Henry Luken, who owns and operates several other clubs in the Chattanooga, Tenn. area, closed the Harrison, Tenn. course, claiming that the Eagle Bluff homeowners association was devaluing the property by attempting to thwart any sale to a developer. The homeowners, who claim that the golf course must be reserved for recreational use, say they are still hopeful of working with Luken to find a way to sell the property to another club operator.
Seven years after buying Eagle Bluff Golf Club in Harrison, Tenn., businessman Henry Luken has shut down the 18-hole course, the Chattanooga (Tenn.) Times Free Press reported.
Luken said on July 31 that he has had to subsidize operations of the course since he bought Eagle Bluff for $1.4 million in 2012, the Times Free Press reported, so he decided in June to close the business.
Luken had quit adding new members for the course earlier this year and gave notice to golf course workers he might shut down the facility, the Times Free Press reported.
Luken said he finally decided to try to sell the 417-acre site after he claims the Eagle Bluff Home Owners Association (HOA) worked to devalue his property by hiring an attorney and meeting with county officials to ensure the land was not subdivided and sold as more home lots, the Times Free Press reported.He told homeowners around the course of his decision in June in a brief and terse meeting with the HOA and the course closed on July 28 after a tournament was held on it that weekend.
“I’m going to sell the property, which is what the home owners there don’t want me to do,” Luken said on July 31. “I’m sure they will fight me, but I am equally sure they will lose.”
Cort Dondero, President of Dondero & Associates and head of the Eagle Bluff HOA, said the homeowners are eager to enhance the value of the course and to discuss with Luken the options going forth for the property, the Times Free Press reported.
“The homeowners are certainly very disappointed that the course has closed,” Dondero said. “We had hoped to talk with Mr. Luken about the course and its possible sale and we still hope those talks can occur, because we both want was it best for this property.”
But Luken cited a letter to homeowners by Dondero that he says have hurt his efforts to sell the property and enhance the value of Eagle Bluff, the Times Free Press reported. In a newsletter, Dondero that said that neighborhood leaders at Eagle Bluff “have met with the heads of several county departments (county mayor, Zoning & Planning, Deeds and Assessments) to determine how we could make it difficult for the developer to purchase the golf course and then shut it down and develop it.”
Dondero said the homeowners had acted to restrict access to the course “to make it difficult” for any other development of the course property, the Times Free Press reported.
Dondero said on July 31 that the HOA has been advised by attorneys hired by the association that the course must be reserved for recreational use, “which I don’t think Mr. Luken knew when he bought this property,” the Times Free Press reported.
Luken estimates he has had to subsidize the golf course every year he has owned it ” to the tune of $200,000 to $250,000 a year,” the Times Free Press reported.
“And if the HOA is going to fire shots across my bow, I don’t really care about them anymore,” he said. “I don’t need to fight with anybody, but when they start kicking at me, I’m going to kick back.”
In a facebook post to Eagle Bluff homeowners, Luken said “your HOA has intentionally tried to damage the value of the golf course” by limiting its use, the Times Free Press reported. But Dondero said deed restrictions on the site already limit how the property can be used.
Luken said he still plans to try to sell the course and expects developers to create at least some home sites on the ridge-top course, which was originally developed by Don Williams as part of an Eagle Bluff subdivision, the Times Free Press reported.
Only a handful of the homeowners in the neighborhood were members of the golf course, Luken estimated. Because of its location and the difficulty of the course, he added, attracting other members to Eagle Bluff also was hard.
“Eagle Bluff is off the beaten track and it has no chance of surviving if the homeowners who live around the course won’t support it,” he said.
Dondero told the Times Free Press that the Eagle Bluff course had not been as well-maintained by Luken as it had been in the past under its previous owner, Jim Sheets, who bought the golf course after winning the Tennessee Lottery. Sheets and others also were unsuccessful in making money on the course, however, the Times Free Press reported.
Some homeowners didn’t join the Eagle Bluff course because they didn’t like Luken putting the membership of Eagle Bluff together with other courses that he owns in the area, Dondero added.
“The good news is that my Battlefield Golf Course [in Ringgold, Tenn.] is opening soon with brand-new greens, and that course is supported by its customers and the local homeowners,” Luken told the Times Free Press.
Luken also sold his ownership of the Champions Club LLC in Ooltewah, Tenn. to a group organized by local homeowners at the end of last year for $2.1 million (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/homeowners-buy-tennessee-golf-course-for-2-1m/). Those homeowners also had complained about the maintenance under Luken of that 18-hole course.
Luken continues to own and operate other clubs and courses in the Chattanooga area, the Times Free Press reported, including Valleybrook Golf and Country Club in Hixson, Tenn., Montlake Golf Course north of Soddy-Daisy, Tenn. and Mount Airy Golf Course in Dunlap, Tenn. Luken also has a lease with the city of Cleveland, Tenn. and runs the Waterville Golf Course.
The Eagle Bluff property includes 147.3 acres and 15,858 sq. ft. of building, including a clubhouse, restaurant and a golf cart garage built in 1996, according to the Hamilton County (Tenn.) Assessor’s office, the Times Free Press reported.
The property features several distinctive bluffs overlooking Chickamauga Lake and Harrison Bay. The 18-hole course had been managed by Gibby Gilbert III, who at age 53 qualified this year for the the PGA Tour Champions, formerly the Senior Tour.
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