Reasons to Consider Washington County

Winding River Realty Utah, LC

Background

Winding River Realty Utah, LC ("WRRU") was formed in the spring of 1998 by Thomas R. Zinn and Gary L. Rowe to provide financial consulting, management, development, and marketing services to Winding River Associates, LLC ("WRA"), the fee simple owner of approximately 5,000 acres of property in Washington County, Utah.  In 1999, Mr. Rowe and Mr. Zinn joined with John Reed, a successful developer of high end golf course communities in Hilton Head, South Carolina, to expand their activities to include the acquisition and completion of Belfair (www.belfairhiltonhead.com), a high quality, private golf course community development in the Hilton Head Island area; the acquisition and development of Berkeley Hall (www.berkeleyhallsc.com), another private golf course community near Hilton Head Island; and the acquisition of 3,748 acres of Buckwalter (www.buckwaltercommercial.com), a mixed use PUD development near Belfair and Berkeley Hall.  Additional major acquisitions by Messrs. Reed, Rowe and Zinn are envisioned in the Hilton Head vicinity.

In January 1996, Mr. Zinn began providing consulting services to WRA while continuing his duties as President and Chief Operating Officer of Stearns Enterprises, Inc., the general partner of The Stearns Company, Ltd. ("Stearns").  Tom helped assemble a team of real estate experts to provide land planning, economic feasibility, transportation planning, engineering, legal, water rights, and other services to WRA for its land in Utah.  WRA's requests for its property were incorporated into a land use plan adopted in December 1997 by the City of Hurricane.  This, and the acquisition and certification of certain water rights, enabled WRA to move forward with the marketing and limited development of most of its holdings in Utah.  Soon thereafter, Gary Rowe, having been involved with WRA affiliates in projects in Hilton Head in the 1990's and with Stearns in the 1980's, joined with the Stearns team to form WRRU and provide marketing and limited development services.

The WRRU (former Stearns) team was responsible for all of Stearns' real estate matters during the past seventeen years which included the management, marketing, leasing, financing, and disposition of its $200± million portfolio of industrial, commercial, office, hotel, and land properties in California, Arizona, Texas, and throughout the southeastern United States.

Specifically, in 1979, the Stearns Company, a coal and timber company since 1902, made its initial entry into the commercial real estate business by investing as the money partner in thirteen separate projects located in seven southern and western states.  By 1984, having successfully raised over $150 million of debt and equity, Stearns had development offices in Menlo Park, California and Phoenix, Arizona, in addition to its Lexington, Kentucky headquarters, and had acquired or developed almost $200 million of land, hospitality, R&D, industrial, commercial, office, mineral and other real estate assets owned and managed and/or under development in eleven states.  A WRA affiliate became a partner with Stearns in a business park in Arizona, thus starting the relationship which would ultimately lead to the formation of WRRU.

In 1986, upon realizing that continued overbuilding by most U.S. developers and the effects of the Real Estate Tax Act of 1986 would cause havoc in many real estate markets, the WRRU team began the consolidation process which included drastically reducing its $3.5 million of corporate overhead and closing the development offices in California and Arizona.  In that process the WRRU/Stearns team expeditiously leased over a million and a half square feet of office, retail, R&D and industrial space, and efficiently marketed and sold most of Stearns' substantial holdings in California, Arizona, Texas and the Southeast.  In December of 1988, the WRRU/Stearns team took advantage of a unique opportunity to substantially increase the tax basis of Stearns' assets by converting the corporation to a limited partnership (The Stearns Company, Ltd.). The conversion permitted Stearns to sell its Lexington Center complex, and the remainder of its real estate portfolio, without incurring previously seemingly insurmountable tax consequences.

With the closing of the California development office and the sale of most of the its assets, Gary Rowe moved on to other real estate challenges, first in Atlanta with Southmark, one of the largest real estate owners in the country at that time, with over $5 billion in real estate assets, and then to Hilton Head where he became involved with other entities affiliated with WRA. 

Similarly, with the winding down of the Stearns activities, the remaining core team members increasingly devoted more of their time and resources to pursue third party consulting assignments with WRA, The James A. Pindar Affordable Housing Corporation, various American and Eastern European enterprises, the acquisition of income producing properties in Paducah, Kentucky and Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and the creation of a retail enterprise.

With Mr. Rowe’s attention increasingly being directed towards the challenges of Hilton Head in 1999, the need for additional personnel became increasingly important and in January 2000, Gene Sturzenegger joined the WRRU team.  Gene was formerly employed by MK Centennial, one of whose clients was WRA.  With previous project management responsibilities with MK Centennial and as the Utah Department of Transportation Deputy Director, Gene brings a high level of engineering and other expertise to the team.

In Utah, the team has positioned virtually all of WRA land holdings with the necessary and appropriate development rights (e.g. water rights, land use designations, etc.) and has effected significant land sales during the past eight (8) years.  The team also leased, developed and sold an 86,000 square foot building which provided the equity financing necessary for the acquisition of a substantial portion of the Buckwalter Tract in Bluffton, South Carolina.  The 2,212 acre Winding River South property is currently under contract with Sun Realty.  Approximately 600 acres are to close on or before July 30, 2002 with five (5) options for the remaining 1,612 acres.

During the past twenty years, the WRRU/Stearns team has repeatedly demonstrated the creative, hands-on ability necessary to effectively and successfully acquire, finance, develop, manage, lease and sell virtually any type or size real estate project or portfolio in any location during any phase of the real estate cycle.  Our mission is to continue to participate in challenging real estate opportunities with partners, tenants, lenders and others of the highest character to accomplish mutual objectives.