HOMME business plan
HOMME Group
Glenn Hanna , Owner
Created on April 27, 2016
Page NumberPage 1/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
1.1 Product
Homme Group is an affiliate group of gay upscale condo vacation residences offering international exchange and rental options. With boutique hotel private bedroom suites, communal dining and lounge facilities, this innovative partnership concept provides compelling advantages to conventional rented and owned homes.
The affiliate aspect provides that all participaing projects will meet certain standards and thus provide hotel level rental and exchange options. HOMME GROUP corporation will be in charge of branding and development of those standards with the individual residences paying fees to HOMME GROUP corporation for these services. Units in the residences will be two types of sales, sold after completion or as pre-sales. HOMME GROUP corporation will profit from the sales. All residence affiliates will pay monthly franchise fees to HOMME GROUP corporation as well.
The HOMME GROUP concept is based on the existing concept of "cohousing" which is a type of community composed of private homes supplimented by shared facilities. In this case we have a shared kitchen & dining area with meals prepared daily by an on site cook daily.
Cohousing is a familiar concept for gay people renting in Fire Island New York. It's similar to the "sharehouse"*concept, where a group of individual tenants rent a house for the season cook and eat communally similarly to the cohousing concept.. Because of this familiarity , Fire Island will be the location of our pilot project residence with those renters becoming a valuable pool of potential condo buyers.
In addition the concept operates in the following related ways.
We will offer two levels of individual membership in HOMME GROUP, one for owners and another for a group we will refer to as "pre purchasers".
Page NumberPage 2/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
1. HOMME GROUP will partner with other gay businesses to exchange perks for all members.
2. We will offer owner members exchange options in which they might trade time with other affiliate residences.
3. We will offer retreats, tours & sales trips that will be housed in participating members units that will be open to all members.
4. We will have social and promotional events open to all members.
5. We finally and most importantly allow "pre purchasers" to rent owners condos.
1.2 Customers
Our target customers are well to do retired and pre-retired * gay men over 50 that reside primarily in urban areas. The afformentioned individual membership in HOMME GROUP will be promoted as an exclusive mens club with benefits. The ideal group of the customer base will be gay men that currently or recently have owned a second home that are looking to downsize.
It's for these customers we will be developing a pilot project condo residence in
Page NumberPage 3/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
Fire Island New York. This residence will be a laboratory, aiding future expansion.
Homme group customers will also profit from renting their condo [or coop] units and exchanging their units with other customers.
Branding is important as well. HOMME Group will offer the following to recruit customers.
Events
Promotional products
Print advertising
*In describing the project only the word "retired" will be used with the word "senior" never used since the adjective has negative conotations .
1.3 What Drives Us
LGBTI individuals are less likely to have strong family support systems in place to have relatives to care for them during aging. They are twice as likely to enter old age living as a single person; and two and a half times more likely to live alone making the HOMME GROUP concept an ideal solution.
After completing a sucessful pilot project residence we will expand our goals to create an international network of affiliated gay co-owned vacation residences.
Page NumberPage 4/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
2. COMPANY DESCRIPTION
2.1 Mission Statement
Our mission statement is to "Promote & realize gay retirement housing" This will ultimately bring the concept into the mainstream of retirement options.
2.2 Principal Members
The HOMME GROUP Ceo & development / management team will provide project planning, design, supervision, review and funding for multiple projects which alternately be devoloped by HOMME group or by outside companies. Sales trips, tours and retreats* will also be managed by the team. They will also provide meal plans and recipes for the comunal kitchen/ dining area*. The residences also have a manager who will be full or part time depending on the scale of the project.
In addition, there will be both full time and part time project recruiters who will manage local sales and have project supervision duties.. Local realtors will be included in this sales force as well. Upon completion of multiple projects there will be a travel division created that will be in charge of individual rentals and subsequent sales trips & group tours
*.Initially the team will, with the help of consultants, provide these services. When the company has grown sufficiently there will be separate divisions.
2.3 Legal Structure
There will be a HOMME GROUP LLC corporation.
After acceptance of the condo plan individual residences will be governed by a condo [or coop*] board.
Page NumberPage 5/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
*because of legal and zoning restrictions regarding condo conversion alternatively coop conversion will be used in it's place.
** because the travel industry is highly specialized , we will have the option to sell this division to a larger travel group.
Page NumberPage 6/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
3. MARKET RESEARCH
3.1 Industry
Simply Google gay retirement communities and the following becomes evident. The gay retirement community industry is one riddled with mistakes & failure. Currently in Santa Rosa California, there is LGBT community on track with 70 upscale units, which is being developed with a company with a strong track record. LGBT, however, does not mean gay. In the case of the Santa Rosa project it is "predominantly gay "as are other communities plagued with problems. Factor in the lesbian community and you're seeing communities that are 33% gay.
There also several affordable urban projects under way but the the size of these developmants are insuficiant relative LGBT populations. Another motivating factor is that an estimated 60 % of gay men live alone. Thei failures of these projects, however, provide a window of opportunity for future projects.
There is also the fact that all the affomentioned projects are designed as primary residences. While straight couples more often occupy larger homes and with their children gone are more likely to have the need to downsize. Gay single men, however, who have never had children are less likley to downsize and might prefer to keep their current homes as their primary residence.
Taking the previous differences into account, gay vacation residences is a totally new concept. It's one that will provide the best of both worlds for well to do gay retired men.
3.2 Customers [Fire Island]
For our Fire Island pilot project we will be seeking well to do, sophisticated gay men* over fifty in the New York metropolitan area as customers. Through advertising & other methods of promotion we will be able to sell this concept those Fire Island residents that are considering selling their Fire Island property to downsize with the purchase of a HOMME property. By partnering with local brokers on the island, we will be able to use their data bases to find appropriate buyers among which are those that have recently sold a Fire Island vacation property as well.
Page NumberPage 7/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
The following locations are possible options in our residence customer base expansion.
Asbury Park, New Jersey with a New York / Philadelphia customer base
Fort Lauderdale, Florida with an US East Coast customer base.
San Juan, Puerto Rico with an US East Coast customer base.*
Palm Springs, California with a Los Angeles/ Bay Area customer base.
Barcelona ,Spain with Northern Europe customer base including London, Amsterdam & Berlin.*
Pattaya, Thailand with an international customer base.
*these locations have rock bottom prices, because of a local real estate crash. Pattaya Thailand, International customer base.
3.3 Competitors
As previously mentioned in dealing with competition, we being a new industry don't have a direct compeditor. The closest competition would conventional coops and condos. In terms of the Fire Island pilot project location we only have resale units available.
3.4 Competitive Advantage
Pricing:
The foremost advantage in our initial Fire Island roll out will be pricing. Prices for the units will be considerably less than other existing units on the market. With the success of our first project, which will act as a prototype, we will be able to create a second project at a much higher and profitable price level.
Page NumberPage 8/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
Exclusive Club/ Branding:
We will promote the HOMME brand as follows:
Print advertising will be employed to convey the exclusive image of the HOMME Group.
Exclusive upscale promotional products like free jewelry will emphasize the status of ownership.
There will also be social events that will be catered with things like gourmet food & champagne
Customer Community:
Both Fire Island Pines & Cherry Grove have strong and organized homeowner associations like FIPOA & CGCO [respectively] that partner with SAGE. Making presentations and staging events with these groups is a vital link to the local community.
Exclusively Male:
Contrary to popular opinion both the gay and lesbian communities are extremely segregated by choice and geography.The Cherry Grove community is mixed but the pre eminent hotel has a male only policy. Fire Island Pines is almost totally gay.
Income Producing:
The rental income for units could be substantial. We estimate the nightly rate will average around $300. per night.
3.5 Regulations
Local zoning coop or condo and local condo/ coop regulatory agencies.
Page NumberPage 9/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
4. PRODUCT/SERVICE LINE
4.1 Product or Service
For our pilot project in Fire Island we will be offering turn key furnished condo units in residences that are as follows.
Individual condo units will contain the following:
Bedrooms that are approximately 100 sq. ft. with upscale furnishings including a queen size bed, dresser & armoire. The units will be airconditioned with hard wood floors & luxury bed linens.
Private lounge areas that are approximately 125 sq. ft. with upscale furnishings including sleep sofa, lounge chair, coffee table, end tables, desk , cabinet storage, fridge and microwave and service for two tableware.
Compact bathrooms with upscale shower, toilet & vanities and stone tile on the floors and walls.
Communal condo areas will contain the following:
Communal lounge /dining areas with banquet lounge seating with occasional tables, communal dining tables with sufficient dining chairs.
Outdoor lounge chairs with occasional tables. Pool and [or] hot tub.
4.2 Pricing Structure
Page NumberPage 10/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
Our pricing structure will be developed by HOMME and local real estate brokers . The pricing will make HOMME coop units competitive and will consistantly be cheaper than conventional coops and condos.
In terms of franchise fees we will start out low and when the affiliate group matures we will re adjust the franchise fees upward.
Commision fees for rental of units will be on par with local rental commissions.
Since our travel division will be promoting our product we will keep pricing to a minimum.
4.3 Product/Service Life Cycle
We currently have found two appropriate pilot development sites in Fire Island and they are as follows,
in two different adjacent communities.
Fire Island Pines pilot project will involve the renovation of as well as adding a second story to an existing building.
Cherry Grove pilot project will involve newly constructed building on a waterfront lot.
We have also produced preliminary plans for the respective projects. We will give this information to local contractors in order to obtain preliminary pricing.
4.4 Intellectual Property Rights
"Homme Group" will become a registered trademark
Page NumberPage 11/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
4.5 Research & Development
We will be renting space in a Fire island home and will construct a model unit at this location that will act as a sales pavillion. In addition at this site we will hold promotional events for HOMME Fire Island project. With incentives we'll also create focus groups to understsnd and evaluate our concept.
Page NumberPage 12/16
HOMME Group – New York, NY
5. MARKETING & SALES
5.1 Growth Strategy
Our preliminary project in Fire Island as mentioned earlier be a labratory of sorts. We will tweek the concept and make adjustments as we move forward. We will then employ the following methods to expand our customer base.
We will be creating an international sales network comprising of accredited agents. As previously mentioned they will include, but limited to, local real estate agents that will be compensated on a commision basis. All sales people will be fully versed in the HOMME concept and it's details. In addition they will receive free training from The National Resource Center on LGBT Aging.
5.2 Communication
The methods of communication are as follows:
The HOMME group website will have a members section with news updates, profiles and contacts.
Social media like Facebook and Twitter will be employed.
We will stage events with related organizations in order to make presentations that will be a direct appeal to potential customers.
5.3 Prospects
After completing a sucessful pilot project residence we will expand our goals to create an international network of affiliated gay co-owned vacation residences. We will also explore applying the same concept to primary residence prcojects. We are attempting to bring the broader concept of gay co-ownership into the mainstream.
HOMME Group – New York, NY
6. FINANCIAL PROJECTIONS*
26
