Deeds and Weeds

Results for August 2009 Back to Deeds and Weeds Index

Nancy Berkley on the FedEx Cup and Liberty National

Monday, August 31, 2009 Comments
As I was following the coverage of the Barclays, the first event in the PGA Tour's Playoffs schedule, I was particularly intrigued by the "Deeds & Weeds" related angle: the host site, the very private Liberty National GC, which cost $250 million to build, charges a $500,000 initiation fee and (according to some reports) needs at least another 100 members in order to become financially healthy.

I thought about trying to write something up summarizing this side of the story. But then I read this column by Nancy Berkley's on Cybergolf.com and decided she had already done it for me.

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Bolingbrook Blues

Sunday, August 30, 2009 Comments
ar122479136432088.JPGBolingbrook Golf Club, the Chicago-area public course designed by Arthur Hills, has lost an average of $1.3 million a year since its opening in 2002, according to this Chicago Tribune report. 

The article is a companion piece to this profile/expose of Bolingbrook's longtime mayor, Roger Claar, a major supporter of the golf course project.

The course, which charges non-resident green fees of $110 on weekends, is well-liked by golfers. It carries 4 1/2 stars (out of a possible 5) in Golf Digest's Places to Play reader ratings.

Still, the village of Bolingbrook has spent at least $9 million "propping up" its golf course, the paper says. That's more than the village took in last year in state income taxes, developer contributions and building permits combined, according to financial records.

Things aren't going so great in the adjoining Americana Estates subdivision, either. It's been four years since Bolingbrook sold a lot, the paper contends. Fewer than half of the total lots have been sold.

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
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Terranea In Trouble

Thursday, August 27, 2009 Comments
TerraneaAerialRendering.JPGTerranea, the new, $480 million resort on the Southern California coast, is in hot water, the Daily Breeze reports today.

Corus Bank filed a notice of default earlier this month on its $180 million loan to Terranea, the paper says. The notice was filed with Los Angeles County just three days after the resort's secondary lender, led by  Bill Gates' Cascade Investment, made a similar filing Aug. 11 on its $110 million loan to the project. 

Terranea, which has a nine-hole golf course overlooking the Pacific Ocean, opened earlier this summer. "It does appear there's going to be a change in ownership here unless something magical happens," the Daily Breeze quotes local real estate attorney Bruce Galloway as saying.

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
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Lemonade For Sale

Thursday, August 27, 2009 Comments
coar01_clearcreek.jpg

Jim Taylor is the first to admit his timing was less than ideal. Co-owner and developer of Clear Creek Tahoe, a new high-end golf club near the California-Nevada border, he bought the property in mid-2007 -- as demand for such developments was peaking. Undaunted, he and co-developer Chip Hanly (on the right in this picture) went ahead and built a Bill Coore/Ben Crenshaw-designed course on the site and opened it this summer, right in the middle of a worldwide economic slump.

"To say it's contrarian would be an understatement," Taylor conceded in a recent interview with Deeds & Weeds.

Taylor and Hanly originally planned to sell 384 lots near the course along with a like number of memberships. But the brutal economy iced that idea. So now they've had to readjust their marketing plans -- indeed, their entire business model -- to reflect the new reality. The two decided to "mothball" their real estate sales operation and focus instead on selling the golf club.

The goal is a membership of just under 500 golfers. They hope many of these members will eventually get around to buying a lot and building a home...but members are under no obligation to do either. In the meantime, Taylor and Hanly -- who made their money in southern California and Arizona property development -- are essentially financing the club out of their own pockets.

"The reality is, the circumstances changed and we reacted to them," Taylor says. "It took away some things. It also gave us an opportunity to really reach out to a membership that wasn't driven by real estate but by people who want to actually be part of the amenities and who we can invite to join. We have an opportunity to put together a really fun club."

Handed lemons, in other words, they're giving the lemonade business a try.

Will it work? Impossible to know, of course. But Clear Creek Tahoe does offer an interesting window into the world of high-end golf course development these days. Here is my Q&A with Jim Taylor, in which he discusses his five- to 10-year time horizon for making money on Clear Creek Tahoe, why Arizona's Whisper Rock serves as a sort of model for his club, and more.

-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
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Loan Defaults At Maui Resort

Wednesday, August 26, 2009 Comments
cm_golf_makena_resort.jpgThe owners of Maui's sprawling Makena Resort are in default on the $192.5 million loan they took out to acquire the resort, the Maui News is reporting.

Developer Ed Dowling and partners bought the resort property two years ago. It is home to the Robert Trent Jones Jr.-designed Makena Golf Course and the Maui Prince Hotel. Dowling's  ambitious plan called for up to 1,100 luxury homes, condos and apartments -- a project that was to take 15 years and $800 million.

"Right now with the global economy the way it is, we're no different than someone who bought a house in 2007," Dowling is quoted as saying. "Today, it's probably not worth what they paid for it. It's unfortunate for everyone involved and unfortunately a sign of the times."

The Makena Golf Course and the Maui Prince hotel are expected to remain open, though the fate of the hotel's 500 employees is uncertain.

-- P.F.
Posted by Peter Finch
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Skibo Castle Goes Into the Red

Friday, August 21, 2009 Comments
Skibo Castle, the lavish private golf club and sporting retreat near Dornoch, Scotland -- once part of the private club empire of Peter de Savary and probably best known for hosting Madonna's 2000 wedding to film director Guy Ritchie -- is now losing money, according to this story in The Herald. The cause, of course, is the recession and its effects on the economy, particularly the high-end travel and resort industry, in which Skibo Castle resides.

According to the article, "[Skibo Castle] ... posted an operating loss of £13,000 for the year to the end of March, compared with an underlying profit of £169,000 the year before. At the pre-tax level, the situation grew even more bleak, as losses deepened to £1.03m, compared with a loss of £648,000 last time."

In 2007 Skibo claimed to have reached its membership goal of 500, each of whom paid £23,000 to join, plus annual dues of £7,000. But according to The Herald story, Skibo is accepting applications for membership, indicating it is operating at less than capacity. The story also says Skibo's currently has 183 full- and part-time employees, about 20 below normal levels. 

Skibo's general manager, Peter Crome, wouldn't comment on the facility's financial state, but insisted the long-term outlook for Skibo Castle remains rosy. "In spite of the challenging environment -- and we expect this current year to be challenging also -- we are quite confident about the future," he told The Herald. "We're carrying on happily."

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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'I've Never Seen Anyone On It'

Monday, August 17, 2009 Comments
Morefar.jpgIt's not the typical Deeds & Weeds fare, but I enjoyed the New York Times' feature this morning on Morefar Back O'Beyond, the super-exclusive Westchester County course built by the founder of American International Group. Now it is owned by Starr International, a former AIG entity that's controlled by AIG's disgraced former chairman, Maurice "Hank" Greenberg. Here's a link.

Locals have always been envious of the club, which appears to be in pristine condition and which gets extremely little play. The Times points out: "As this is the first summer after A.I.G. received $182 billion in the largest government bailout in American history, the envy among locals has become tinged with anger."

A painter at nearby Richter Park, a public course in Danbury, Conn., offers this suggestion: “I think they should open [Morefar] to the public. We should take every asset we can get our hands on.”

-- P.F.


Posted by Peter Finch
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America's First Course Goes on Sale

Sunday, August 16, 2009 Comments
Oakhurst Links, a nine-hole course in White Sulphur Springs, W.Va., billed as the "birthplace of American golf," is for sale. Asking price: $4.5 million. 

"I think I've been custodian long enough," Lewis Keller, Oakhurst's 86-year-old owner, told The Associated Press. "I think a new [owner] would ... be very nice."

As this story explains, historians credit Oakhurst with opening for 1884, and remaining a functioning course until about 1910, when the family that owned the estate where it was built let it go fallow. Keller bought the property in 1959, but didn't decide to restore the course until 1991.

Oakhurst is a throwback to the way golf was played in the era in which it was built. The layout measures 2,235 yards. Golfers play it using hickory-shafted clubs, gutta percha balls and mounds of sand instead of wooden tees. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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A Roaring Big Sale

Friday, August 14, 2009 Comments
slideshow_3.jpgA deluxe cabin at the Roaring Fork Club in Basalt, Colo., has sold for a record $5.795 million, the Glenwood Springs Post Independent reports today.

Roaring Fork is a super-exclusive golf and fishing club with a Jack Nicklaus-designed course. Most of its 48 cabins, like the one pictured here, max out at 2,500 square feet. But his one is larger: 3,800 square feet. (That works out to more than $1,500 a square foot.) It sits on 2 1/2 acres overlooking the sixth green, with three bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths. The cabin was on the market for more than a year, originally having gone on sale for $6.75 million, the Times says.

The sale hasn't been recorded at the county clerk's office yet and the agent wouldn't disclose the purchaser or seller's names. But he did tell the Times  the buyer is from Houston and the seller from Georgia.

Many of Roaring Fork's other cabins are available for "fractional" purchase. A full interest in one would cost about $3.6 million, according to the club's web site.

-- P.F.




Posted by Peter Finch
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Great Park Losing Its Golf Course?

Thursday, August 13, 2009 Comments
Another golf course development project looks like it's on life support.

A proposed 45-hole course that was to be part of the Great Park, $1.4 billion, 1,300-acre community recreation center in Orange County, Calif., that is also to include "sports fields, community gardens and a man-made lake" -- and as many as 4,800 residential units -- may be canceled. At least that's what the project's developers, Lennar Corp., want according to a proposed new agreement with Orange County officials that would help jumpstart construction of Great Park, which has stalled during the economic downturn.

Details on the latest developments in this story from last Friday's Orange County Register. More specifics on the Great Park project can be found here.

Great Park is being built on the site of the old El Toro marine base, which closed about a decade ago. Lost in the redevelopment was the El Toro Marine Base Golf Course, which closed in December 2006. Fans of that course thought they would get a new course in the Great Park project, so they are (naturally) upset at the lastest developments.

"Without a golf course [Great Park] is going to have a facet of society that is missing," Ron Bloes, a past president of the El Toro Men's Golf Association, told the Register. "Golf in Orange County is part of the lifestyle down here. It's entrenched in the community."

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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