Escalante Golf has acquired Kingsmill Resort in Williamsburg, Virginia for $30.7 million, according to the Virginia Gazette. The Texas-based management company has been slowly acquiring courses, with nine added since 2011. With Kingsmill, it manages 25 18-hole equivalent courses, but Kingsmill is one of its most noted.
“Kingsmill Resort is one of the most iconic resorts on the east coast, started more than 45 years ago by the Anheuser-Busch Company,” said David McDonald, President of Escalante Golf, Inc in a news release. “It has hosted some of the best-known names in golf, including the PGA Tour’s Michelob Championship from 1981 to 2002 and now the LPGA’s Kingsmill Championship.”
McDonald and brothers Elcio Silva and Robert Silva founded Escalante in 1991. David Matheson joined the company in 2010, after 12 years in marketing at Starwood Hotel and Resorts. All four attended college together at University of Oklahoma and were in the same fraternity.
The Kingsmill private community sits on 2,900 acres and includes townhouses and single-family homes. The resort includes 422 rooms, a full-service spa and fitness center, a marina, and three golf courses.
Escalante had a difficult relationship with one homeowners association — at the Crosby at Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego. In 2016, A federal judge ruled in favor of the homeowners association in their legal battle to prevent Escalante from renting the private facility out for concerts, weddings, and other events. The Crosby filed bankruptcy in 2015.
Kingsmill was last acquired by Xanterra Parks & Resorts in 2010 for $24 million. It opened in 1969 after Anheuser-Busch purchased 3,900 acres along the James River.