Transactions, january 16, 2015

     Tucson, Arizona. For only $1 million, HSL Properties has sold El Conquistador Country Club and its 45-hole golf complex to the city of Oro Valley. The catch: The complex, which opened over a three-year period in the mid 1980s, loses about $1 million a year, and it needs an estimated $5.5 million worth of capital improvements. On the plus side, the city thinks it can save many millions in construction costs by turning El Conquistador’s 31,500-square-foot clubhouse into a community center, and it trusts that Troon Golf will begin turning profits by year four of its management contract.

     Norristown, Pennsylvania. The end is near for Center Square Golf Club, which is under contract to a local home builder. Center Square has operated since 1963, with an 18-hole, Ed Ault-designed golf course, and Fran Pietrini told the Philadelphia Business Journal that he “put a lot of heart” into it. But money talks, and Pietrini was listening.

     Elkhart, Indiana. The Elkhart Elks, a club that’s lost almost half of its membership over the past decade, has agreed to sell its financially troubled Christiana Creek Country Club. “It’s my favorite course to play,” the club’s prospective owner, Mac Pierce, told the Elkhart Truth. Christiana Creek opened in 1916, with a nine-hole, Tom Bendelow-designed track. According to the club, William Langford redesigned Bendelow’s course in the mid 1920s, and Gene Conway, one of the club’s superintendents, added nine holes in the early 1960s. Pierce, a retiree who formerly owned a plastics company and managed celebrity impersonators in Las Vegas, hopes to boost the club’s bottom line by opening the course to public play. Since 2002, according to the Truth, sagging membership has forced five other Elks club s in Indiana -- in Shelbyville, Fort Wayne, Vincennes, Seymour, and West Lafayette -- to sell their golf properties.

     Wilton, New York. In late December, Blake Crocitto and William Ahl paid $2.25 million for McGregor Links Country Club, which features an 18-hole golf course designed by Devereux Emmet. According to the club’s website, the club was established in the early 1920s by a state senator who instructed Emmet “to build to perfection.” The sellers were heirs of the late Michael Dennis, a residential developer who’d owned the 131-acre property since 1970. In a press release, Crocitto said, “We feel a tremendous commitment to McGregor Links and its members and want to preserve the legacy that came before us while continuing to fulfill our potential as a world-class golf course.” Both he and Ahl are long-time club members.

     North Little Rock, Arkansas. StoneLinks Golf Course, the centerpiece of a 664-acre community, has been sold at auction and will likely be converted to farm land. “I don’t think everyone is happy about it,” the head of the StoneLinks Neighborhood Association told the Arkansas Times. Buddy Bean, the owner of the 18-hole, 21-year-old course, said that the property went for “a little over $2 million.” The identity of the purchaser won’t be revealed until the transaction closes, probably sometime this month.

     Olive Branch, Mississippi. A former baseball player is taking a swing at the golf business. Late last year, Trey Lunsford and his father purchased Olive Branch Country Club, which opened in the mid 1960s and has been described by the DeSoto Times-Tribune as “the oldest country club facility in DeSoto County.” The facility’s 18-hole golf course was designed by Ed Creasey. Trey Lunsford, who had the proverbial cup of coffee in professional baseball -- a total of four at-bats with the San Francisco Giants -- will serve as the club’s general manager. He intends to create what his father calls “a middle-of-the-road country club where you can bring your family out and enjoy.” The club had been owned by its members.

     Mohave Valley, Arizona. Last year, the 49 members of a home owners’ association in the desert south of Laughlin, Nevada became the reluctant owners of El Rio Country Club. “None of us ever wanted to own or run a golf course,” a spokesperson for the group confessed to the Mohave Valley Daily News. She added: “It’s not like our dream came true or anything.” El Rio’s HOA was forced to acquire a controlling interest in the 11-year-old club when the community’s developer (along with his wife and son) were indicted on 77 charges of real-estate fraud. The HOA expects to begin operating El Rio’s 18-hole, Matt Dye-designed golf course this weekend.

     Falls of Rough, Kentucky. Last fall, Harvel and Wilda Escue bought a historic plantation that includes Lafayette Golf Club and its 18-hole, Jody Kinney-designed golf course. The course, which opened in 1997, was named after Lafayette Green, who inherited the plantation from his father as established it as a local center of commerce. The golf course appears to have been abandoned sometime in the not too distant past, as the Grayson Record reports that the Escues have “harvested 140 hay bales off the midways” and are currently “restoring the greens and fairways.” April 15 has been targeted as the layout’s opening date.

     Hallandale Beach, Florida. A Maryland-based investment group has acquired Diplomat Golf & Tennis Club, a nearly 60-year-old venue affiliated with the neighboring Westin Diplomat Resort & Spa. Acting through an LLC, Thayer Lodging Group reportedly paid $20 million for the golf club, which features an 18-hole track that was redesigned by Joe Lee in 2000. The sale took place last summer, as part of a $535 million series of transactions that included the resort.

     Las Cruces, New Mexico. At long last, the members of Las Cruces Country Club have closed on their new digs. In November, exactly three years after they sold their original home to a residential developer, the members reportedly paid “just under $5 million” for Sonoma Ranch Golf Course. The members intend to offer public play on Sonoma’s 14-year-old, Cal Olson-designed layout, and they’ll likely also give it a new name.

     Townsend, Tennessee. At an auction in November, the struggling Laurel Valley Golf Course was sold to a bidder described by the Marysville Daily Times as a “Knoxville-based financial consultant and expert in wealth management” who “represented a group of investors.” The price: $1.45 million. Porter Alexander wouldn’t say who he was bidding for or what they intend to do with Laurel Valley’s 25-year-old, Ed Ault-designed golf course, but he ominously noted that “to make an omelet, you’ve got to break some eggs.” To me, it sounds as if golf occupies a very low spot in the new owners’ pecking order.