Balsam Mountain Preserve reopens only two months after Mark Antoncic seized control of foreclosed
4,500-acre private golf club community is North Carolina. Recognizing the market is down 30% to 40%,
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 issue of Golf Business & Real Estate newsletter. To subscribe call (800) 421-3483.