Aug. 3--There's nothing like it anywhere, the project's boosters say. They may be right. It's a combination resort hotel-luxury condominium-townhouse community on 27 acres where permanent residents have the same privileges enjoyed by VIP guests. And it's coming to San Antonio. 

Want room service? Call the concierge. 

Need your goldfish fed or your lawn watered while you're off to the Riviera? The help will handle it. 
 

The project is Carlson Park Hill Country. Perhaps more than any of the top-dollar ventures to grace the Westover Hills development, it defines opulence.  When the $75 million Carlson Park development begins to open in late October, it will be the Minneapolis-based Carlson Cos. Inc.'s first development to integrate a first-class hotel with a permanent community.

San Antonio, Texas, is the first Carlson  Park location, nestled on 27 acres of  rolling hills in the heart of the  Texas Hill Country

Spearheading Carlson Park is Richard Boustead, managing director of project.
 

Boustead has had a 20-year tenure with Carlson, a private company with 165,000 employees worldwide and more than $30 billion in annual revenue. 

Boustead, a Canadian, comes to San Antonio from Radisson's resort in Bali, Indonesia. Before that he managed a pioneering joint venture in the Soviet Union when he ran a Radisson hotel in Moscow. 

"I was there in the 1992 coup d'etat," Boustead recalls. "Our partners were with the Soviet government and we had to change partners. It was very complicated. The city of Moscow eventually became our new partner." The Carlson Park concept so intrigued Boustead that he agreed to leave Bali for San Antonio. 

Carlson Cos. chose to start in the Alamo City because of the area's demographics as a destination for affluent homebuyers. 

"It's the first of a lot of Carlson Parks. As we speak, we're already focusing on other sites," Boustead said. "Our research tells us baby boomers are becoming empty nesters. The children have flown the coop and those with means want to relax, lead a more carefree existence." At a minimum, the 227-room Radisson Resort Hill Country hotel is expected to win a four-star rating. 

Alongside the resort will be 108 condominiums in four high-rise buildings and 74 townhouses. The residences will be priced between $250,000 and $450,000. 

Chuck Burnight, sales manager, expects at least half of the sales to come from out of town. 

The nearest community that compares to it, Burnight noted, is The Towers high-rise near Fort Sam Houston with its 337 condominium units, "and they've got a waiting list," he said. 

"There's a need for the type of amenities and lifestyle living concept that is here," Burnight said. "We've advertised in Wall Street Journal and Texas Monthly with good results. Mexican nationals will be a big target market; our product is exactly what these folks are looking for (who are) in Monterrey." Internet inquiries have come from as far as Budapest and Barcelona, he added. 

"The neat thing about this is that through club membership a lot of synergies are created between the hotel and the property owners. They have available to them three pools, a full service spa, restaurants," he said. 

Resident amenities include jogging trails, an 18-hole putting course, free cable and high-speed Internet, weekly maid service, food service and 24-hour-a-day security. 

Public areas will feature a mini-market that Boustead boasts will feature gourmet products comparable to a scaled-down H-E-B Central Market, and Chazz, an upscale restaurant that is to open Nov. 10. 

"We're so confident of the Chazz concept, we're projecting $2.3 million in revenues in 2002," Boustead said. 

Rick Kuper of Kuper Realty helped Carlson Cos. with the pre-marketing. 

In addition to foreign nationals, Kuper notes "a lot of corporate interest. A corporation may own a home and use it to accommodate out-of-town visiting guests, primarily for companies in that area." Marty Wender, the general partner and developer of Westover Hills, described the community as a great mixed-use development and another critical component to what has become the fastest growing ZIP code area in the state. 

"When I bought this land in 1983, it was five ranches where two people lived on 3,500 acres," Wender said. "Today it has over $2 billion of investment and 14,000 jobs, and this is still the beginning." "It's the obvious place to have a Carlson Park," Boustead said. "We want to create an atmosphere that is conducive to relaxation. Our challenge now is to provide attentive service that even anticipates the needs of people living and visiting here." 

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(c) 2001, San Antonio Express-News. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.