American Golf Corp. and subsidiary NGP Realty Sub L.P. sold Arrowhead Golf Club in Davie, Fla., to the Florida Department of Transportation in December for a reported $7.4 million.
Two other Broward County courses, Lago Mar Country Club and Pine Island Ridge Country Club, collected approximately $13.7 million between them from the Florida DOT in exchange for providing the state with an easement for drainage on the courses’ property. The easements were necessary to accommodate the state’s expansion of the heavily traveled I-595 highway corridor nearby.
American Golf, represented by the Los Angeles legal firm of Greenberg Glusker, opted to sell the Arrowhead daily fee course to the DOT rather than accept payment for an easement in order to keep the course free of encumbrances and make it possible for AGC to sell the course immediately, according to a DOT official. American Golf will continue to operate the course under a no-fee, lease-back arrangement until mid-June of this year, when the course will be closed for new drainage construction.
Following completion of that work, the DOT has commissioned course architect Harrison Minchew and his Signature Golf Design group to direct an approximately $2 million redesign of the nearly 40-year-old course for its reopening, which could come as late as fall 2010. The DOT has said it plans to sell the course once it is rebuilt. One possible buyer is reportedly the city of Davie.
The $7.5 million paid to Lago Mar Country Club and the $6.2 million to Pine Island Ridge will go for both the land involved in the drainage easements and repairs or course alterations the clubs will need to make to accommodate the new drainage infrastructure.