Officials at Seminole County and the cities of Oviedo and Winter Springs are considering buying the courses for their residents if a newly commissioned study by the Jupiter-based National Golf Foundation shows they can afford the purchase, sources in a position to know at the three governmental groups tell GlobeSt.com.
The properties are the 6,589-yard Winter Springs Golf Club course at 900 W. State Rd. 434, Winter Springs; the 6,603-yard Sabal Point Country Club course at 2662 Sabal Club Way, Longwood; and the 6,683-yard Twin Rivers Golf Club course at 2100 Ekana Dr., Oviedo. The courses have been on the market since June 2005.
The reduced asking price is $7.28 million for the three properties or an average $2.43 million each, according to national brokerage sources dealing exclusively in golf course sales. The initial asking price was $8.45 million or an average $2.82 million per acre. Banc of America Strategic Solutions Inc. of Charlotte, NC repossessed the courses from Orlando-based Meadowbrook Golf Inc., county and city officials confirm for GlobeSt.com. Banc of America Strategic Solutions Inc. manages distressed loans for Bank of America.
Seminole County staffers tell GlobeSt.com the county is reviewing a feasibility study recently completed by Sanford-based CPH Engineers Inc. that shows Sabal Point's parking lot and six tennis courts could be replaced with 76 residential condominiums. The 18-hole course would remain intact.
The same study suggests 154 townhomes and single-family residences, along with 125,000 sf of retail, could be developed at the Winter Springs Golf Club if nine holes were eliminated from the 18-hole championship course. The shortened course would not be part of any proposed development.
Area industrial brokers tell GlobeSt.com that if the total 525 acres were ever approved for commercial or residential development, the rush to buy the land would be intense. Local developers "would be in seventh heaven," Dean Fritchen, a senior associate in the Winter Park office of Coldwell Banker Commercial NRT tells GlobeSt.com. "Assuming each course has about 175 usable acres for golf course activity, that could mean the average gross acreage at each site could be at least 200 acres--enough for a good-size residential, retail or commercial project."
Officials at the three golf clubs couldn't be reached by GlobeSt.com's publication deadline to determine the specific usable and gross acreage each course.
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