Sawgrass Marriott Golf - Chapter 11 Filing

This information is quite old, but these links may be useful for anyone looking for information on the Chapter 11 case of the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Florida - famous as the venue for Tiger Woods' public apology for his infidelities on Feb. 19th, 2010. It was owned by an Irish consortium, Redquartz Boundary Ltd., which purchased it at the height of the boom in 2006 and was forced into a Chapter 11 filing by its lenders, Goldman Sachs, on January 28th 2010.

The statement released by the Sawgrass Marriott at the time of the filing read as follows: “This action is in response to the current global economic environment and the fact that an agreement on a restructure with the lenders could not be reached. This process will protect the resort and allow us to continue to operate business as usual. We are firmly committed to maintaining our world-class operation and foresee no changes in the day-to-day operations at Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa.”

The story has been reported in a number of media outlets since the announcement last March, here are just a few:

Sunday Business Post:

Irish Investors in the Rough

Irish investors, including well-known names in the business world, could lose up to $90million they invested in the buyout of a hotel on the Sawgrass golf course in Florida. About 100 investors, mainly high-net worth individuals, were involved in the $220 million buyout of the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa at the height of the boom in July 2006. The investors include Philip Lynch, chief executive of investment firm On€51. More...

Irish Independent:

Florida Dream Resort's Value has Halved, say Irish Investors.

THE Irish owners of the Sawgrass Golf Resort and Spa believe the Florida property known for hosting Tiger Woods' February apology is worth less than half the $250m (€204m) they've ploughed into it.

The valuations emerged in a Jacksonville courtroom this week as Irish investors, including financier Niall McFadden, fended off an attempt to have the resort seized and sold. More...

Jacksonville Business Journal

Sawgrass Marriott Owners file for Chapter 11

The owners of the Sawgrass Marriott Golf Resort & Spa in Ponte Vedra Beach have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Public records show RQB Resort LP and RQB Development LP filed for bankruptcy in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida yesterday, listing Goldman Sachs Group Inc. among its creditors and assets and debt of as much as $500 million each. More...

Sawgrass Marriott Case Summary

http://www.scribd.com/doc/28589679/RQB-Sawgrass-Marriott-Case-Summary

Polaris World in Talks with its Creditors

It would have been nice to have a 'feelgood' story for the beginning of 2010, but I'm afraid it's not to be. The big news in the overseas property world over the Christmas period has not been rocketing sales, instead it has been the revelation that Spanish developer, Polaris World, is in talks with its creditors to avoid administration proceedings.

The developer is most famous for its connection to 18-time golf Major winner, Jack Nicklaus, with its courses referred to as the “Nicklaus Golf Trail”. The site claims: "Polaris World presents the Nicklaus Golf Trail, a circuit which will boast 8 courses within a radius of 25 km and the best golf experience in Europe. With 4 courses already up and running, 2 with work in progress and 2 in the planning stages, unique in the world and exclusive to Polaris World."

A number of newspapers, websites and blogs have carried the story that the company has asked the court that several of its companies be allowed to access the three months given in the Spanish Insolvency Act in order to allow it to renegotiate its debts. The company sought this protection in Murcia on December 22nd 2009.

If you've currently got a deposit on a property in Polaris World now might be a good time to check with your solicitor what your options are depending on the outcome of this situation.

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Paul Coughlan's Prestige Group Nears the End Game

The Prestige Group, which describes itself as 'Ireland's Oldest Property Investment House' looks like it will be the next high profile casualty of the recession. 

The company claims to have placed €2.75bn in property investments since its inception. It has, in fact, only been involved in the overseas property market since 1998, at which stage the boom in Irish investors purchasing property in Spain was well underway. In fact the Irish mass market had, at that stage, started to move further afield to look at areas such as Portugal, Hungary and Florida in particular. 

A creditors meeting has been called for next Wednesday (March 18th) at the Stillorgan Park Hotel in Dublin. Some of the major creditors of the company include KBC (formerly IIB), the Bank of Scotland owned Ulster Bank and Bank of Ireland.

Prestige came to prominence in the early noughties when it sold huge amounts of off-plan property in Manchester and Budapest in particular. Many clients claimed, once they had received their properties, that they had been sold at very high valuations and the rentals achieved on them were far below those outlined by Prestige in its marketing documentation.

The company subsequently disappeared off the property sales radar for a couple of years and then, around 2006, a major PR push was instigated. The aim seemed to be to promote it's owner, Paul Coughlan, and the lavish 'high-roller' lifestyle he led. Toward this aim Coughlan appeared in a number of lifestyle magazines (most notably VIP but also a number of newspaper magazines) and a number of publications were invited into his lavish Foxrock home. 

In recent weeks posts have been appearing on a number of forums from frustrated investors who have not been receiving their rentals on properties purchased from the Prestige Group. There have also been rumours that he has been, to date unsuccessfully, trying to sell his luxury villa in Portugal. 

Coughlan's investment vehicle, Kaizen Property International, made somewhat of a comeback last year in the form of Touchstone Capital but this re-engagement with the overseas property market would appear to have been fleeting. The company sold apart-hotels in Germany and the UK as well as Below Market Value (BMV) property in the UK. 

The Prestige Group itself reappeared at the end of last year selling German Apart-Hotels, managed suites in Marbella and UK commercial property.

Further queries on the creditors meeting should be directed to The Prestige Group at info@theprestigegroup.com or +353 (0)1 2176300

Inside Track File for Bankruptcy

The success of Surrey based Inside Track, the agressive off-plan property investment and investment seminar company, has come to a shuddering halt. The news, reported in the Guardian yesterday, will not come as much of a shock to insiders in the industry who felt the company's 'buying off-plan to flip' model of property investment was intrinsically flawed. It was generally felt that such a model works in a rising economic cycle, just about, but comes to grief when economic conditions are less than favourable, as has been proven to be the case. Even where the company claimed property could be let for a profit these claims were often without foundation, leaving many of its clients in large negative cashflow situations.

The company was the leader of a slew of 'property investment clubs' around the UK which promoted the purchase of off-plan city centre apartments claiming to have sourced from developers for reductions of 15-20%. Accusations have recently been made that developers were merely inflating their properties by this amount in order to offer the reductions, thus falsely inflating the market and leaving buyers with properties worth less than they paid for them. So 'successful' were these property investment clubs that they were responsible for up to 30% of all UK apartment sales in 2006, but then the wheels started to come off.

It would appear that, even in the good times, Inside Track's clients were struggling to achieve the profits claimed by the company. You can see an article on one of their 'clients' who ran into trouble here.

The announcement last month that the company was to cancel its controversial 'property seminars', which could cost potential clients anything up to £15,000 if they were to go through the full seminar course, was a sign of things to come.

If you've been burned by Inside Track and want to have a good moan about it you could visit here, it'll give you plenty of opportunity to vent your spleen.

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