Apr. 1--Russ and Susan Ahrens have about $60 million worth of vacation homes they bought for $85,000. 

Back in 1998, when the Morrison couple invested in a new fractional ownership vacation club called Private Retreats, they were determined to milk the club for every penny they invested. Since then, they have traveled with their son at least five days a month, staying in high-end homes with their own butler in Telluride, Jackson Hole, Wyo., Steamboat Springs, Vail, Mexico and Hawaii, on a 50-foot yacht in the Caribbean and at a private island resort in the Bahamas. 

"I didn't have to go out and sign up for separate time shares, and I didn't have to go out and buy a $500,000 home I'll only use three times a year," said Russ Ahrens, a retired advertising executive, who was a founding member of the club in 1998. "This just makes perfect sense. I go anywhere I want and I always get to stay at a place that feels like home." 

It's a new twist on fractional ownership, and Rob McGrath, the creator of Private Retreats, said he thinks it will be the last for the multi-ownership concept that has found respectability in the past five years. 

McGrath, a Connecticut developer, created his Private Retreats vacation club after interviewing 2,500 potential buyers of a time share project he built in the mid-1990s in Telluride, Colorado's ground zero for the increasingly popular fractional ownership movement. 

What he heard was that owners did not want to marry a single resort. He heard of a desire to have a second home but without the hassles of home ownership. 

Thus was born Private Retreats. In 1998, with $6 million, McGrath took 10 homes to a small pool of buyers and sold each one a slice of the luxury homes. But he took the fractional ownership model a step further by guaranteeing each member unlimited use of any of the homes. 

Today, McGrath has sold 128 members a piece of the equity in two yachts in the British Virgin Islands and a network of 26 homes in 22 locations. The cost to join the club is now $175,000, which McGrath guarantees will be returned when, or if, members leave the club. 

Eventually, McGrath said, he envisions 400 members using 70 homes in those 22 locations. 

McGrath has enlisted about 13 members in Colorado. Calls to members this week revealed more than half away on vacation. 

Jerry and Deborah Maglio of Greenwood Village joined Private Retreats in 2001 after selling their second home in Vail. 

"I was anxious to rid myself of the responsibility and cost of maintenance, and found myself wanting more variety in destinations," said Jerry Maglio, who has traveled to all of the club's Colorado locations. "What I value is the effortless way I can plan a vacation, with the full assurance that anywhere we travel via Private Retreats, we're assured of a quality experience, especially given the personal concierge service that helps you plan before you ever arrive. The locations themselves are great. The value is in the total experience." 

A former ski racer with a penchant for number crunching, McGrath's business model is based on probability, he said. By spreading out 12 to 15 members in 35 geographic pockets of the country and spreading out the club's homes across several countries, McGrath said, he can guarantee each member unlimited use of any of the homes at any time other than New Year's week. 

"Now, people can own 26 homes in 22 resorts," said the 41-year-old, whose network of homes maintains an annual occupancy rate of 38 percent. "That's the magical number. That means the chance that we overbook is virtually nil." 

Private Retreats offers ski resort homes in Beaver Creek; Telluride; Steamboat; Jackson Hole; Deer Valley, Utah; Lake Tahoe, Calif.; and Vermont. The club also has a houseboat on Lake Powell in Utah and homes in Scottsdale, Ariz., Hilton Head, S.C., San Diego and Las Vegas. There are homes in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico; Nevis in the Caribbean; Hawaii; the Dominican Republic; Naples, Fla.; and the yachts in Tortola. 

There are also homes in Les Bordes, France; St. Andrews, Scotland; Old Head, Ireland; and Stoke Park in England. 

Members pay $6,500 a year in dues and pay $150 a night for use of any of the homes. That gets them free skiing, free golf, free access to country clubs and spas, and a personal butler and housekeeper. Add another $50 a day, and members can use a Mercedes or BMW. 

Members also get to use one the club's three planes for the cost of gas and a pilot. 

"It's got everything for everyone," Ahrens said. "It's become sort of an exclusive sorority and fraternity of people who love to travel and be well treated and have it all feel like home." 

The average age of McGrath's members is 52, and their average worth is around $8 million. Only a third of members have children, which McGrath says is the right mix to assure diverse travel patterns among members. 

Another of McGrath's deviations from the fractional ownership model is that he promises that the investment will not lose money. Within a year of leaving the club, former members are guaranteed the $175,000 sign-up fee. 

"You cannot make money, but you cannot lose money," he said. 

-----To see more of The Denver Post, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.denverpost.com 

(c) 2002, The Denver Post. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.