by Michele Gillis
Staff Writer
Alayna Oram has been one of the most visible people in the real estate and construction communities over the past decade and she hasn’t disappeared — she’s just doing something a little different.
She’s best known to our readers as an ace marketer, the owner of Relay Marketing, handling such clients as the World Golf Village and Homes by Deltona. She has been a marketing professional for more than 15 years of agency and corporate experience. She has worked hard with the professions, once co-chairing a very successful Realty Builder Tradeshow.
Now, she’s marketing something different: the area’s largest resort, and it didn’t take long for her to hit the ground running.
“I started as the director of resort marketing for Omni Amelia Island Plantation Resort on Nov. 17 and then we broke ground on an $85 million renovation on Nov. 18,” said Oram.
Her job is to market the hotel, vacation villas, spas and shops, special events and real estate as well as to create the strategy and oversee the execution of the “re-imagination” of the 1,350-acre resort, which includes three golf courses, a hotel and hundreds of condos and homes.
The Plantation was acquired by the big Omni hotel chain about two years ago and the new owners immediately started pouring the dollars into much-needed renovations.
It may seem like a big leap for Oram to leave Jacksonville and enter into a position as a marketing director at a resort community in Amelia Island after serving the building industry for so long, but Oram feels she still has something to offer the real estate community.
“Omni Amelia Island Plantation has real estate as well as the resort,” said Oram. “So, I work with the Michael Asnip, director of real estate, to market real estate as well as the resort. We have primary residents, but we also have a lot of second homes and a lot of second homes for people in Jacksonville. They use them as vacation homes and keep them in their family for generations. There are also some lots left there, but they just are not developer lots.”
In order to acclimate herself to her new job, Oram had to take some time from participating in events such as the Northeast Florida Builders Association’s Sales and Marketing Council where she has been so involved in years past.
With the groundbreaking happening so soon after she started, said Oram, it has just taken her a little while to absorb everything and get comfortable in her new position.
“I’m not gone forever,” said Oram. “Part of it is also that my new job is on Amelia Island, so I have a bit of a commute that I’m not used to. I will be back at SMC. I’m just now looking at getting back involved. It was just a learning curve that I had to immerse myself in.”
“Amelia like a world away, but it’s a short drive,” said Oram.