Opportunity for Golf Course Purchase

[James Trautz]

Good morning, 

I belong to an HOA and have recently found out that the owner of the Golf Course in our community has decided to sell the property. Normally, this is not a problem, however, he has decided to sell the property to a developer who (it appears) has already greased the skids for rezoning the property into Medium Density Housing. We have been successful in the past in temporarily halting the rezoning and the planned development, however the county is pretty insistent on allowing the building to move forth.

In speaking with other homeowners, we feel the quickest and best way to halt this planned development is to "control the property." It would be nice if the HOA could buy the property outright, but time is short, and getting all of the 1452 owners (25% of which are absentee and overseas owners) to agree on a purchase just isn't practical. Our next best hope is to either find an investor who sees the potential for the course, create a REIT, or to have a REIT invest in this property as part of it's portfolio.

Any help from the great people on this site would be greatly appreciated!

[James Trautz]

Common Sense would dictate that the HOA would buy the course, but given the time constraints, it's just not practical. And to @Scott Mac and @Paul Smythe points, it is definitely worth more by building, however, at issue is the drastic drop in property values forthcoming for the present community. We've already asked the CDD if they're interested in purchasing, but they're only interested in the raw number value, as opposed to the value proposition a properly run course could bring in terms of cashflow. It would be great if the County would step up, but to be frank - they see the opportunity for low income housing and that is more satisfying for their political posturing than dropping home values. Interesting enough, there is a win-win opportunity here. The county has plenty of other sites available that could be zoned for low-income housing. If we could find an investor who's willing to partner with individual homeowners, or an investor interested in turning around an already established course in short order for positive cashflow, or a REIT willing to look at this as part of a value add to their portfolio, this would be solve all problems. I've been through this once before, and we had an investor who bought the course - his name: Trump. Unfortunately, they're not interested - simply because they're looking to invest in other areas. So... again, if anyone knows of anybody who may be interested, please let me know. Many thanks - Jim