The Crossing GC Sold to Company Headed by PGA Pro Brooks West

The Franklin, Tenn. club is the 13^th sold by American Golf Corporation as part of the strategy by Drive Shack, American Golf’s parent, to divest as many as 25 properties to raise capital for the development of golf entertainment centers. West was formerly National Sales Manager for Yamaha Golf-Car Company.

The Crossing Golf Club in Franklin, Tenn. has been sold to Golf Franklin Bridge LLC, a company headed by PGA golf professional Brooks West, formerly National Sales Manager for Yamaha Golf-Car Company.

The sale was announced by the Leisure Investment Properties Group (LIPG) of Marcus & Millichap, which brokered the sale.

Until December 31, 2018, The Crossing GC had been owned and operated by American Golf Corporation (AGC), a subsidiary of the Drive Shack golf entertainment company. The sale represents another property sold by American Golf, as part of Drive Shack’s strategy to divest as many as 25 AGC clubs and recycle the proceeds from those sales into the development of the golf entertainment centers (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/drive-shack-sells-11-clubs-for-82-5m/).

The Crossing, formerly Forest Crossing Golf Club, has long since been a staple of daily-fee golf in the Nashville market. It made the news in 2017 when it changed its name in the wake of protests concerning its connection with former Confederate Army General Nathan Bedford Forrest, who later became a grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/tennessee-club-changes-name-drop-connection-confederate-general/).

“As soon as I saw that the course was on the market, I knew that this was my best opportunity to own my own golf course,” said West, a Nashville native. “It’s a fun course to play and in a great location.”

The sale represents the growing trend of first-time golf course buyers entering the market, noted Steven Ekovich, National Managing Director of Marcus & Millichap’s LIPG. “Over the course of the last three years, we have sold courses to a number of PGA club pros, as well as investors from other asset classes chasing higher yields in the golf airspace,” Ekovich said.

Marcus & Millichap has three additional AGC/Drive Shack courses under contract, Ekovich added, and those sales are expected to close in the first quarter of 2019.

“We feel very privileged to have the opportunity to exclusively represent AGC and Drive Shack in facilitating the sale of a substantial portion of their portfolio,” said Chris Karamitsos, Senior Investment Advisor and co-founder of Marcus & Millichap’s LIPG. “These assets represent some of the best turn-key, income-producing properties we’ve taken to market. It’s no wonder that each has garnered so much attention from the investment community.”