to a secondary industry – posh RV parks, outfitted with swimming pools, clubhouses, golf courses and private lagoons.
“It’s the Ritz Carlton of RV accommodations,” said Ron Petty, president of Outdoor Resorts of America in Bermuda Dunes, Calif., which operates 12 luxury motorcoach resorts in the United States, including the Pacific Shores Motorcoach Resort in Newport.
The modern motorcoach resort is the brainchild of the founding fathers of today’s luxury rig, who realized their customers needed a destination for their mansions-on-wheels.
“We needed a place to park our toys,” said Bob Lee, founder of Country Coach in Junction City, Ore., and developer of the Desert Shores Motorcoach Resort in Indio, Calif.
Bob Schoellhorn, chairman and CEO of Marathon Coach in Coburg, Ore., is now majority owner of Outdoor Resorts of America Inc., which plans to add eight more resorts to its existing 12 within the next five years. Monaco Coach Corp., the second-largest maker of motor homes in the United States, and also based in Coburg, is building two resorts, including one in Las Vegas.
Of the 8,500 privately owned RV parks in the United States, Profaizer estimates that as many as 150 are now offering a resort-like experience. The most luxurious among them have amenities that rival those of the best hotels and admission rules that are stricter than those of many country clubs.
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