Transactions, february 27, 2015

     Wintergreen, Virginia. A Kansas City, Missouri-based based real estate investment trust has acquired the best-known four-season vacation spot in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains. EPR Properties has paid an undisclosed amount for Wintergreen Resort, an 11,000-acre spread that features a ski area, overnight accommodations, meeting space, a spa, restaurants, and a 45-hole golf complex (18 holes by Ellis Maples, 27 by Rees Jones). EPR, an investor in Top Golf, bought Wintergreen from Jim Justice, a former coal magnate who’s described by Forbes as “West Virginia’s only billionaire.” (Estimated total net worth: $1.7 billion.) Justice, who’s owned Wintergreen since 2012, also owns the Greenbrier resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia, a property he rescued from bankruptcy in 2009.

     Pawtucket, Rhode Island. A financially troubled golf club that occupies tracts in both Rhode Island and Massachusetts will likely soon be bailed out by three of its members. David Rampone, Benny Martin, and Gary Reis have agreed to purchase Pawtucket Country Club, a venue that opened in 1902 and features an 18-hole, Willie Park, Jr.-designed golf course. “The sale completely re-positions the financial standing of the club,” Rampone told Rhode Island Public Radio. “It also allows us to recruit new members and provide them with assurances that the club is financially sound and they can join without concerns of assessments looming.” The Providence Journal reports that Pawtucket “has lost many members in the last several years and has struggled to replace them.” The new owners haven’t disclosed a purchase price, but they’ve promised to invest in capital improvements “to protect the traditions that have lasted here for the past 113 years.”

     St. Louis, Missouri. The University of Missouri-St. Louis has decided to enter the golf business, but it isn’t making a long-term commitment. The school has paid $1.4 million for Normandie Golf Course, a historic track -- it opened in 1901 and is said to be the oldest public golf venue west of the Mississippi River -- whose 117 acres just happen to be an ideal location for future campus expansion. University officials have promised to maintain Normandie’s 18-hole, Robert Foulis-designed track for the next 10 years, but at that point they plan to reassess.

     West End, North Carolina. An unidentified investor has acquired Seven Lakes Country Club, a Pinehurst-area facility whose future has been in doubt for several years. The Fayetteville Observer reports that the club, which once had more than 600 members, now has only “a few hundred.” Seven Lakes’ 18-hole course was designed by Peter Tufts III, the great-grandson of the Pinehurst resort’s creator, James Walker Tufts, and the godson of Donald Ross. To make the club viable again, the new owner will need to fund long overdue capital improvements.

     Bogart, Georgia. A lender has accepted $1.7 million for the centerpiece of an Athens-area golf community. The offer for Jennings Mill Country Club, which has been struggling financially for years, came from Mark Bell, the owner of a bar in Athens. Jennings Mill features a Bob Cupp-designed golf course that opened in 1987 but no clubhouse, as the building was lost to a fire in 2008. “It is such a great facility with a great location and a great course,” Bell told the Oconee Enterprise. “It just needs a little bump, and we are going to give it a big bump.” Titan Financial, the seller, had foreclosed on Jennings Mill in the late 2000s. Fewer than 10 percent of the club’s members reportedly live in the accompanying community.

     Round Rock, Texas. A master-planned community in suburban Austin no longer owns its main attraction. NNP-Teravista LLC, an affiliate of Newland Communities, has sold Teravista Golf Club and its 18-hole golf course to an entity that appears to be led by the club’s general manager, Adam Owen. Teravista’s 14-year-old layout, designed by Clifton Ezell & Clifton, is said to be “heavily influenced by real estate on every hole,” but it nonetheless manages to attract some 44,000 rounds annually. In a conversation with the Austin Business Journal, the broker involved in the sale suggested that the new ownership group has an opportunity to capitalize on the club’s “untapped market share.”

     Marathon, Florida. An investment group led by Peter Rosasco has acquired Florida Keys Country Club, with plans to make the 55-year-old venue the centerpiece of “one of the finest destination resorts in the Keys.” Rosasco and his partners, some from Sweden, paid close to $4.4 million for Florida Keys, which opened as Sombrero Country Club. They intend to redesign the club’s 18-hole, Mark Mahannah-designed golf course and complement it with a marina, a boutique hotel, and other overnight accommodations. The purchase has been percolating for several years, and the new owners hope to begin construction this summer, pending approvals by local officials.

     Otsego, Michigan. A hog farmer in southwestern Michigan has purchased Prairiewood Golf Club, and he plans to convert virtually all of its 140 acres to farmland. Dennis DeYoung paid an undisclosed price for Prairiewood, which features an 18-hole course that was co-designed by Warner Bowen and Duane Kuiper. Matt Rayman had owned and operated the facility since it opened, in 1989.

     Baileys Harbor, Wisconsin. On the last day of last year, Baylake Bank sold Maxwelton Braes Golf Course, an 18-hole track that had been in operation since 1928, for $675,000. “We’re looking at the long shot,” said Jim Bresnahan, a retiree from Wausau who’s become the property’s new owner. “I want to make sure it gets handed down to my family, the next generation after me.” The bank, which was hoping to get $900,000 for Maxwelton Braes, had been in control of the property for the past five years, after a foreclosure. According to the Green Bay Press Gazette, Bresnahan gravitated to the golf business because he was “looking for something to do that was not work.”