January 20, 2014
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – On January 20, 2014, Concert Golf Partners acquired Gaillardia Country Club, the premier private club in Oklahoma City featuring an 18-hole Tom Kite-redesigned masterpiece and the world-class Gaylord Learning Center. Concert Golf bought the club, originally developed at a cost of $59 million by the Gaylord family, from the Herrington Group and two banks via a deed-in-lieu transaction. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Gaillardia Country Club is the centerpiece of a luxurious 600-acre residential community known as one of the finest in Oklahoma and recognized as one of the Top 100 Best Residential Golf Communities in the U.S. Gaillardia delivers a world-class golf experience marked with excellent course conditions and high-end amenities, including a three-level 55,000 square foot French Normandy-style clubhouse, state-of-the-art meeting rooms, Wine Room, 6,000 square foot Fitness Center, pool, tennis courts, bent grass greens, and the Gaylord Learning Center practice facility with target greens and separate chipping, putting and bunker facilities. The club has hosted two PGA Senior Tour Championships, numerous celebrity events, a Shell “Wonderful World of Golf” Match Play Tournament, and annual play by PGA TOUR professionals. The Herrington Group, which has developed the residential offerings within the Gaillardia community, is responsible for other exclusive properties nationally such as Colleton River, Belfair Plantation and Founders Ridge at Sundance.
Concert Golf, a boutique golf club owner-operator based in Newport Beach, California formed by Peter Nanula, the founder and CEO of Arnold Palmer Golf Management from 1993 to 2000, has amassed a significant pool of capital to buy and operate large-scale private clubs located in major metro areas, and has now acquired 8 clubs and mortgages in just the last 2 years. The group brings substantial experience from owning and operating over 30 clubs in the 1990s at a high standard under the Arnold Palmer Golf brand name. Concert Golf is also unique in being an all-cash buyer with a dedicated golf fund, which allows for a quicker and more certain transaction.
Ford Price of OKC-based Price Edwards, the receiver appointed by the lenders in this transaction, said “We had wide national interest in Gaillardia Country Club, and Concert Golf Partners identified the opportunity early and brought a unique combination of capital and national golf expertise to solve this six-month recapitalization effort.”
“We specialize in these complex golf club situations, and we are pleased to have paid off both banks’ loans prior to foreclosure and also addressed this exclusive club’s need for immediate capital improvements,” Peter Nanula of Concert Golf said. “Gaillardia Country Club has an elite membership, who will now enjoy a well-capitalized and professionally operated future as one of the finest clubs in the Midwest.”