DAYTONA BEACH, Florida — The company that bought the 36-hole LPGA International Golf Club two years ago year has put the property up for sale. An online auction for the 657-acre property west of Interstate 95 is scheduled to be held April 19-21 on the website ten-x.com.
The bidding will start at $4 million, according to a notice obtained by The Daytona Beach News-Journal, part of the USA Today Network. Notices were sent out to qualified investors.
Virginia-based Fore Golf Partners paid $3.45 million to acquire the one-time city-owned golf courses in October 2019. The city sold the two semi-private golf courses to Daytona Beach-based Consolidated, now known as CTO Realty Growth Inc. in 2017 for $1.5 million as well as 30 acres of land around Municipal Stadium.
The online listing for the golf courses at 1000 Champions Drive, Daytona Beach, describes it as a “premier semi-private golf club situated within The LPGA International residential community on the east coast of central Florida within Daytona Beach. Strong, going-in return without any immediate capital costs required by a buyer; over $860K in capital improvements invested by current owner in 2019/2020. Home course of the LPGA; Rees Jones and Arthur Hills signature golf courses situated on an expansive plus-minus 652-acre site.”
The listing agents for the LPGA International Golf Club property are Keith Cubba and Matt Putnam of Colliers International.
“Fore Golf found LPGA to have great potential — golf course quality and location,” wrote Cubba in an email responding to questions from The Daytona Beach News-Journal. “They thought that by addressing some capital needs and implementing operating practices that have proven successful at their other Florida courses, they could ‘right side’ performance then sell to a longer-term custodian while still leaving plenty of upside for that buyer through area growth and what should be post-pandemic increases in events, outings, and food and beverage.”
Cubba said Fore Golf invested “just under $900,000 worth of capital improvements (in the) last part of 2019 and through 2020. He’s put more capital improvement money in during 2021.”
The LPGA International Golf Club is currently operating at a profit, the commercial Realtor said. “I believe the response from members and public play is that the level of service and course conditions have improved.”
Bryan Collyer, a member of the LPGA International Golf Club, said he is not concerned that Fore Golf has put the courses up for sale.
“I’m not worried about how quick this turnaround is happening,” the Daytona Beach businessman wrote in an email. Collyer is the president of Crunch Construction. “The two courses are (the) best in the area and a new owner will have unlimited opportunities to grow the model.”
When the golf courses were sold in late 2019, “there was a lot of anticipation as to what would become of the LPGA International,” wrote Collyer. “Most of the golfers I have spoken to that either live in the LPGA neighborhood or play frequently believe that the courses need to remain an integral part of Daytona and should be owned/operated by an entity that has (a) vested interest in the area.”
The Arthur Hills Signature Course at LPGA International (Courtesy of LPGA International)
LPGA area developing fast
The golf courses at LPGA International are in the fast-growing area surrounding the I-95/LPGA Boulevard interchange that has seen thousands of new homes and luxury apartments built in recent years as well as the opening of two major shopping centers and distribution centers for both Trader Joe’s and Amazon. LPGA International is also across the street from the new Jimmy Buffett-themed Latitude Margaritaville 55-and-older community that has added more than 1,000 homes since welcoming its first residents in 2018.
A sale of the golf courses and clubhouse at LPGA International would not include the headquarters for the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
Carl Lentz IV, managing director of SVN Alliance Commercial Real Estate Advisors in Ormond Beach, said he saw the online listing for the golf courses at LPGA International go up on Monday.
“I don’t even know what to think about it yet,” he said. “I do know it’s a challenge to keep golf courses profitable these days. But there’s plenty of rooftops (new homes) going up in that area to help make the golf course and clubhouse profitable.”
“It’s one of the premier golf courses in the area that’s open to the general public,” said Lentz of the LPGA courses.
Number of golf courses is shrinking
“The demand is also going up because nobody’s building new golf courses these days and because some in our area are going away like River Bend,” he said, referring to the recent closure of the golf course along Airport Road in Ormond Beach.
Besides River Bend, the Volusia-Flagler area hasn’t been immune to the national trend of golf courses shutting down. Courses that have been shuttered in recent years include Matanzas Woods in Palm Coast (2007); DeLand Country Club (2012); Sandhill Golf Course in DeLand (2017); Indigo Lakes in Daytona Beach (2018); and Tomoka Oaks in Ormond Beach (2018).
The LPGA International Golf Club was previously put under contract earlier in 2019 to the U.S. subsidiary of a Chinese company called C-Bons International Golf Group. C-Bons officials had said their intention was to invest in improvements that could bolster the golf club’s chances of hosting major professional golf tournaments including possibly one by the Ladies Professional Golf Association.
C-Bons rescinded its offer after a number of area residents including Mayor Derrick Henry, who lives in LPGA International, voiced concerns regarding the buyer’s intentions. That’s when Fore Golf Partners stepped in to take over the courses.
“The first group that we had under contract (in 2019) at the LPGA Golf Club was a group that was looking to invest a large amount of capital in the facilities as a longer-term ownership plan and membership focus,” said John Albright, the CEO of CTO Realty Growth. “When (C-Bons) dropped the contract, the second group was more of a fix-the-operations-and-sell type of buyer with a shorter investment hold program.”
Albright said he expected Fore Golf to eventually put LPGA International Golf Club up for sale as opposed to owning it long-term. But even he was surprised that it chose to do it this quickly.
“It could be that they believe the market conditions are right in the Daytona Beach area,” he said. The surge in new homes and commercial development in the LPGA area could have been a factor, he added.
The Jones Course at LPGA International (Courtesy of LPGA International)
Already drawing ‘tremendous interest’
Cubba said marketing for the upcoming online auction of the LPGA International Golf Club has already generated “a tremendous amount of interest.”
“We can gauge interest level based on (the) number of non-disclosure agreements executed and the caliber of investor executing those agreements,” he added.
Cubba said Fore Golf is not in a situation where it needs to sell LPGA International Golf Club if it does not receive a satisfactory offer. The seller “can and would hold on to the property if expectations aren’t met,” he said.
News-Journal sports columnist Ken Willis contributed to this article.
