The university purchased the Pensacola, Fla., property in 2012 for $2.2 million, but has decided to shift its focus to student performance and retention. RNL Investment Group is expected to close on the sale by August 31, with plans to enhance the golf course and install a new food-and-beverage operator.
The University of West Florida expects to finalize its sale of the Scenic Hills Country Club in Pensacola, Fla., by August 31, a move university officials said would help it focus less on the business of operating and maintaining a golf course and more on its mission of student performance and retention, the Pensacola News Journal reported.
Ed Ranelli, treasurer of University of West Florida Business Enterprises Inc., declined to reveal the sale price, but he said the university intends to unload the club to a limited liability company comprised of residents of the Scenic Hills neighborhood. The company, known as RNL Investment Group LLC, is managed by Pensacola residents Leo Lynne and Eric Reese, the News Journal reported.
The university purchased the 150-acre golf course in 2012 for about $2.2 million. It made the acquisition through BEI, a subsidiary organization that builds and manages public-private partnerships for the university. But in 2015, BEI solicited input from community members and golf industry experts to assess the club’s future viability, the News Journal reported.
“The consensus was that it was not a core business of the university and the outlook on golf courses and country clubs was continuing along a long-term trend of decline,” Ranelli said. “It was probably appropriate for us to see if we could work out a mutually beneficial transaction with a partner who was engaged in the golf business and could bring it to a more successful outcome.”
The club operated at a deficit, Ranelli said, but he could not specify the amount of money lost on the venture. Moving forward, he added, the property continued to project as an underperforming asset, the News Journal reported.
In 2015, WUWF Public Media, a National Public Radio affiliate that broadcasts from the university, reported multiple losses based on a university document. In a memo emailed by the university’s Faculty Senate Executive Committee in February of that year to Judy Bense, the university’s former president, the committee challenged the golf course suffered $1.5 million in flooding damage in 2014. The committee also wrote the site had reported a net accounting loss of more than $200,000 for the fiscal year, the News Journal reported.
According to the BEI board of director’s 2012 meeting minutes, Jay Patel, board vice chairman and a university trustee, was among those in support of acquiring the country club. Recently through his role as a private hotel developer, Patel has also spearheaded an effort with Mayor Ashton Hayward to fund a new Pensacola arena that could host the New Orleans Pelicans’ NBA G League affiliate. Based on preliminary plans from Patel and Hayward, the facility would be financed through a public-private partnership and cost $80 million to $100 million, the News Journal reported.
On Monday, Patel estimated the university broke even on the golf course’s operations. Explaining why he supported the university’s purchase of the site, he said, at the time, it made sense for the university to explore how it could utilize the property, because the university is located on adjoining land, but he acknowledged the university’s priorities have now shifted, the News Journal reported.
Should RNL Investment Group close on the property as anticipated, Patel and Ranelli both expect the university to continue having a role at the site. The university’s golf team should still practice at the course and the university will still host events and place student interns at the club. The new company has also pledged to enhance the golf course and install a new food and beverage operator, the News Journal reported.
The possibility of a new owner of the club has been welcomed by its members and Scenic Hills residents. Ron Mick, a club member who retired from the Navy during the 1980s, hypothesized the university probably failed to realize the cost of running a golf course when it purchased it, the News Journal reported.
Carol McDonald, who has owned a home with her husband in Scenic Hills since 1978, echoed Mick on the sentiment. McDonald expects the new owners to enhance the club’s amenities, ultimately encouraging more families to move into the neighborhood. “I think all of the residents here are really happy that the club was bought,” she said.
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