Transactions, july 26, 2013

     One by one, Textron Financial Corporation is getting rid of its golf headaches. The Memphis Daily News reports that Textron’s Spe Go Holdings has sold Stonebridge Golf Club in Lakeland, Tennessee to a pair of brothers-in-law. An LLC led by Mark Lowell and Robert Mears reportedly paid $1.5 million for Stonebridge, which features a George Cobb-designed golf course that opened in the early 1970s. Textron has parted with several golf properties this year, among them Bermuda Run Country Club in suburban Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Firethorne Country Club in Marvin, North Carolina; and Legacy Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida. The next one to go may be King’s Creek Golf Club in Spring Hill, Tennessee.

     Gene Haas, a one-time tax evader who now co-owns a NASCAR race team with Tony Stewart, has gotten behind the wheel of Westlake Golf Course in Westlake Village, California. The property features a 5,080-yard course that was designed by Ted Robinson. “It came up for sale, and he liked it,” explained a spokesman for Haas’ Oxnard, California-based company. The seller was a group led by Ted Tomosovich. The Ventura County Star reports that a half-dozen liens had been filed against the golf course, which must remain open space for roughly the next 180 years. Haas pleaded guilty to tax evasion in 2008 and, after making full restitution to the government, served a brief prison sentence. Today his company, Haas Automation, is said to be the largest machine-tool maker in the United States, and his NASCAR team runs cars for Stewart, Ryan Newman, and Danica Patrick.

     One of Japan’s largest confectioners has gone sweet on the first Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course in Australia. Chateraise Holdings, which sells cakes and desserts in 450 Japanese stores, has purchased Lakelands Golf Club in Robina, Queensland, reportedly for $8.6 million. The Golf Coast Bulletin reports that Chateraise owns 14 golf properties in Japan, along with two ski resorts and two wineries. The company was founded by Hiroshi Saito in 1955. It bought Lakelands from Naonori Fujita, who paid $12 million for it in 2006. Fujita told the Bulletin that he sold the property with regret, and only because he’s getting old and “none of my family members are interested.” Lakelands was established by another Japanese company in the 1990s.

     A business consultant has agreed to buy a deteriorating golf property that faces major increases in what it pays for water in New Mexico, the driest state in the union. Michael Schumacher, the president of Bizdoc Capital Group, believes there’s money to be made at Chamisa Hills Country Club, the home of the only golf courses in Rio Rancho. “This isn’t a fix-and-flip or anything like that,” he said in a comment published by the Rio Rancho Observer. Schumacher is buying Chamisa Hills from Harry Apodaca, who’s been looking for a way out from the moment he learned that his annual water bill was going to skyrocket from $160,000 to roughly $635,000. He tried to sell the club and its 27-hole complex at a public auction a couple of months ago but could find no takers. In addition to the undisclosed purchase price, Schumacher expects to pay for a new irrigation system and other upgrades at Chamisa Hills. If he doesn’t change his mind, he’ll close on the deal sometime this summer.

     Union Hills Country Club, one of the many Del Webb-created golf properties in Sun City, Arizona, has a new name and new owners. The property, now called Union Hills Golf & Country Club, has been purchased by Mark Matarrese, a Sun City resident, and Ric Lanoue, a CPA from Windsor, Canada. The duo plans to make improvements to the club’s golf course, which was co-designed by Greg Nash and Jeff Hardin and opened in 1974. “This was once one of the best facilities in the valley,” Matarrese told the Sun City Independent. “We plan to bring it back to what it was, and better.” Del Webb turned the club over to its members in 1978.

     Accord Golf Capital is branching out beyond its home base in Williamsburg, Virginia. The company, which is led by Paul Mauk of Traditional Golf Properties, has acquired Brookfield Country Club, a 40-year-old property in Roswell, Georgia. In a sparsely detailed press release, Accord describes Brookfield as “one of the finest family-oriented clubs in the north Atlanta market” and announces forthcoming improvements to both the facility’s clubhouse and Mike Riley-designed golf course. Late last year, Accord and Och-Ziff Real Estate teamed up to buy the bankrupt Ford’s Colony Country Club in Williamsburg, which features a trio of 18-hole golf courses designed by Dan Maples. The press release doesn’t mention anything about Och-Ziff’s involvement in the Brookfield purchase, but it doesn’t mention Traditional Golf Properties, Mike Riley, or Ford’s Colony either.

     After being shopped around for more than two years, Briarcrest Country Club has found a buyer. Wallace Phillips has agreed to buy Briarcrest, a 42-year-old property in Bryan, Texas. Though he’s a local residential developer, Phillips has promised to maintain the club’s 18-hole golf course and even make some as-yet unspecified improvements to it. “I have full intentions of leaving it as a golf course,” he told the Bryan Eagle. Phillips also plans to retain Billy Casper Golf as the club’s operator. He expects to close on the purchase sometime this summer.

     Visitors to Laughlin, Nevada’s Avi Resort & Casino now have their choice of two golf courses. The Fort Mojave Indian Tribe has been offering an 18-hole course at the casino since 1997. Last month, however, it purchased Desert Lakes Golf Course in nearby Fort Mohave, Arizona. Desert Lakes has been given a new name, Huukan Golf Club, and the tribe plans to give its 24-year-old, Bob Baldock-designed golf course what the Needles Desert Star calls a “major upgrade.” If you’re wondering about the meaning of the new name, Huukan reportedly translates as “stick hitting a ball.”