What's going on in the UK??!! Not so long time ago Wentworth, Turnberry, Lough Erne Resort, Cameron House, Loch Lomond, Forest Hill Golf & Conference Centre, Fingle Glen Golf Hotel, Huntswood Golf Club, Eccleston Park Golf Club, Stockwood Vale Golf Club, Windwhistle Golf Club, Fairmont St Andrews and De Vere golf portfolio have been placed up for sale and most recently Brocket Hall…and now St Mellion International Resort.
This news is very interesting in light of the fact that St Mellion has undergone major investment under Crown Golf’s ownership, including a modern new 80-bedroom resort hotel complex with spa, banqueting and conferencing facilities plus significantly enlarged clubhouse facilities, as well as a redevelopment of the Kernow Course and refurbishment of the world-renowned Nicklaus Signature Course, which was the first British golf course designed personally by the 18-time Major-winner, Jack Nicklaus.
The new-look St Mellion International Resort reopened in 2009.
Despite challenging economic conditions at the time of the relaunch St Mellion has enjoyed robust trading and continuous growth since 2009, winning a number of major travel and golf industry awards.
In December 2014 the Resort received outline planning approval to develop an additional 265 holiday homes on the 325-acre site, and has since received a number of unsolicited approaches from resort operators and developers.
Plans are also well advanced at St Mellion for the development of a new 10 room spa facility which, subject to the sale, would be ready to open April 2016.
Crown Golf’s CEO, Stephen Towers, said: “However, we regard the completion of the holiday homes development at St Mellion as being outside of our core operational business. Therefore, we believe that with the economy returned to growth, and particularly with the increased recent levels of interest in the UK golf resort market by property developers, now is exactly the right time to offer this unique opportunity to the market, although any sale would naturally be conditional on full value being achieved."
Let's assume that there is a growing demand for prestigious golf resorts and Crown Golf would like to take advantage of the situation. We can also assume and agree with Stephen Towers that Crown Golf would like to focus on what they could be great at…But!
What happens if there are liquidity problems in the background that are causing this sudden sale of a successful golf resort.
The St Mellion International Resort sale offering is being managed by CBRE.