Heritage Golf Group and its partner Tower Three Partners acquired Champions Retreat Golf Club, in Evans, Georgia, for an undisclosed amount. This is the eighth property in the companies’ portfolio of golf properties. The company is also in the process of acquiring The Dominion Club in Glen Allen, Virginia, and hopes to close that deal in Mid-November.
“We really want to stay on the high-end side of business and Champion Retreat Golf Club is a great start,” said Bob Husband, managing partner and founder of Heritage Golf Group. “It’s a beautiful place and serves as a stake in the ground for the service and quality levels we would like to achieve at all properties.”
The Champions Retreat Golf Club is the only facility worldwide with three 9-hole courses designed by Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player. Located in a gated community, the private club is on a twelve-hundred-acre property along the Savannah River.
“I think everybody in the world is trying to cut expenses and operate in great markets,” Husband said. “We’re trying to do that in a way that’s a bit different by purchasing quality properties and enhancing them.”
Husband said Heritage Golf Group hopes to purchase 20 high-end properties over the next three to five years.
“As our company further expands and elevates its portfolio of ‘best-in-class’ golf properties through strategic acquisitions and capital investments, we are closer and closer to realizing our vision of providing unrivaled golf and uncompromising service,” Husband said in a press release.
Loch Levan Land Limited Partnership accepted an offer to sell The Dominion Club to Heritage in mid-August, though the deal has yet to be finalized. The acquisition price and other details will not be released until the transaction is finalized. However, sources said Heritage outbid other companies by more than $2 million.
The Dominion Club has an 18-hole golf course, 28,000-square-foot clubhouse and nine tennis courts.
Heritage Golf Group announced a recapitalization from Tower Three Partners, which led to the new partnership, in April 2014. Tower Three Partners is a private equity firm that invests in U.S.-based middle market companies with target equity investments between $50m and $150m to catalyze their affiliate companies like Heritage Golf Group.
The company is in the process of rebranding itself to reflect the new relationship. Heritage Golf Group Managing Partner Davis Sezna said Heritage plan to evolve the private country club experience. To help fulfill these goals, it hired Alan Weime as the Corporate Director of Food & Beverage. Weime will be based out of Champions Retreat Golf Club.