For the second time this year, equity shareholders in Fox Glen golf course will meet to discuss and vote on a proposed sale.
Those holding shares of Fox Glen Golf Course Co-operative Inc. have been asked to attend a special meeting tonight at the clubhouse “to discuss and vote on an offer to purchase all issued and outstanding shares,” according to an email blast.
“We are not releasing anything to the members until Tuesday evening,” said membership president Randy Duby.
Duby confirmed this latest proposal does not originate with the DBS Hearn Group which had expressed interest in the 18-hole course before.
Last March, equity members voted overwhelmingly to accept a proposal from the Hearn Group. Less than a month later, the Hearn Group backed out of the deal.
No reasons were ever publicly disclosed.
“It’s not our family,” Brad Hearn said Monday. “That’s all I can really say right now, it’s not us.”
Former course owner and current general manager Larry Sauve negotiated the deal with the Hearn Group that would have fetched $2,600 per equity share.
“I know about it but I can’t talk about it until after the meeting,” Sauve said Monday of this latest proposal.
At the time of the previous offer, multiple sources said Don Hearn Jr. along with his brothers Brad and Steve were the principals behind it. Their father, Don Hearn Sr., owns Sutton Creek Golf Club.
When negotiations heated up in early March, construction of a proposed new clubhouse was put on hold.
That project never resumed and instead, the existing clubhouse was refurbished.
“A few things came up that prevented us from building the new one,” Sauve said without elaborating.
The club has almost 400 equity members. Just over 200 voted on the sale last spring.
“This has come as a surprise to us,” one longtime member said of a new offer. “They have certainly kept it under wraps.”
The course has struggled financially for a number of years now, in part due to an industry-wide economic downturn and in part due to significant financial obligations related to a previous sale years ago involving Sauve.
