Balsam Mountain Preserve reopened only two months after Mark Antoncic seized control of the foreclosed 4,500-acre private golf club community in North Carolina. Recognizing the market is down 30 to 40 percent, Antoncic is committed to a long-term play and just hired Ken Costanzo as the club’s new president.
Costanzo previously served as the COO for the Cliffs Communities and ran Gary Player Real Estate.
Balsam Mountain was created and run by Chaffin Light Associates until the foreclosure last October. Of the 354 lots in the development that sold for an average $500,000 apiece, 120 remain to be sold. Balsam Mountain Preserve borrowed $20 million from Antoncic’s TriLyn firm in 2005 to finance infrastructure for the development, including the pricey course designed by Arnold Palmer. The debt owed to TriLyn reached $22 million by the height of foreclosure. The deal included most of the original loan, plus months of interest and attorneys fees. It also included money fronted by TriLyn to keep the club operations going and course maintained as Balsam developers began to run out of cash to make payroll on their own.
This story appeared in the June 7 edition of Golf Business and Real Estate. To subscribe please call (800) 421-3483