The Pellucid Perspective - December 2022 - 10

COMINGS
& GOINGS
Activity Continues Winter Lull, All Transactions
A
ctivities dwindled to near-nothing (in a world of ~14K
potential activities) as we observed only 6 Transactions
in the November news cycle:
* Opens/Re-opens - 0
* Closeds - 0 (now 4th month in a row, could be a
trend?)
* Transactions (continuing golf operations including
For Sales) - 6
* Redevelopments (transactions not continuing as golf
operations) - 0
* Conversions/Other (Priv-Pub switch, downsize holes,
Priv->Muni ownership etc.) - 0
* On the bubble - 0
The table provides details and commentary for each activity.
For those not into detail (or the entertaining commentary),
below are our general observations on the patterns and trends.
The biggest news of the month was a 3-course transaction
in the Denver CO market as Heritage Golf Group continues
their aggressive acquisition pattern now owning/operating 28
facilities from single-digits 2 years ago and their
first foray into the Rocky Mountain area. Outside
that, the remainder of the transactions were
private party->private party with municipalities
continuing to pause their participation in buying
distressed properties to protect greenspace (no
matter the price/value it seemed).
Business associate Harvey Silverman " tipped
us off " to a small trend we've seen recently in
golf course fires. At Killearn in Tallahassee FL,
an early morning, no-one-present fire burned the
clubhouse to the ground concurrent with a major
renovation being done at the facility (definitely
faster than a demolition but much more dangerous?).
The Dunes in Sanibel had their cart fleet
catch on fire not once, but twice in the past several
months from what the local Pro believes is
https://www.clearbrookgolfclub.com/
Golf's landscape changes
Course
Event
Open/Re-open
Closed
Clearbrook Golf
Club
Transacted/For
Sale/Auction
Tierra Oaks Golf
Club
Chico-Redding
CA
Grand RapidsKalamazoo
MI
Pub/18
Pub/18
Bought by MN Vikings QB Kirk Cousins & wife fm
former local individual owner/operators; wanted
to preserve for community, former owners still
own restaurant and will operate course as well
Bought by Grape Ranch Golf Club in Palo Cedro
CA, kind of man-bites-dog with 9 hole facility
acquiring an 18-hole private club...
(Continued on page 10)
10 The Pellucid PersPecTive
December 2022
DMA
Type/Holes Summary
hurricane Ian seawater surge contaminating the batteries and
causing one or more to combust then spreading to the rest of
the closely-parked carts in their staging lot. A third instance
was the complete demolition of a cart barn in an overnight
fire (anyone see the pattern here?) to which the General Manager
commented " Maybe now we'll be able to make some improvements
that we couldn't previously make. " Firefighters
also mentioned they had trouble getting inside the burning
cart barn due to security systems that had been put in place
to prevent vandalism which pretty much assured the total destruction.
We'll
have a recap of all the year's activity in the upcoming
State of the Industry presentation in Orlando at the end
of January. The overall trends are that the golf market has
been much more " liquid " this year behind the continuing
post-COVID favorable trends, we're seeing new development
creep back into the picture and, finally, buy/sell expectations
are coming more in line as buyers become convinced the elevated
levels of golfers and rounds won't evaporate and sellers
deciding it's probably as good as it's gonna' get if they're looking
for an exit ramp.
Clearbrook Golf Club in Saugatuck,
MI was bought by MNVikings QB
Kirk Cousins and his wife.
https://www.clearbrookgolfclub.com/ https://www.clearbrookgolfclub.com/
The Pellucid Perspective - December 2022

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Pellucid Perspective - December 2022
