Katierich Asset Management, a New York-based real estate investment company, acquired its second course this year with the purchase of The Brick Landing Plantation Golf Course in Ocean Isle Beach, N.C.
It closed on the 18-hole course with clubhouse in early August for around $800,000. The course, which has been closed since January 2010, had been owned by Greensboro-based Carolina Bank since falling into foreclosure.
“It’s been two and a half years since we’ve had much to smile about, and quite frankly, this guy is making us smile again,” Ken Horton, President of the Brick Landing Plantation Community Master Association told the Sun News in North Carolina. “We’re cautiously optimistic at this point but extremely happy someone bought the course that cares about the course and community.”
Lawrence Doyle, CEO of Katierich Asset Management, started the company last year to acquire distressed real estate holdings. He owns a thoroughbred horse farm in Lexington, Ky., and a 10-acre site in Bermuda. He acquired Olde Point Golf and Country Club in May for $900,000. The bank note on that course was $2.2 million. Olde Point, in nearby Hampstead, was near foreclosure when acquired.
Doyle told the Wilmington Star News said he would be open to buying more golf courses.
“I am interested if another one was to pop up in the Wilmington area,” Doyle said. “But I have my hands full, so I’m not knocking down any doors.”
Doyle hopes to reopen Brick Landing by October, and is already fixing up the course. Investors had bought the 125-acre course in 2005 with a $5 million loan. Carolina Bank reclaimed it with a $1.3 million bid at a foreclosure sale in August 2010. The taxable value of the property was $7 million in 2007, before the economic crash annd the course closure.
At Olde Point, Doyle has purchased a new fleet of carts, refurbished a restaurant, improved course conditions, and made clubhouse improvements.