Concert Golf Partners has closed on its acquisition of Crestview Country Club, a financially troubled, 36-hole course in Wichita, Kansas. It is the 13th property owned by Concert Golf.
Crestview is a 95-year old private club in the heart of Wichita. It was one of the 2,500 member-owned private clubs operating in the U.S. today, at least 50 percent of which are carrying dangerous levels of debt.
Crestview had borrowed $4 million and began assessing the members to finance clubhouse renovations in 2007. Dues and assessments were increased several times, some members left, and yet the debt remained.
“The burden of bank debt and the ongoing risk of member assessments makes it difficult to attract new members and your attrition also rises,” said Peter Nanula, CEO or Concert Golf. “It impacts even the very best clubs, and the proven solution is to pay off the debt and get an experienced club operating partner to invest their funds – not the members’ money – in the club facilities.”
The deal will pay off all club debt, lower annual membership dues, inject more than $1 million into immediate capital projects at the club and bar any future assessments on the membership.
“This partnership with Concert Golf ends our debt challenges, and ends the era of funding capital projects with member assessments,” said Rich High, the club’s president.
High led the club’s recapitalization, which took only four months from initial contact with Concert Golf.
“The membership had been discussing various capital improvement projects since our last major dining room project, and how to fund them,” said board member Mike Mueller. “We contacted everyone we knew in the golf industry and after hearing glowing recommendations of how they have preserved and enhanced other high-end clubs like ours, we chose to partner with Concert Golf.”
Concert Golf CEO Peter Nanula said that his team would undertake more than $1 million in new capital projects at Crestview, including bunker renovations; an indoor golf practice area; a splash pad and new swimming pool amenities; parking lot resurfacing; and renovation of the clubhouse, including the rear patio deck with expansive golf course views.
Concert Golf Partners is a boutique owner-operator of private clubs based in Newport Beach, Calif. Formed by Nanula, the founder and CEO of Arnold Palmer Golf Management, Concert Golf has amassed $150 million of long-term equity capital to invest in and upgrade large-scale private clubs located in major metro areas. Concert Golf is also unique in operating as an all-cash buyer with a dedicated fund, which, Nanula said, allows it to acquire or recapitalize clubs and subsequently invest in these properties for the long term.
Concert Golf is scheduled to close on Norbeck Country Club in Rockville, Maryland in late July. Nanula told the Orange County Business Journal that he and his partners aim to buy six to eight additional properties.