Golf group on tee to sell area courses
Triangle Business Journal - by Steve Robblee
RALEIGH -- Cobblestone Golf Group, a large California golf course operator, is buying Raleigh-based Carolinas Golf Group.
Carolinas Golf owns and operates seven golf courses, including Triangle semi-private courses Lochmere Golf Club in Cary, Devils Ridge in Holly Springs and The Neuse in Clayton. It also owns two Outer Banks courses -- Nags Head Golf Links and the Currituck Club -- and Oak Valley Golf Club near Winston-Salem and Kiskiack Golf Club in Williamsburg, Va., which it bought last October.
Cobblestone, of Del Mar, Calif., owns or operates 27 courses in California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, Georgia and Virginia. Carolinas Golf would be Cobblestone's largest acquisition since it agreed in January to be acquired by Meditrust, a Massachusetts-based "paired-share" real estate investment trust that owns Santa Anita Park and the La Quinta Inns hotel chain. Meditrust's acquisition of Cobblestone was valued at $395 million in stock and debt.
That merger is pending.
Neither Stuart Frantz, Carolinas Golf president and chief executive, nor officials at Cobblestone would comment on the transaction.
Cobblestone acquired two courses, one near Atlanta and one near Orlando, Fla., in February for an undisclosed price. At that time, company president Bob Husband said Cobblestone was interested in expanding in the Southeast.
Meditrust is the nation's largest health care REIT. In January, Meditrust agreed to pay $3 billion for the 270-property La Quinta Inns chain.
Meditrust is a $2.75 billion company whose stock closed at $31 per share April 8, down $8.13 from its 52-week high late last year.
Last year, Meditrust paid $383 million for the Santa Anita Companies, which commanded a premium because Meditrust also acquired the race track and real-estate company's "paired-share" REIT status.
Meditrust is now one of a handful of paired-share REITs left that were grandfathered in when Congress outlawed the paired-share status in 1984. Congress is now considering eliminating the tax advantages of the paired-share REITs, which operate both real estate and other businesses.
Meditrust, which has said it will spend up to $2 billion on golf course acquisitions over the next several years, says any legislative action would not affect its plans.
Carolinas Golf was founded in 1990 by Frantz, Roger Watson, Buck Adams and Richard Urquhart Jr. It formerly owned north Raleigh's Wildwood Green golf course.
Frantz is a former broker with Carolina Securities and Wheat First Securities. Watson is former president of Cary's MacGregor Realty.
Urquhart headed the local office of the Peat Marwick accounting firm for many years before retiring in 1979. Adams is a former head pro at Country Club of North Carolina in Pinehurst, where Urquhart was president from 1963 to 1991.
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