Transactions, may 10, 2013

     Nearly 1,300 U.S. golf properties have been sold since 2007, with the largest number of transactions taking place in Florida (150), Michigan (86), California (70), Texas (ditto), and Ohio (65). This factoid was discovered in an analysis by the National Golf Foundation, along with several others about the nature of the sales that have occurred in recent years. Among them: The sales have mostly involved privately owned public courses. These facilities represent 59 percent of the nation’s existing golf supply, but they’ve accounted for almost 80 percent of the total sales. In addition, relatively new courses have been sold in somewhat disproportionate numbers. Roughly 40 percent of the sales have involved properties that opened after 1990, even though such properties represent only 27 percent of the existing supply. Finally, 52 percent of the transactions have involved properties that offered peak-season, weekend greens fees of $40 or less, while 35 percent involved properties that anchor real estate developments.

     Pacific Links International’s shopping spree continues, this time with the company’s first golf property in California. PLI has added Dove Canyon Country Club in Irvine to its fast-growing portfolio, which includes five golf properties in Hawaii and three in Nevada and West Virginia. PLI bought Dove Canyon, which features a Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course, from Sanyo Foods Corporation of America, a division of Japan’s largest manufacturer of ramen noodles.

     Newport Dunes, a moribund golf community in Port Aransas, Texas, has new owners who predict a brighter future. The 722-acre community, now called Palmilla Beach Resort & Golf Club, has been purchased by a Koontz McCombs, a development group led by Red McCombs. Palmilla Beach features a five-year-old, Arnold Palmer-designed golf course and a master plan that calls for waterfront houses, three hotels, meeting space, and other attractions. “The greatest recreational properties in the world are in Texas,” McCombs said in a press release, “and I put the opportunities in Port Aransas at the top of the list.” Over the years, McCombs has been an auto dealer, a co-founder of Clear Channel Communications, and a sports mogul (Minnesota Vikings, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs). He may eventually start to build a golf portfolio, as he’s part of the group that aims to build a Tiger Woods-designed golf course in Mexico.

     MCO Properties has two suitors for FireRock Country Club, which means that the only private golf club in Fountain Hills, Arizona will soon have new owners. In late April, an investment group led by Phil Mickelson made an unsolicited offer for FireRock, which features an 18-hole, Gary Panks-designed golf course. But Mickelson’s offer was countered by the club’s members, who have a right of first refusal. The Fountain Hills Times reports that FireRock “has been operating at a deficit,” but the members nonetheless agreed to meet MCO’s $5.5 million asking price.

     Arizona’s first golf resort, one that used to attract a parade of Hollywood stars, has new owners. The San Marcos Golf Resort in Chandler, a vacation destination for 100 years, has been sold to La Jolla, California-based Interwest Capital Corporation, reportedly for $11 million. The property features a 249-room Crowne Plaza hotel and an 18-hole, Harry Collis-designed golf course. It’s listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and in its heyday its rooms were filled by people like Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby, Gloria Swanson, Joan Crawford, and Clark Gable. In an attempt to recover some of the resort’s luster, Interwest plans a multimillion-dollar overhaul that includes upgrades to the golf course.

     Sea Trail, a fading golf resort in Sunset Beach, North Carolina, may soon be freed of bankruptcy protection. The Myrtle Beach Sun News reports that an unidentified entity has agreed to buy the 2,000-acre club, which features 18-hole golf courses designed by Rees Jones, Dan Maples, and Willard Byrd. If the sale goes through, the prospective buyer will also own 400 units of rental housing, a convention center, an undisclosed number of unsold lots, and roughly 240 acres’ worth of developable property. This is a serious offer, because the buyer has reportedly put down a $1 million deposit that’s refundable only if Sea Trail can’t secure court and lender approval for the sale.

     Tariq Khan, the owner of five 7-Eleven stores on Long Island, has acquired Middle Bay Country Club in Oceanside, New York. The club had been in financial distress and couldn’t recover from damage inflicted by Superstorm Sandy. Khan, a club member, has given the property a new name, South Bay Country Club, and plans to open it to the public.

     Less than four months after the lights were turned off at Country Club at the Legends, a sales agreement for the 24-year-old property in Eureka, Missouri appears to be in place. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, citing an announcement made at a recent city council meeting, reports that “three groups” have joined forces to buy the club from the heirs of Carmelo Natoli, who died late last year. The new owners haven’t been identified, and their plans for the property and its 27-hole golf complex are unknown. However, several weeks ago Natoli’s daughter told the Eureka-Wildwood Patch that she was “looking for someone who will respect the course and maintain it the way my father would want it.” The club, which has been closed since late January, is expected to reopen in June.

     A Los Angeles, California-based investor has agreed to buy his second financially troubled golf property in Kansas. Two years ago Nati Saidoff, the principal of Capital Foresight, bought Brookridge Golf & Country Club in Overland Park and rebuilt its dwindling membership. Now he aims to breathe new life into Leawood South Country Club in Lenexa, the centerpiece of a community that opened in 1969. “Leawood South is a fine old club in a very nice neighborhood, but it’s experiencing what Brookridge was undergoing and was ready to shut its doors,” a Brookridge official told the Kansas City Star. Saidoff’s revival strategy involves converting the club’s banquet space into a fitness center. Hey, it worked at Brookridge.