Board members will buy out the debt owed to Southern Financial Group, saving the 92-year-old club from being sold at a sheriff’s sale for $3.65 million. Though the Board did not disclose details of the agreement, the debt will be satisfied by the end of the year, making the mortgage 100 percent member-owned starting in 2014.
Coatesville (Pa.) Country Club members celebrated last week after they kept the nearly century-old establishment from being sold at sheriff’s sale, the West Chester (Pa.) Daily Local News reported.
Board members will buy out the remaining amount the club owes to current note holder, Texas-based Southern Financial Group LLC, the News reported.
The property was scheduled to go up for a sheriff’s sale at the end on October 17 for $3.65 million. C&RB reported on the sale at the beginning of October (“Coatesville (Pa.) Country Club Listed for Sheriff’s Sale”).
Board members did not disclose details of the agreement with Southern Financial Group, other than to say they will satisfy the debt by the end of the year. Club President Don Myers said the deal was settled on October 9, and the mortgage will be 100 percent member-owned starting in 2014, the News reported.
“This was truly our last hurdle to overcome,” Myers said.
The club was owned by the City of Coatesville until 1995. The city then sold the remainder of the lease to the club for $500,000, said Rich Saylor, second vice president and club member for the past 26 years.
As part of that sale, a deed restriction was placed on the property to prohibit anyone from building houses on it to protect a source of the city’s water supply. The old clubhouse was demolished and a new one was built in 2001, adding to the club’s debt, the News reported.
Coatesville CC opened as a nine-hole course in 1921 by members of the Lukens family, who started and ran the steel mill for which the community became known. About two years later, the course expanded to 18 holes, and now, 92 years later, it has new life, the News reported.
“It’s an old shoe,” said Board secretary Carolyn O’Brien, who spent the past 21 years as a member of the club and the past 11 as the Board’s secretary. “It just fits you.”
The club has attracted 100 new members this year, Myers said. If it hadn’t been for the Board members who “stuck with the place,” the Coatesville Country Club might not have survived, he added.
The club hosts golf tournaments, fundraisers, weddings, community banquets and more on the property. When it snows during the winter, a group gathers on the course for a sledding session, the News reported.
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