Management buys Legacy course for $2.2 million

By Business Observer Staff
| 8:56 a.m. February 22, 2013
| 2 Free Articles Remaining!

Manatee-Sarasota

BUYER: OS Legacy LLC (OS Golf Property Holdings Borrower LLC), New York City
SELLER: Textron Financial Corp.,
PROPERTY: 8255 Legacy Blvd., Bradenton
PRICE: $2.2 million
PREVIOUS PRICE: $4 million, August 1998
LAW FIRM ON DEED: Byan Cave LLP, New York City

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Textron Financial Corp., which acquired ownership of the Legacy Golf Course in exchange for $6.7 million of debt in mid-2009, has sold the Lakewood Ranch course.

A subsidiary of Och-Ziff Capital Management, a New York-based hedge fund, bought the course for $2.2 million. It financed the purchase with a $3.6 million loan from Bank of America.

Och-Ziff, an alternative asset manager with about $31.9 billion in assets, hired Christovich and Associates of Oviedo to manage the course.

Faced with a decline in golfing traffic in the recession, Textron Financial, a Providence, R.I.-based company, has been looking to shed Legacy from day one, says Brian Richter, who has managed Legacy for Textron.

Richter, who is still with Legacy after the management change, says he's seen more activity around the course lately, which gives its new owner flexibility to spend money.

“They [Och-Ziff] will keep Legacy a high-end facility and can put a little extra money into it on improvements,” Richter says. “I've seen more excitement around here lately. But [golf] is still a luxury item and at the higher end of it, and, with the economy down, we're still not at a profitable point yet.”

Legacy, an 18-hole, 200-acre course built on Schroeder-Manatee Ranch, was designed by golf legend Arnold Palmer. The course first opened in March 1997 and was soon acquired by Arizona-based Troon Golf.

In 2009, public rounds dropped 8.5% from the year before, while member rounds fell 2.5% from 2008.

Troon tried to negotiate with its lender to change the structure of the property's debt, but was unsuccessful and Textron took over the course.

An Och-Ziff Capital Management spokesperson declined to comment on the purchase.
— reporting by Josh Siegel, correspondent