The course in an 821-home community in Land O’Lakes, Fla. closed two years ago and was listed as a short sale for $1.2 million, but the U.S. Department of the Interior approved the sale to Ace for $700,000. Members of the Plantation Palms Homeowners Association agreed to buy social memberships to the club for the next several years, accepting a $15-a-month surcharge on their association dues in exchange for discounts and other perks at the country club.
Ace Golf, the owner of three Florida golf courses in New Tampa and northern Pinellas, is poised to acquire the closed Plantation Palms Golf Club in Land O’Lakes, Fla., with plans for golfers to be walking the fairways of that course by September, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
The course, in an 821-home community of the same name, closed two years ago and was listed as a short sale for $1.2 million, the Times reported. On April 26, the U.S. Department of the Interior approved a $700,000 sale to Ace Golf, netting just less than $393,000 toward the debt that owner MJS Golf Group owed on the federally guaranteed note. MJS still must agree to the sale, and the closing could take place in May, the Times reported.
Bill Place, President of Ace Golf, said he expects repairs to the course to cost a minimum of $1.5 million, the Times reported. It’s the same conclusion that was reached in January by a consultant hired by Plantation Palms property owners.
“It’s a property that’s been neglected for quite a while. The greens are gone. The fairways need to be re-grassed,” Place said. “It’s not quite like starting completely anew, but it’s pretty close.”
Place’s Ace Golf also rebuilt the Crescent Oaks Country Club in Tarpon Springs, Fla. in 2011 after it had been shuttered for a year, the Times reported. The company’s other Florida properties include the Pebble Creek and Wentworth golf clubs, and driving ranges in Brandon and Riverview.
To make the numbers work, Plantation Palms Homeowners Association members have agreed to buy social memberships to the club for the next several years, the Times reported. In exchange for a $15-a-month surcharge on their association dues, residents will receive discounts and other perks at the country club. Approximately 70 percent of the homeowners approved the social membership obligation, according to Board member Jim Hammond.
“That was big. It said we want our golf course back, and we’re prepared to become good customers of Bill’s immediately,” said Hammond, who formed the group Bring Back Our Course to advocate for the neighborhood’s interests.
The 156-acre Plantation Palms Golf Club and 11,000-sq. ft. clubhouse opened in 2001 on a former orange grove adjacent to the Land O’Lakes Recreation Center, the Times reported. MJS purchased the course in 2011, but shut it down temporarily in August 2013 amid financial troubles. It closed for good in spring 2014, leaving an empty field filled with weeds as a neighborhood eyesore.
“We’re delighted to get our course back,” said Hammond.
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