Luxury condo trend plays out at Christmas Island

Nearly all of the 16 condos, built where a motel once stood on Weirs Boulevard in Laconia, and priced above $600,000, have been sold. (Courtesy photo)

By RICK GREEN, LACONIA DAILY SUN

LACONIA — There's been a trend in recent years of developers buying motels and vacation cottages with waterfront access and converting them to residential units, but heads are being turned by the way this has been accomplished on Christmas Island.

For $1.2 million, developers in 2013 bought a 1950s-era motel on 3.2 acres of land on Weirs Boulevard and demolished it. Then they built 16 duplex townhomes priced at about $600,000 each, with square footage ranging from 2,200 to 3,000.

All but three have sold.

Romeo Lacasse, 63, one of the principals in the project, said he has done a number of housing developments, but this was one of his best in terms of return on investment.

Still, he took a chance and had a few anxious moments.

“Whenever you spend that kind of money, there's a lot of risk,” he said.

The first unit went on sale on July 4, 2015, but the first purchase did not occur until eight months later.

“We were champing at the bit,” he said. “But once we had that sale, it rolled from there.”

His gut feeling that there was a lack of luxury condominiums on the lake convinced him that this project would work.

“Everything was kind of small, nice but small, maybe 1,300 square feet and the bigger ones were 1,800 square feet,” he said. “We figured there would probably be a market.”

Real estate agent Joe MacDonald of the Roche Realty Group, who has been handling the home sales, said the development went through a long planning process.

“It takes two years for a project like this to get up and running,” he said. “You have to know where the market is going to be. The market could have been terrible.”

He said Lacasse and his partners, Robert and Ralph Meisner, had a personal stake in the project's success.

“See, they put in their own money,” MacDonald said. “They take the risk. Obviously you reap the reward.”

There were naysayers.

“Everybody said we wouldn't do it,” MacDonald said. “But look at it this way, for $600,000 to $625,000, what do you get 50 feet from the water, with a dock on Lake Winnipesaukee? You get a 600-foot, tear-down shack.”

The project has 1,000 feet of shoreline including two beaches and docks. It is close to shopping, medical facilities and summer and winter resorts.

“People are always surprised about pricing,” he said. “What I see happening is you have certain times when prices hit a point and then they go to the next level, and they've gone to the next level.”

The average buyer is interested in boating and spends only part of the year in the area. The units were designed to be accommodating to an older demographic.

The condos have half staircases with landings leading to bedrooms to minimize the number of stairs that must be climbed. Elevators were an option in the two-story townhouses, but only one buyer has opted for one.

Buyers tend to be working professionals rather than retirees. Most intend to use the homes for weekends, or to spend warm-weather months here and cold-weather months elsewhere.

The property came with the advantage of having a footprint right near the water.

Laconia Planning Director Dean Trefethen said older resorts past their prime, especially those with beach access, are at a premium for possible redevelopment.

“This will continue, just as older camps are being knocked down and more elaborate structures are being built,” he said. “Bigger is better.”

The original resort was constructed by Phil Roux. It was sold for this development by the Christmas Island Motel Corporation. Its president was Thomas Roux, Phil's son.

Patrick Wood, who practices real estate and land use law in Laconia, said this project shows just how much the local economy has evolved.

“That whole end of the city and the Weirs has changed so substantially,” he said. “It's not just a summer business climate anymore.

“The total nature of the population has changed. Instead of weekly turnover and a constant flow of people, somebody owns a condo that used to be a cottage or a motel unit and they are there two or three weeks out of the summer instead of 10 or 12.”

“Some of the business owners have to hop to it now. What worked 20 or 30 years ago isn't going to work as well today.”

One goal for the Weirs area might be to make it more of a year-round community, he said.

“The possibilities are wonderful up there,” he said. “That may be the next boom area.”