by john wells | Feb 1, 2023
Billionaire Steve Case On Bringing A Waldorf Astoria Hotel To Costa Rica
Fifteen years ago, investment firm Revolution Places purchased a parcel of undeveloped land on Papagayo Bay in Costa Rica. In late 2022, it finally broke ground on what will be a 190-room Waldorf Astoria hotel with luxury branded residences, called Waldorf Astoria Guanacaste. The five star resort will open in 2025. continued…
1921 South Dixie Highway
West Palm Beach, FL 33401
VP Sales
With more than ten years of industry experience, John-Michael Collins specializes in ultra-luxury new development sales. As Director of Sales, John-Michael is exclusively representing US Construction on their portfolio of new development projects including Ocean Delray featuring 19 oceanfront residences, 1625 Ocean, a collection of 14 oceanfront residences, and The Estates at Ocean Delray, featuring five single-family homes, among others. John-Michael has closed more than $115 million in sales on behalf of US Construction since taking on this assignment.
Lake Tahoe Director of Sales and Marketing
Shayla has been serving her clients in the luxury real estate industry since 2003. Her diverse portfolio of experience encompasses a wide range of real estate products across multiple prestigious markets giving her a competitive edge that enables her to provide clients with a comprehensive and holistic approach to marketing.
From residential properties in the coveted locales of La Quinta, San Diego, and Tahoe to land transactions within the esteemed British Virgin Islands, Shayla's extensive repertoire reflects her profound understanding of various markets and product types. Her unique experiences equip her with knowledge that allows her to navigate the intricacies of the marketing process, enabling her to astutely leverage each property's potential and secure the highest and most favorable outcomes for her discerning clientele.
As an unwavering professional in fiercely competitive markets, Shayla distinguishes herself as a forthright leader, consistently delivering exceptional results that surpass expectations and set new standards of excellence. Her integrity and remarkable track record have solidified her exceptional reputation, as she consistently earns the trust and satisfaction of her clients.
She currently serves clients in the Lake Tahoe basin and surrounding areas while also proudly representing the prestigious and unparalleled community of Tahoe Beach Club.
Senior Vice President, Sales Operations
As Senior Vice President of Sales Operations, John’s leadership stretches over all the organization’s departments. He is directly involved in formulating projection models, inventory management, project management, coordinating budgets, and utilizing sales tools and strategies alongside the CEO, Mike Collins, and other senior-level executives in the operations of luxury real estate assets. Focusing on technology development and administration, John continues to keep IMI and its partners at the cutting edge of real estate sales, with new tools that aid in the growing success of the company. John works with a team of experts using information, data, metrics, and statistics to plan the company's operational future. He combines his knowledge of technology, real estate, development, membership, and project management to always help developers maximize profit and minimize risk at every step of the process. Throughout his 16 years with IMI, John has held various executive roles and is currently responsible for company-wide information technology infrastructure and data and has been involved in over $4 billion in transactions across many different states and countries.
A graduate of the University of South Carolina, John received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and is a licensed real estate executive in South Carolina. He has always continued to hone his technology and business development skills with some of the best sales strategists in the business and always continues to help developers best manage their luxury real estate assets.
Senior Vice President
Residential Brokerage Services
Bruce Fine is a sales, marketing and country club management professional with over twenty-five years’ experience on regional, national and international levels. As the Managing Director for IMI Worldwide Properties’ international brokerage division, Bruce oversees a National Sales Team of seasoned industry professionals specializing in the listing and sales of primary home, second home and investment real estate in master-planned and resort communities around the world. Bruce’s team also provides sales and marketing consulting services to developers who have a sales structure in place and are looking for a higher level of performance.
Bruce has been an integral part of the IMI team for ten years, most recently serving as the Director of Sales and Marketing for The Residences at Four Seasons Anguilla. Other highly successful IMI projects he has been associated with include The Cliffs Communities in North and South Carolina and Carlton Woods in The Woodlands, Texas, where he served in various sales, marketing and management positions. Bruce also spent eight years at Balsam Mountain Preserve, a golf and equestrian community originally developed by Chaffin-Light Associates. He served for three of those years as President and General Manager of the club and community, gaining valuable experience in club, community development, HOA and architectural review operations.
Prior to his career in luxury real estate, Bruce spent ten years as a regional and national manager for the Acura Division of American Honda Motor Company, the U.S. sales, marketing and distribution arm for Honda Motor Company.
A native of South Carolina, Bruce is a die-hard Georgia Bulldog and holds both a Bachelors Degree in Marketing and a Masters Degree in International Business from the University of Georgia. He and his wife, Nikki, reside in Asheville, North Carolina and have two children, David and Emily.
VP of Marketing
Chris Collins brings more than 20 years of senior management experience working domestically and abroad to his role as Senior Director of Marketing Operations for IMI. Leveraging significant leadership and broad industry experience, Chris leads ongoing corporate strategy development, strategic marketing, product marketing and corporate communications functions. Chris’ teams are responsible for generating programs that increase demand for all IMI real estate developments, assessing and targeting key customer segments, and building the company’s brand and customer awareness.
Chris holds a Bachelor degree from Lees McRae College. Chris currently resides in Greenville, SC, with his family.
Co-President IMI Worldwide Properties
Responsibilities focus on managing the daily operations of all IMI projects. Nick’s main responsibilities include; leading the relationships with the Developers for each project, managing each of the Sales Directors, training the Sales Executives, and executing the sales and marketing strategy for each project. Nick started with IMI as a Sales Executive in December of 2006 after spending 5 years playing professional golf on the European, PGA, and Web.com Tours.
In the past 11 years, before assuming his current role, Nick has lead numerous projects as Sales Director, across various markets from Montenegro in Europe to Anguilla in the British West Indies. Nick graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelors Degree in Economics in 2001. Nick lives in Atlanta with his beautiful wife Beth, and their dogs China and Selma. Nick's hobbies include golf, tennis, and traveling.
Co-President IMI Worldwide Properties
Dimitri’s responsibilities focus on the management of on-site daily operations for all IMI projects. This includes managing the relationship with Developers for each project, managing and training the Director of Sales and Sales Teams, as well as envisioning and executing the sales strategy and marketing plans for the individual projects. Dimitri has been with IMI for the majority of his career and has grown through the ranks of the company, spending the last 10 years in Sales Executive and Director of Sales positions. This has afforded him the field knowledge to lead his projects with years of relevant experience behind him. Dimitri holds real estate licenses in Florida, Georgia and Nevada.
Dimitri graduated from the University of Georgia with a Bachelors Degree in Sports Business, and resides in Atlanta with his beautiful wife Erica, their son Enzo, and their two dogs, Lily and Tourney. Dimitri’s hobbies include playing golf, watching Georgia Bulldogs football, and traveling with friends and family.
Executive VP of Marketing
Scott has more than 25 years of experience in creatively marketing, positioning, and leading the strategy and storytelling for some of the country’s most well-known private communities and destinations.
Scott's service to the real estate industry started with a Masters Degree in Urban Planning from Clemson University’s School of Architecture. Scott's passion for resort real estate projects ignited to a full burn following his successful master plan and site development of a large golf resort residential community which resulted in the tripling of the county’s tax base. This led Scott to focus his creative place-making energies to include a partnership in one of the country’s most sought after resort and luxury real estate marketing firms, serving 20 years as partner and building brands including Reynolds Plantation, Palmetto Bluff, Cliffs Communities and rebranding Pinehurst Resort & Country Club. Prior to joining IMI, Scott also held the position of President of Corporate Branding for The Cliffs Communities for 6 years, leading the marketing effort resulting in more than $2 billion in real estate sales and 3,000 families buying and becoming members of The Cliffs.
Scott has worked closely with IMI from a unique perspective - both working inside the company and also from the developer’s perspective, growing a profound respect for the seamless and successful integrated process IMI had created leading to consummate market price and absorption increases.
Scott is a Clemson University graduate where he was the captain of the swim team, earned a Masters of Urban Planning Degree, is a licensed real estate executive in South Carolina, and an active member in the Urban Land Institute. Scott and his wife Lynn have two children, Jarrett and Ryan.
Senior VP of Sales
Tricia has successfully managed and sold over $3+ billion dollars in resort real estate sales in North America for IMI for over 25 years.
She was awarded the prestigious Gold ARDY two years in a row by the American Resort and Development Association as a sales person with IMI. This award is presented to the top overall resort real estate salesperson in North America for outstanding sales accomplishments.
She has continued to be a leader in her field directing and managing over a dozen premier real estate developments successfully for IMI, selling out many in record time.
Notable projects have included: Shore House at the Del; Hotel Del Coronado, Ritz Carlton Residences Vail, One Ski Hill Place/Breckenridge, Summit Sky Ranch/Silverthorne, Hyatt Mountain Lodge/Beaver Creek, Main Street Station/Breckenridge, and Martis Camp/Lake Tahoe.
She continues to be a master innovator in the luxury resort real estate market by leveraging strategic initiatives to capitalize on emerging real estate trends.
EVP of Sales
Joining IMI in 1995, Ron has been IMI’s Partner in charge of operations for 25 years, providing daily oversight for IMI’s project and sales operations. One of IMI’s most distinguishing competitive advantages is its ability to facilitate seamless transactions from initial conversations to executing contracts to facilitate the close of the transaction.
Ron’s group at IMI not only accomplishes these goals, but they do so with white-glove customer service. In short, the critical component of IMI’s business that Ron manages makes the most cumbersome tasks manageable; and the success is in the numbers: more than $9 billion in closings since IMI’s inception. Ron has coordinated IMI’s project and sales operations for 95 projects located in 20 states and 12 foreign countries.
Ron is a Graduate of the E. Claiborne Robins School of Business at the University of Richmond, Ron spent 12 years at First Union National Bank (now Wells Fargo) before joining IMI. Ron is currently, a licensed real estate broker in South Carolina, a full member in the Urban Land Institute (ULI), and serves on the Recreation Development Gold Council. He was also part of the first ULI South Carolina Sustainable Leadership Group and has served on numerous ULI Technical Assistance Panels. Ron is also integrally involved in the Greenville, SC community as the board chairman of “The First Tee of The Upstate” and also serves on the American Red Cross Wine Auction Advisory Board. Greenville Magazine voted Ron among Greenville’s Best & Brightest Under The Age of 35.
Founding Partner & CEO
Mike Collins, co-founder of IMI along with his brother Dan, is the keeper of IMI’s overall vision – to design, implement and fully manage integrated marketing and sales programs that attract the most sophisticated and discriminating resort real estate prospects leading to the generation of sales.
Mike is IMI’s principal partner in charge of business development and all sales operations. He is passionately dedicated to enhancing the company’s processes at every turn, making them more seamless, more focused and ultimately more successful for each of IMI’s clients. Since 1990 his training and mentoring of talented sales executives has resulted in a world class team of IMI sales professionals that are second to none within the industry.
Possessing an uncanny ability to read the next industry trend, Mike’s guidance has been instrumental in the growth of IMI’s leadership in the sales and marketing of luxury real estate. He has helped create and foster key leaderships with some of North America’s premier real estate developers such as Intrawest, East West Partners, Hyatt Development Corporation, Highlands Management Group, Viceroy Hotel Group, Crescent Real Estate Equities and Sun International. Mike’s ability to understand the needs of the developer and develop programs to meet or exceed the requirements commonly imposed by lenders and financial partners has fueled IMI’s growth, making IMI the industry leader in the sale and marketing of luxury real estate.
A graduate of the University of South Carolina, Mike is a licensed real estate broker in South Carolina and an active member in both the American Resort Development Association (ARDA) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI).
