Deeds and Weeds

Results for April 2009 Back to Deeds and Weeds Index

Trump Sets New Fees at Lowes Island

Thursday, April 30, 2009 Comments
In February, Donald Trump added to his golf course portfolio by buying the Lowes Island Club, a 36-hole private club on the banks of the Potomac River in Loudon County, Va., for $18 million. At the time, the real estate tycoon -- in his own inimitable fashion -- promised big improvements for Lowes Island, including renovations of both courses originally designed by Tom Fazio and Arthur Hills), and the staging of significant tournaments there, perhaps even a PGA Tour stop.

"This place, when it's finished, will be the finest club anywhere in the country," Trump promised. "There will be nothing like it. I already own the best ones, so I know."

Of course, with Trump and all of this investment comes a new price structure. This week Lowes Island members -- both present and perspective -- got a hint of what the new fees will be, during a visit to the facility by Trump and his associates. According to this story in the Washington Post, golf memberships there will now go for $75,000; corporate memberships will be $175,000; and social memberships (no golf) will cost $25,000.

-- G.R.

Posted by Geoff Russell
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A Taste Of The Mediterranean In Isleworth

Thursday, April 30, 2009 Comments
090427ghotw.jpgYou don’t find many addresses that say “golf” more plainly than this one on Zillow.com: a house inside Windermere, Fla.'s gated Isleworth community, home to Mark O'Meara, Darren Clarke, John Cook, and until recently Tiger Woods. (He’s moving to a sprawling compound all his own in Jupiter, Fla.)

Our Golf Home of the Week is a six-bedroom, five and half bath home that was built in 2005 and sits on a little over an acre. Its area totals 5,400 square feet. Though the house does not overlook the course, the Isleworth clubhouse is about three-quarters of a mile away—by car, foot or golf cart.

Agent Karan Lee Freeman says the asking price is $3 million (not the $3.5 million showing on Zillow.com). “It’s a unique home architecturally,” she says. “The owner is a South Florida builder and he brought a [Addison] Mizner-type of look to it.” She adds: “The use of materials is spectacular throughout. From the cap & pan tiles on the roof to the tri-tone brick driveway, it has a very warm, beautiful feeling.”

Joining the Arnold Palmer-designed Isleworth Country Club is not part of the purchase price. That costs another $100,000 +,  says Freeman.

You say you want to be shielded from prying eyes? Freeman contends Isleworth is the “only community in [the Orlando area] whose airspace it is restricted.” That, she observes, is “the ultimate privacy.”

To see other Florida homes for sale on Zillow.com, click here.

-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
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'Are We A County Of Laws?'

Wednesday, April 29, 2009 Comments
Trinitas_pan.jpgThe Calavaras (Calif.) County Supervisors yesterday voted against allowing developers to go ahead with luxury homes and a golf resort at the Trinitas golf course. This is the strange story I wrote about a few days ago, where a couple built an 18-hole golf course in 2001 without permits.

In addition to turning down their proposal for a resort and luxury home development on the site, the county supervisors rejected Mike and Michelle Nemee's bid for a conditional use permit on the course. As the Stockton Record notes, this calls into question whether the Nemees will try to maintain the course for private use.

The paper quotes Supervisor Steve Wilensky as asking, "Are we a county of laws? Do we apply them equally to all? Do we have a General Plan and zoning code that we adhere to?" Wilensky was one of three supervisors voting to block the project. Two others voted in favor of it.

-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
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I'll Drink To That

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Comments
g1.gifHere's one I hadn't heard before: A club in Indiana apparently has fallen behind on its city tax payments and is now being threatened with the loss of its liquor license -- a move that would essentially be a death knell for the club.

Paul Switzer, owner of the White Hawk Country Club, yesterday held a meeting of neighborhood residents to tell them about the problem, the Post-Tribune reports. A resident who attended the closed-door meeting said the club owes $383,000 to the city of Crown Point. If it doesn't cough up the cash by the end of June, it will lose its liquor license.

According to the Post-Tribune, Switzer asked residents to pay 48 cents a square foot to help meet the tax bill, a move that would amount to "several thousand dollars" in some cases.

Switzer bought the course in 2006 and said it is currently losing money at the rate of $600 a day, the paper says.

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
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Yale Farm Drops Out

Tuesday, April 28, 2009 Comments
Yale Farm.jpgYale Farm, the proposed Connecticut golf club that was in the works for seven years, is dead. Developer Roland Betts and his partners revealed their decision to kill the hotly contested project in a letter published in today's Waterbury Republican-American.

The culprit: The economy, mainly.

Quoting from the developer's letter:

"In short, our economic model, which was dependent on membership sales, is no longer viable. (We realize that much was written about "housing" but in fact, housing was the tail not the dog.) Private clubs throughout the Northeast are under enormous stress. They are losing members, cutting dues, making deals to keep existing members which I would never have thought possible, even poaching each others members. And still many will not survive.

"A new club dependent on high initiation fees is simply not a viable option today or in the foreseeable future. Over the past two months, we have engaged numerous golf experts and analyzed all of our options from a variety of different angles. Simply stated, none of them work. An investment of $25 million can no longer be justified. As painful as it is to give up the fight (we came to quite enjoy it) it is the only prudent course of action. Yale Farm, conceived as one of the finest courses in the country (and we have no doubt that it would have been) is no longer financially viable."

The New York Times had an extensive piece about the proposed course and Betts, creator of Manhattan's Chelsea Piers, earlier this month.

UPDATE: Here's an article from the Hartford Courant with a few more details (including reaction by the gleeful opposition).

 -- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
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Couples Lists California Home For $12.5 Million

Monday, April 27, 2009 Comments
It doesn't qualify as a Deeds & Weeds "Golf Home of the Week" -- because as far as I know it isn't located on a golf course -- but Fred Couples has put his Montecito, Calif., house up for sale.

Details courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle here. According to the story, the house is 11,000 square feet, with a 2,300-square-foot guest house, on five acres with both ocean and mountain views. All told, the property has 12 bedrooms and 9 1/2 baths (counting both houses), with a special added bonus: a backyard putting green.

Asking price: $12.5 million.

Update: Our friends at Zillow have pictures of the house and more detail on the Couples' listing here.

--G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Rumor Mongering

Friday, April 24, 2009 Comments
GolfDigestPackage_366.jpgIt's just a rumor, and the resort owner has said it's not commenting, but there's talk Sandestin may be sold. An area  developer named Tom Becnal told a local paper, the Walton Sun, that he's been negotiating with the sprawling resort's parent company.

The resort's owner is Intrawest, a Canadian company that is carrying a heavy debt load and has been making noises about shedding some properties. Here's a Canadian Press report on the speculation as well.

Based in Destin, Fla., Sandestin Resort has four highly regarded golf courses: Baytowne Golf Club, Burnt Pine Golf Club, Raven Golf Club and The Links Course. The Links carries 4 stars out of 5 in Golf Digest's Places to Play reader ratings. The other three courses carry 4 1/2 stars.

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
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New Dye Course Open

Friday, April 24, 2009 Comments
Picture 4.jpgToday is the official opening day for Pete Dye's new course in French Lick, Ind. The course (pictured) is part of a HUGE investment in the old French Lick Resort, which has 18 holes by Donald Ross that have been carefully restored.

The casino resort says its several-year-long makeover has totaled half a billion (with a b) dollars. Here's a link to a news item on the course opening.

My Golf Digest colleague Matt Ginella has played the new Dye course and says, as you would expect, it'll wear you out.

So the question is, will gamblers, golfers and other resort guests beat a path to southern Indiana now that the owner has spent all this money there? I hope for French Lick's sake they do, but in this economy, I'm guessing the resort will have to be plenty patient.

-- P.F.


 

Posted by Peter Finch
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Norman: 'Follow the growth corridor'

Thursday, April 23, 2009 Comments
Among professional golfers, Greg Norman has always been one of the most successful in business. So it was interesting to hear his thoughts today on golf course developments and real estate, and how and why they are good investments.

The scene was a press conference at the Savannah Harbor Resort in Savannah, Ga., site of this week's Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, an event on the Champions Tour. The area is familiar to Norman. Hilton Head Island, S.C., home of Harbour Town GL and the PGA Tour's Verizon Heritage, where Norman is a past champion, is about 30 minutes north. The Shark has also designed the courses at a couple of real estate developments in the area: Savannah Quarters in Savannah, and Oldfield, in Beaufort, S.C.

A reporter asked Norman about his attraction to the region. Here was his answer:

"One of my favorite tournaments ever on the PGA Tour was Harbour Town. I love the golf course. I love the feel of the environment there. It was always great to come right out of Augusta and go there because it was like going from an intense pressure cooker to a little bit more laid-back atmosphere, but a very intense golf course to play. So you took that mentality all the way on to the golf course.

"And it was very relaxing. You walk to the first tee. You walk to the driving range. You walk back into your apartment, whatever way you want to do it.

"The opportunities to build golf courses around here have been tremendous. Savannah Quarters, I'm an owner in the development out there. Oldfield, we built a golf course out there. So I've had the opportunity to stick my stake in the ground in a lot of ways, not only from a playability standpoint, but also from a financial standpoint.

"I always love the Savannah growth corridor. Any time you see where a Lowe's or Wal-Mart or Home Depot and Sam's Club [is being built], that means they know where the growth corridor is. And when you get in the development business, you kind of follow where it's going to be five, seven years down the line. Sure, you're going to have hiccups in the real estate market, but if you stay the course, you know you're going to come out pretty good at the other end."

So there you go. The Shark says the market is going to turn. Eventually.

--G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Ravisloe Update: 'Someone had to fall'

Thursday, April 23, 2009 Comments
Deeds & Weeds has already covered the story of Ravisloe CC, the 108-year-old suburban Chicago club that was sold to a local veterinarian and turned into a public facility this month after a catastrophic decline in membership. This story, which appeared last week in the Chicago Tribune, gives more details on Ravisloe's demise as a private club.

It's an all-too-familiar scenario: There were too many private clubs in the Homewood-Flossmoor neighborhood (perhaps five, according to the story), and with the economic downturn in recent years it gradually become obvious that at least one of them would eventually have to close:

"People who care about golf in the south suburbs have been holding their breath for 10 years," said Terry Lavin, a member at both Beverly and Olympia Fields (two of the private clubs in the area), told the Tribune. "Someone had to fall. But Ravisloe was not the most likely."

The article goes on to provide a good update on the private club market in the area. For now, the rest of the clubs in Homewood-Flossmoor -- including Idlewild, which picked up as many as 100 former Ravisloe members when it closed -- are still private. But the conditions of doing business have definitely changed.

"One thing we can put in the history column on the South Side is the term 'waiting list,' " Lavin told the Tribune. "It's like trying to find a mastodon."

-- G.R.

Posted by Geoff Russell
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