The long legal-limbo of the 12,500-acre Jeremy Ranch golf course and real estate development on I-80 five miles east of Parleys Summit apparently came to an end Friday when three Utah businessmen announced they have signed a corporate agreement to purchase the assets of the complex from a consortium of lenders led by Virginia Beach Federal Savings Bank.
The new owners, pending closure of the deal, are Dale Eastman, president of Hi Tech Natural Resources, Park City, an oil field services company; Jerry Sanders, owner of The Homestead resort in Wasatch County where he is building a golf course and Advance Reservations in Park City; and Jerry Howells, a retired Salt Lake paint dealer who will become the chief administrative official of Jeremy Ranch for the corporation.The deal includes the Jeremy Ranch golf course and clubhouse, several hundred single-family and condominium lots, commercial and institutional acreage and approximately 7,500 acres of undeveloped land comprised by the original development, which opened in September 1981.
`Realistic' value: $17 million
The price the trio paid for the troubled property was not disclosed. But Virginia Beach, which acquired the property in a foreclosure sale in November 1988 for a credit bid of $11.4 million, originally held a $32.7 million note - with other secondary lenders - on the property. In the recent past, the property has been said to be "realistically" valued around $17 million.
Eastman-Sanders Development Inc. acquired Sections Six and Seven of Jeremy Ranch last month from American Savings & Loan in Salt Lake City. Development plans for those sections and for the rest of the complex will be announced at a later, unspecified, date.
Howells said the purchase is scheduled to close in midsummer.
Since the foreclosure and the lenders' search for a buyer, the status of the golf course - which reportedly has operated at an annual $300,000 deficit since its inception - and the real estate development that surrounds it has been uncertain, although the course has remained open during the golfing season.
Golf course to open today
In addition to the real estate development, Howells said the group has also acquired the lease on the golf course and clubhouse from Sports/Charities Consortium Inc. He said they will assume immediate operation of the course, which was scheduled to open today.
"Because of the uncertainty surrounding the operation of the golf course prior to our closing on the overall purchase, we felt it was essential to (immediately) acquire the lease on the course," said Howells.
Doug Vilven, currently manager of Park City Golf Course, was named as new director of golf for the Jeremy Ranch. Lanny Nielson, head professional at the club during the years of original developer Gerald Bagley, and who was brought back last year by Sports/Charities, will continue at Jeremy as head teaching professional.
Howells said he expected Vilven to continue in his position at the Park City course at least through the current season.
Vilven said that for 1990, season passes would continue to be sold and that all season passes sold to date by Sports/Charities would be honored.
He said the course will be operated as a semi-private facility, with season-pass holders receiving preferential tee times as well as "certain other privileges."
The Showdown Classic PGA senior tour event held annually at Jeremy will go on as scheduled Aug. 13, said Vilven.
Two more golf courses planned
Sanders, whose holdings include a resort and golf course in Cloudcroft, N.M., said the group's long-term plans include two additional golf courses at Jeremy.
"The property has not been maintained properly, and there has been no money to develop it because it's owned by financial institutions. What you're going to see now, hopefully with the closing of the acquisition, you're going to see some plans in the near future that should be fairly exciting," Sanders said.
When the golf club was forced into involuntary bankruptcy in 1988, the status of some 600 members was placed in doubt.
Some of the "founder members" are said to have paid between $25,000 and $75,000 for lifetime memberships at Jeremy Ranch. For their money, they had free use of the ranch's facilities, including the golf course, clubhouse, restaurant, back country and fishing stream.
Other members paid up to $5,000 for initial memberships and paid regular dues up to the foreclosure.
Virginia Beach had said it would not strike a deal with any of the members over their continued use of the facilities because the bank wanted to wait until it found a buyer and let the buyer make that decision.