| Versatile Entrepreneur Builds Carolina Timeshare Empire By Rosalie E. Leposky Peppertree Resorts, Ltd., is celebrating its 20th anniversary in 1997. A prominent regional development firm based in Asheville, North Carolina, Peppertree owes its growth and success to the creative dynamism of C. Wayne Kinser (1934- August 31, 2003), its founder, chairman, and president; and to an executive staff consisting primarily of longtime associates and business partners who help to implement Kinser's ideas. "Wayne is a visionary," says Donald K. Clayton, a Peppertree employee since 1984 who is the firm's senior vice president of marketing. "The first time Wayne looks at a raw piece of property, he envisions how it should be developed. Generally, he is right," says Kenneth C. "Ken" Crump, Peppertree's senior vice president of construction resort development, who has worked with Kinser since 1986. C. Wayne Kinser Fourteen and Growing Peppertree currently is developing and/or managing 14 mountain and beachfront timeshare resorts with almost 44,500 members: Kinser began his first timeshare project, Peppertree Vacation Club, in 1977 on the grounds of The Great Smokies Hilton Resort (now a Holiday Inn Sunspree) in Asheville, North Carolina. The six-acre project has 18 buildings, 28 timeshare units, and 1,310 members. | |
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