Golf Inc. Monthly - January/February 2017

22 Golf Inc. January/February 2017 acquired Oki Golf’s 10-course portfolio in the Seattle market for $137.5 million.

The Chinese conglomerate, which owns Hainan Airlines, said the acquisition was designed to boost its portfolio overseas. HNA is chasing rich Chinese golfers, and it saw Seattle as a gateway to the North American market.

The conglomerate already owned 13 golf courses, 11 in China and two in the U.S – Nicklaus Club Monterey in Monterey, Calif., and Somers Pointe Golf Club in Somers, N. Y. The sale was one of many investments by Asian buyers in the Seattle region.

The seller, Scott Oki, is a former Microsoft vice president who founded Oki Golf two years after leaving Microsoft in 1992.

“While we have been approached several times regarding acquisition, this is the first time we felt that the vision and opportunity being presented was a strong fit and a natural next step for the evolution of the Oki brand,” he said in a statement.

Malibu Golf Club
Malibu, Calif.

Buyer: Shinhan Golden Faith International Development

Seller: Court-appointed receiver Broker: Kennedy Wilson

Price: $30.5 million

A Chinese company also acquired Malibu Golf Club. Shinhan Golden Faith International Development, a little-known Chinese investment firm, bought the deserted and defunct club in an all-cash deal that closed in September.

The 18-hole property sits on a 650-acre
site within the Santa Monica Mountains
Recreational Area and is fully entitled
for development as a health and wellness
golf resort institute. The property was last
bought in 2006 for $33 million by inves-
tors that included Lehman Brothers. After
the collapse of Lehman Brothers, the
club’s operator filed for bankruptcy twice,
in 2009 and 2015, before it was assigned to
a receiver by the bankruptcy court.

Bill Hoffman of Trigild, a San Diego-based firm, handled the disposition following Malibu Associates’ $47-million loan default. Beverly Hills, Calif.-based Kennedy Wilson’s Fred Cordova, Ed Sachse, Ryan Eddy, Michael Puleo and Jake Sachse represented the receiver. Hoffman told the Los Angeles Times there were “lots of offers, some with higher prices, but with lots of contingencies.”

Dove Canyon Golf and
Country Club, Rancho Santa
Margarita, Calif.

Buyer: SJS Tomorrow LLC Seller: Pacific Links International Broker: PMRG

Price: $12 million (estimated)

Three years after Ken Arimitsu represented Pacific Links International in the purchase of Dove Canyon Golf and Country Club, the broker and senior vice president at PMRG helped Pacific Links exit the Jack Nicklaus-designed course.

SJS Tomorrow acquired the course for an estimated $12 million in November. SJS Tomorrow is an affiliate of South Korean clothing manufacturer SAE-A Trading Co. It has owned Steele Canyon Golf Club near San Diego for about 12 years and is having a “very positive experience” with another recent Southern California acquisition, Bear Creek Golf Club in Murrieta, Calif., Arimitsu said.

Pacific Links had pledged to invest $6.2 million into the private Dove Canyon, but the company subsequently decided to liquidate its golf ownership interests. Pacific Links President Rudy Anderson said his company is focused on branding and growing its China-fueled global golf membership-club model by partnering with properties rather than owning them. Terms of the recent 230-acre Dove Canyon deal were not disclosed, but local sources said the transaction was close to $12 million.

Rancho Cucamonga, Calif.
Buyer: Lewis Group of Cos.

Seller: Park Global

Broker: Chaparral Land Co., buyer representative; PMRG, seller representative

Price: $22 million

Arimitsu, who brokered close to $90 million in golf course sales in 2016, also handled the sale of Empire Lakes Golf Course for $22 million.

“At the time of the sale, the golf course
NOI was in the neighborhood of a couple
hundred thousand,” Arimitsu said. “The
owner had no exit strategy other than to
explore other options. It was not zoned for
residential, and after working through the
process, we helped them extract the maxi-
mum economic value of the land.”
In a private deal that took nearly a year
to close, Lewis Group of Cos. acquired the
course in July with plans to redevelop the
struggling 18-hole course into a mixed-
use community with as many as 3,450
residential units and 220,000 square feet
of commercial space.

Hillcrest Country Club,
Hollywood, Fla.

Buyer: PulteGroup

Seller: Concord Wilshire Partners Price: $25 million

PulteGroup, the nation’s third largest homebuilder, acquired Hillcrest Golf & Country Club for $25 million in June. The company plans to build 645 residential units around the 27-hole facility.

Pulte, which was once one of the country’s most active golf course developers, is now focused on buying underperforming courses and adding housing units.