ROAD HOUSES

As RVs get more luxurious, owners expect more amenities at resorts

BY AMY REININK
THE GAINESVILLE SUN

Published: Tuesday, March 11, 2008 at 6:30 a.m.

DOUG FINGER/THE GAINESVILLE SUN

Deana Stake, of Eldridge, Mo., shows off her spacious living room with its fireplace and big-screen TV in her new recreational vehicle at Grand Lake RV and Golf Resort in Ocala on Feb. 27.

SALT SPRINGS — The winding roads lined with big, moss-draped oaks and neatly landscaped lawns could snake through any upscale subdivision.

A path lined with azaleas leads to a clubhouse with pool and Ping-Pong tables, next to two lakeside swimming pools.

The entrance is gated and manned.

This is the new face of the RV park - or RV resort, as this one is called - where, according to industry statistics and reports from local parks, a new breed of RV user is pushing for fancier rigs and fancier places to park them, and is leading a major surge in RV use.

"The population is aging, and the generation retiring today isn't the same as the generation that came before it," said Roseanne Mayer, vice president of Elite Resorts Management Inc., which developed a resort at Salt Springs in northeast Marion County and plans to build another one like it in Hawthorne, which is in Alachua County.

"Baby boomers are used to having more. As they retire, they continue to expect more," Mayer said.

She said Salt Springs, which sells lots to RV owners who then may rent them to other campers, doesn't have any lots for sale. She said she expects the 599 lots planned for Little Orange Lake in Hawthorne to sell quickly.

Elite Resorts isn't the only entity seeing the effects of a growing and changing RV market.

BUSINESS BOOMING

In north Marion County, lots in Grand Lake RV and Golf Resort in Orange Lake are booked through the end of the month, according to a park manager.

Virginia and Tom Slavin, both 79, who spend their winters in Grand Lake and their summers in Connecticut, said that fact alone signals an uptick in RV use over the past several years.

"When we first started coming here, there would hardly be anyone else in the park," Virginia Slavin said. "Now, it's hard to get in. There are more and more campers every year."

A 2004 study by the University of Michigan commissioned by the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association showed that roughly 8 million U.S. households own an RV.

That represents a 15 percent increase over the past four years and a 58 percent increase since 1980, according to the study.

People aged 35 and younger represented the fastest-growing group of RV owners.

Association spokesman Kevin Broom said every year since then has seen increases in RV sales, with record sales years in 2005 and 2006.

"The baby-boomer market is definitely helping to fuel the demand, but it's not just retirees," Broom said. "There are a lot of working folks with families who are doing this on the weekends."

Mayer said the trend is definitely visible at Salt Springs and at Elite Resorts' other sites throughout Florida.

"When we first got into this business, we thought we'd get snowbirds," Mayer said. "We do, but we also get a lot of people from Orlando, Jacksonville, Miami and other places in Florida who just want a place to come relax on the weekends. On warm weekend days, the pool is just packed with kids."

LUXURY IN DEMAND

In addition to amenities such as a pool and a boat launch, Elite Resorts at Salt Springs offers lots large enough to accommodate a new kind of RV, Mayer said.

"When I was growing up, we had a tent," she said. "It seemed like all of a sudden a few years ago, these luxurious half-million-dollar rigs started pulling up."

Tom and Deana Stake, retired Angus farmers from Eldridge, Mo., bought one last week.

The Stakes, who are spending the winter in Grand Lake, have upgraded several times since starting to travel together when they got married 35 years ago.

Their newest model, a 35-foot Excel, features a large flat-screen television, a microwave convection oven, a washer and dryer, a king-size bed, a fireplace "and just about everything else you'd have in a house," said Deana Stake, 70, who said the RV cost around $100,000.

Then, there's the price of fuel.

"It's expensive, but what isn't?" Deana Stake said. "We worked hard before we retired, and we feel like we deserve it."

Janice and Normand Deveau, of Nova Scotia, who are renting a lot in Salt Springs, look at the savings from living in a small space in a warm climate.

"You don't have any bills when you're living on the road," Normand Deveau said. "Fuel is expensive, but if you lived up north, you'd spend $5,000 heating your house in the winter."

The Deveaus said amenities aren't important to them. They said they chose Salt Springs because they gravitate toward rural areas.

The Stakes, on the other hand, said the amenities are a major factor in choosing a place to park their rig.

Grand Lake features a nine-hole golf course, a swimming pool and a clubhouse where Tom and three other park residents play in a country music band every couple weeks.

"We get a calendar every month, and there are just gobs of things to do," Deana Stake said, pointing to a calendar featuring activities ranging from digital photography classes to yoga.

The Stakes said they've noticed the increase in RV use, too.

That's why they've secured their spot in Grand Lake for next winter.

"We have to come back now," Deana Stake said. "Tom's committed to the band."