Allen Stanford's court-appointed receiver asked a judge’s permission to sell the Texas financier’s stake in a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course near Memphis, Tennessee, for $3 million.
Ralph Janvey, the receiver appointed to recover money for Stanford’s investors, filed papers yesterday in federal court in Dallas seeking approval to sell the half-interest in Spring Creek Golf Course and its affiliated golf club to Stanford’s partner in the project. The partner, identified as the Meyer Family, has been paying the project’s bills for the past year and, as part of the purchase, agreed to cover Stanford’s share of the project’s operating deficits, estimated at $1.4 million for 2009.
Stanford invested more than $30 million in Spring Creek, which is a 40-minute drive from Memphis, according to Janvey. In June, Spring Creek Ranch Club completed improvements that added a golf house as well as teaching and practice facilities to the course, which Stanford intended to use as a tournament site.
“Because of Spring Creek’s remote location and operating deficits, it is unlikely that the receivership estate will ever recover a significant amount of its investment through a future sale, particularly if Spring Creek must cease operations for financial reasons,” Janvey’s lawyer, Kevin Sadler, said in the filing.
Janvey’s real estate adviser, CB Richard Ellis, recommended the sale, noting that “most golf courses have lost 30 percent to 50 percent of their value since 2007.”
Tournaments, Golfers
Stanford, whose Stanford Financial Group was a major sponsor of several golf tournaments and professional golfers, has denied all wrongdoing related to civil and criminal charges that he defrauded investors of more than $7 billion through the sale of allegedly bogus certificates of deposit at Antigua-based Stanford International Bank Ltd. Stanford has opposed all efforts to sell his assets before his trial, which is set for January 2011.
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