The property closed its doors on August 25, and will be put up for auction on September 1 with an opening bid of $3.6 million. The club features three nine-hole courses designed by Pete Dye, a driving range and putting area, and a clubhouse with a banquet hall.
Once seen as a premiere attraction for the city, the Moreno Valley (Calif.) Ranch Golf Club has closed its doors and is scheduled to be put up for auction next week, the Riverside, Calif.-based Press-Enterprise reported.
The 27-hole golf course, designed by Pete Dye, was shuttered August 25. Though it hosted the Nike Inland Empire Golf Tournament from 1994 to 1998, it struggled to attract customers in recent years and had fallen into disrepair, the Press-Enterprise reported.
Loopnet, a commercial real estate website, listed the auction date as September 1 and the 112-acre course’s value at $7.5 million. The opening bid is $3.6 million. The club features three nine-hole courses, a driving range and a putting area. It also has a clubhouse with a banquet hall rented out for weddings and other special occasions, the Press-Enterprise reported.
A representative for the owner, MIF 11 LLC, a Los Angeles-based real estate investment fund and subsidiary of Total Companies, could not be reached by the Press-Enterprise for comment Wednesday.
The auction date had been previously postponed while the company tried to work out a deal with a lender, said Mike Lee, Moreno Valley’s economic development director. The auction is a foreclosure sale by bank trustees, he said.
“We’re hopeful that a new investor will buy the golf course and run the golf course in a professional manner,” Lee said.
Councilman George Price, in whose district the course is located, said he was disappointed to see it close, calling it “a gem” during its heyday. An avid golfer, Price at one time sat on a board associated with the facility, the Press-Enterprise reported.
“It was a destination point for people to come and play,” Price said. “I’m hopeful that someone will come in and restore it.”
Recently, he’s heard from neighbors complaining of litter, overgrown weeds and dead trees at the golf course. Price said he’s asking the city’s code compliance department to check on it regularly to make sure it doesn’t draw vandals and loiterers, the Press-Enterprise reported.
Hank Schiller, who was the club’s General Manager from 1990 to 1999, said he was not surprised by the news, the Press-Enterprise reported.
“The golf business over the last several years has been quite competitive,“ said Schiller, who is now General Manger at Victoria Country Club in Riverside. “Being in the location that Moreno Valley Ranch Golf Club was, they kind of got left out.”
The course once drew golfers from around the region due to low prices and its design features. But as more courses opened with competing prices, fewer golfers made the trip to Moreno Valley, Schiller said. He called the design one of the best for a public facility and said he hopes the course reopens, but added that “buying a golf course today can be very challenging,” the Press-Enterprise reported.
The course has already gone through a number of owners. It was originally built in 1988 by Landmark Land Co., which also developed the homes around the course. The federal government seized the property due to the failure of a savings and loan that financed the development. The Japanese firm Atsugi Kokusai Kanko USA bought the course in an auction before selling it to the latest owner in 2005, the Press-Enterprise reported.
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