(Golf Inc.) IRI Golf Management has added The Golf Club at Vistoso in Tuscon, Ariz., to its portfolio of 20 courses and restructured its debt on several other properties this year, according to chairman Jeff Silverstein.
ARIZGG LLC, an investment group, acquired The Golf Club at Vistoso in July, and signed a long-term management agreement with IRI, which also operates four other properties in Tucson. Silverstein brought together the group of Los Angeles-based investors to acquire the foreclosed property from Textron Financial for $3.7 million, which included equipment and carts. Silverstein has ownership interest in ARIZGG, LLC as well.
“It was an opportunity for us to acquire our number one competitor [to the Arizona National Golf Club],” Silverstein said. “It is a fabulous property.”
The Golf Club at Vistoso cost $10 million to build in 1996, and has been voted one of the top courses in the state. The company plans to make immediate capital improvements to the Tom Weiskopf-designed 18-hole course.
“Arizona has been hit so hard that it was the financial structure of the course more so that the actual numbers of the course [that led to the foreclosure],” Silverstein said.
IRI also recently restructured and recapitalized two Arizona properties — Arizona National Golf Club and Forty Niner Country Club. The restructure entailed the raising of new equity and a modification of its debt agreement with Textron Financial.
Silverstein said Textron Financial has been great to work with, and that he felt the acquisition of Vistoso helped get the deal done. IRI was able to extend its term five years and get a very good interest rate. This restructure follows a similar transaction which closed Feb. 2, 2010 involving eight properties in North and South Carolina as well as Texas.
In a separate announcement, the company announced an agreement in principle to restructure its debt for San Ignacio and Canoa Hills, two courses located in Green Valley, Arizona. IRI has corporate offices in Charlotte, North Carolina and San Diego, California. The company owns and operates golf courses and provides course management and administration.