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Membership Group Buys Stone Eagle

Saturday, April 3, 2010 Comments
Stone Eagle, in Palm Desert, Calif., has been saved. The details are in this story in The Desert Sun.

The private 18-hole club, featuring the only Tom Doak-designed course in the Palm Springs area, has been shut down for about a month, and in foreclosure since the beginning of the year. But 14 people -- seven couples, six of them members at Stone Eagle -- have bought the club for cash. The story doesn't include a price, but recent reports said a larger group of club members was trying to raise $12 million to buy it.

Stone Eagle opened in 2005. Memberships cost $100,000, and the story claims the club had 190 members at the time of the foreclosure. The new ownership group has made no announcement regarding membership structure in the future. But local officials are just pleased the club has a future.

From the story: "The purchase and reopening of the club provides some much-needed good news for golf courses in the valley, which have been hit with dwindling membership and a drop in players as a result of the recession. 'It's terrific for the whole desert,' said Tom Cullinan, general manager at Stone Eagle. 'Golf is our lifeline.' "

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Cher's Hualalai Home Sells for $8.7 Million

Saturday, January 23, 2010 Comments
The entertainer Cher sold her house on the golf course of the Hualalai Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii this week, and she didn't do too badly.

The house -- on .75 acres, with 8,800 square feet, six bedrooms and a view of the Jack Nicklaus designed layout (which is hosting this week's Champions Tour event, the Mitsubishi Electric Championship) and the Pacific Ocean -- sold for $8.7 million. Reports had it valued at between $8 and $12 million.

The Honolulu Advertiser has the story here.

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Golf Houses For $100 Million

Friday, January 22, 2010 Comments
Now this was kind of a fun article, even if it has no basis in reality -- at least not my own. TheStreet.com, using figures provided by the real estate website Zillow.com, has a list of homes in the U.S. for sale for the staggering price of $75 million and up.

Two of them have a golf connection. 

The first is "Tranquility," a 10,000 square-foot on 210 acres near California's Lake Tahoe. Built by Joel Horowitz, "one of the co-founders of Tommy Hilfiger," the house has a staircase modeled after one that was on the Titanic, a cigar lounge inspired by one at New York's St. Regis Hotel and -- outside -- a two-hole golf course. Asking price: $100 million.

The second is Albemarle House in Charlottesville, Va. The house has 45 rooms and more than 25,000 square feet, and it is the centerpiece of a 300-acre property with three ponds, guest cottages and -- ta-da -- an 18-hole golf course designed by Arnold Palmer. The catch is that the course hasn't actually been built yet, which -- in our opinion -- makes the $100 million price tag seem a little steep.

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Chambers Bay Getting Hotel, Clubhouse?

Thursday, January 21, 2010 Comments
Washington's Chambers Bay is hosting the 2015 U.S. Open (and before that, the 2011 U.S. Amateur), so there is no time like the present to build a proper clubhouse, hotel and other accoutrements the place will need to host a big-time event.

James Burkhouse is a former University Place, Wash., resident, who as a youth played on the beach near the gravel mine that eventually became the site of Chambers Bay. He is now president of Ventur-Hospitality, a hotel and resort development company based in Bruno, Calif., that has the contract to build a clubhouse, a hotel, a retail center and other facilities at Chambers Bay. Burkhouse is still trying to secure financing for the project.

The Tacoma News-Tribune has a story about Burkhouse and the Chambers Bay project here.

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Byron Nelson Championship Site Faces Foreclosure

Wednesday, January 13, 2010 Comments
The Four Seasons Resort and Club Dallas at Las Colinas -- better known to this audience as the home of the PGA Tour's HP Byron Nelson Championship -- was the subject of a foreclosure filing today in Dallas.

According to reports, the facility's creditor, U.S. Bank NA, "is seeking repayment of a $183 million loan on the property" from the resort's owner, Los Angeles-based BentleyForbes, "and has scheduled a forced sale on Feb. 2."

The Dallas Morning News called the foreclosure filing "the largest in North Texas in more than 20 years." The newspaper's story on the filing is here. The Dallas Business Journal's report is here.

Of course -- as in many foreclosure and bankruptcy proceedings -- three words are being used to describe the activity at the facility in question: business as usual.

"We do not expect any change in our day-to-day operations or services," Las Colinas Four Seasons general manager Michael Newcombe told the Dallas Morning News. "We are proud of the nearly $60 million in improvements that our owners have made to our property over the past two years."

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Tiger's House Going Ahead as Planned?

Friday, January 8, 2010 Comments
If you came to Deeds and Weeds hoping to learn the whereabouts of Tiger Woods, you're out of luck. But we can report -- or at least tell you that the Palm Beach Post is reporting -- that recent clues suggest Woods plans to finish the house he is building in Jupiter Island, Fla.

The link to the Post item is here.

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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No New Course For Monterey Peninsula

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Comments
There will be no new golf course built on the Monterey Peninsula. That's the result of a new plan adopted by the Pebble Beach Co. after a previous development proposal was rejected by the California Coastal Commission two years ago.

The San Jose Mercury-News has the story here.

In 2000, voters adopted a ballot measure that proposed significant development of land on the Monterey Peninsula, including another golf course to join Pebble Beach, Spyglass Hill, et al. But seven years later, the coastal commission defeated the measure, which sent the Pebble Beach Co. back to the drawing board. 

According to the Mercury-News, "Opponents [of the 2000 plan] said the development would destroy up to 18,000 Monterey pines, and commission staff members said it was at odds with coastal policies to protect environmentally sensitive habitat. The new plan calls for a small hotel with up to 100 homes at the old Spyglass quarry; 80 new rooms at the Lodge at Pebble Beach and 60 new rooms at the Inn at Spanish Bay; and 90 single-family homes."

In a statement, Pebble Beach Co. chief executive Bill Perocchi said, "The commission staff and Pebble Beach Co. have been working to develop a project we could both support. ... We are very pleased that, together, we have been able to achieve that goal."

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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Arizona Update: 'Getting Hit From All Sides'

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Comments
The Arizona Republic starts the new year with an update on the overall golf market in Phoenix and the surrounding suburbs. In summary: golf course owners and developers aren't noticing any rebound, at least not yet. Some, uh, highlights:

Many private clubs have opened their courses to the public, even for just one or two days a week, in an effort to increase rounds and revenue.

Many facilities are negotiating green fees. One golfer talks about having played the Arizona Biltmore for $55, and guesses it would have cost him twice that much a year ago.

Arizona officials estimate that "only" 5 percent of the state's approximately 340 golf facilities are in dire economic condition, compared to 15 percent nationally.

The story said there were no golf course residential developments opened in Arizona in 2009 -- startling news (economic troubles notwithstanding) considering how "white hot" the state's golf market was as recently as five years ago.

You can read the complete story here.

-- G.R.


Posted by Geoff Russell
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Country Club of South Sells For $11.1 million

Wednesday, January 6, 2010 Comments
An update to the Jan. 4 post on the Country Club of the South: the suburban Atlanta club, which recently went into foreclosure, was sold Tuesday at auction for $11.1 million. The new owner is the Bank of North Georgia, located in Alpharetta.

News of the sale was reported by the Atlanta Business Journal. As we noted previously, the sale involved only the golf club and its facilities (including its Jack Nicklaus designed golf course). The 700 private homes that make up Country Club of the South were not part of the foreclosure or the sale.

-- G.R.


Posted by Geoff Russell
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Grenelefe Back on the Market

Thursday, December 17, 2009 Comments
Florida's Grenelefe Golf & Tennis Resort, once the crown jewel of the Tampa market but now fallen on hard times due to the struggling real estate market and damages inflicted by Hurricane Charley in 2004, is for sale. Details in this article in the Tampa Bay Business Journal.

Grenelefe is currently owned by Westgate Resorts, one of the biggest companies in the time-share industry, which bought it at foreclosure five years ago. A recent deal to sell the property for $50 million fell through, and according to the story, Westgate doesn't expect to fetch anywhere near that amount this time.

"They're looking for fair market price," a real estate analyst told Tampa Bay Business Journal.

-- G.R.
Posted by Geoff Russell
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