Behind the Deal: OslerBrook Sold

It’s been tough getting into the golf spirit (although Weir-sy, below, certainly helped with his second overall finish Sunday at the Byron Nelson), with a long winter and months hearing phrases like "polar vortex." When talking CRE, the news that OslerBrook Golf & Country Club has been sold is like a straight-line tee shot down the first fairway.  

Colliers associate VP John Reid tells us the private club had been in receivership. So this was one situation where the late winter conditions worked to everyone’s advantage. Colliers won the right to list the property in January, then they had to market it, and shortlist interested parties up to a bidding process. Members of the club were naturally getting a little antsy—"am I going to pay my dues, and will all this get completed by the start of golf season?" (Also "did my work in the gym and the basement fix my slice.") And how is the course being cared for, with all the uncertainty and crappy weather (all you need to do is drive out to many of the area courses and see the condition of the greens to understand their general antsy-ness).

In the end it all got done. Colliers has a dedicated team of four based in Las Vegas (Colliers Golf Course Advisory Services Group, led by the group’s US national director Keith Cubba) that does nothing but represent vendors in golf club deals, and John handles Canada for the group. The buyer was a group led by Bill MacWilliam of St. Andrew’s Golf. Details were not released but it’s in the “millions” John says. In the past 14 months the group has sold 18 golf courses in North America. This was their first foray outside the US. Studies have showed a decline in interest in the game across Canada. (How many clubs can you snap over your knee before you call it a day?) There are “too many holes in the ground” in some markets, John says, so expect more transactions on this front.