After months of sometimes tense negotiations over Reynolds Plantation, the luxurious golf community's developer, banks and a group of property owners have agreed to the purchase price for six golf courses and other amenities.
The price: $43.1 million, plus up to $1.2 million in fees. The 3,500-plus owners will vote on the deal on April 29.
Linger Longer, the developer of Reynolds Plantation, an enclave on Lake Oconee about a 70-minute drive east of Atlanta, must sell the amenities to pay down debt to a group of banks led Bank of America. If the property owners don't agree to buy the courses, the developer will try to sell them to a golf management company, or the banks could take them back.
The developer also pledged $21.5 million through 2017 to support the cost of operating the courses, which are not run to turn a profit but to sell lots and lifestyle in the community.
"None of us foresaw that the recent financial meltdown of banking institutions would result in such increased pressure and scrutiny on real estate holdings,” wrote Mercer Reynolds, chairman of the development group, in a letter about the deal.
If they vote yes, club members would pay from $5,000 to $19,000, depending on their membership level, to buy the courses. Owners who are not club members will not have to pay.
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