The 90-year-old Brook Valley property in Greenville, N.C. will become the ninth Carolina property in Raleigh-based McConnell’s portfolio, and the new owner has pledged to make $2 million in improvements in the next two years. Hoakalei CC, in West Oahu, Hawaii, has an Ernie Els-designed golf course; it is being sold to the Hirakawa Shoji Group, which plans to start building a new permanent clubhouse within two years.
Brook Valley Country Club, a 90-year-old property in Greenville, N.C., will remain open, WNCT-TV 9 of Greenville reported, after the announcement on October 2 that the Raleigh, N.C.-based McConnell Golf Group will purchase and operate the facilities.
The property had changed hands the previous day from the Greenville Country Club to the Carlton Taylor family, WNCT reported, and things were unclear for a while as to what would happen next. But the acquisition by McConnell is now being seen as a “hole in one” for the people playing and living at the Brook Valley community, the station said.
In August, Greenville CC had voted to drop its connection with Brook Valley and default on its payments, WNCT reported, and homeowners were facing the possibility of a 20 to 40 percent decline in property values. “The plan was that the neighborhood and the homeowners association, through raising funds, would buy it,” Rich Winkler, a club member, told WNCT. “but we don’t know how to run a country club.”
Now in McConnell, though, the club has a new owner that was happy to jump on the deal and is already promising to make $2 million in improvements in the next two years. “I think Greenville is a great opportunity for us to bring our brand, policies and our procedures and processes, because I think people will be blown away by the service and quality of facilities we’re getting ready to provide,” John McConnell, McConnell Golf’s President and Owner, told WNCT.
McConnell currently owns and operates eight club properties in North and South Carolina.
“We as a family are part of this whole community site, and so I think we are all excited about it and, yes, it means a lot to us, because it allows for us to do the thing we set out to do from the very beginning,” said Donnie Bunn, Executive Director of Country Club Properties LLC, the company formed by the Taylor family, which developed the Brook Valley community, to manage the club. Bunn is the son-in-law of the late Carlton Taylor.
“The members agree that this land is too beautiful to be anything but a golf course,” Bunn added, according to an additional report in the Greenville (N.C.) Daily Reflector.
In other club transaction news, Pacific Business News reported that the Hoakalei Country Club in West Oahu, Hawaii, which features a par-72, 7,400-yard golf course designed by Ernie Els, has been sold to Japan’s Hirakawa Shoji Group for an undisclosed amount.
The 18-hole, 248-acre course, which opened in 2009 and is located within the Hoakalei Resort in Ewa Beach, will begin operations with its new owner in December, Pacific Business News reported.
“The sale of the golf course has been a long-term goal for Haseko,” Tom Sagawa, President of the seller, Haseko Hawaii Inc., said in a statement. “Our intention was to build an exceptional golf course that would complement our vision for Hoakalei Resort and eventually sell it to a buyer who shares our commitment to building upon the exceptional quality of play currently experienced at Hoakalei Country Club. We found that in Hirakawa Shoji Group.”
Hirakawa Shoji Group has extensive industry experience as owners of a golf course in Japan, a golf academy and golf-related businesses, Pacific Business News reported. The company has committed to rehiring the majority of Hoakalei Country Club’s employees, to preserving the existing membership and to maintaining the course’s quality of play, it was reported. It also plans to build a permanent clubhouse and dining facilities, with construction anticipated to begin within the next 24 months.
Hoakalei Country Club currently has more than 280 members and 61 employees, Pacific Business News reported.
“This is a positive development for the community [and] one that will preserve Hoakalei Country Club as a major focal point of Hoakalei Resort and one of the best golf experiences in Hawaii,” Sagawa said.
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