First Option Bags Coronado Golf Course Win

The Scottsdale-based ODANORDC LLC, led by Andrew Toth, the course's operator, has paid $980,000 for a 7.56-acre share of the nine-hole course partially owned by Maricopa County public entities. Seller Foxworth Galbraith Lumber Co. toyed with hawking its share three years ago and then changed its mind, Carl K. Johnson, principal of Johnson & Associates Real Estate Services of Scottsdale, tells GlobeSt.com. It was a matter of pragmatics since the rent was low and so was the appraisal, factors that kept it off the hot-property list even in Scottsdale. That changed in August 2001 when the Dallas-based lumber company, which has extensive real estate holdings in the West, revisited a sales possibility.

Johnson found out the land was zoned multifamily at one time, but apparently was altered to open space without the property owner's knowledge. In short, a Scottsdale address for a potential multifamily site meant a higher ticket could be sought. The decision was to go to market with a $1 million asking price based on the possibility, seeking nearly three times its appraised value as a public golf course. "We had a half dozen offers," Johnson says. Toth exercised his right of first refusal and "matched our best offer," the broker confided.

The nine-hole executive course was built in 1965 on part of a large tract that Foxworth Galbraith donated to the city for a flood control project in the Indian Bend Wash. Why the family-owned lumber company held onto its share at 2829 N. Miller Rd. is a mystery, but the investment certainly has paid off. Peggy Johnson of NAI Horizon represented the buyer, whose intention is to keep the course intact.

Foxworth Galbraith, founded in 1901, owns real estate in Colorado, New Mexico, Mexico, Arizona and its home state of Texas. In all, it has more than 70 locations, including the Brookhart's Building Center chain in Colorado.