With New Buyers In Place, Greystone Golf Course Sales Final

Two would-be owners are out at Cabot’s Greystone development, and two new ones are in at the project’s championship golf courses.

Metropolitan National Bank accepted offers from Melbourne businessman Jim Cooper and SMG Properties LLC, led by Stephen M. Grimm of Cabot.

Cooper will pay $650,000 for the 190-acre Mountain Springs course, which includes the clubhouse and maintenance equipment. The course could be ready for play within days.

SMG will pay $415,000 for the 205-acre Cypress Creek course, which is unplayable. Disease ruined the bentgrass greens in 2010, and an unsuccessful reseeding of bentgrass left the greens unplayable in 2011.

SMG’s pending purchase includes a 5-acre commercial tract and two out parcels with lakes totaling about 17.5 acres.

Metropolitan National Bank rejected the offers from two groups that made high bids for the property at a March 1 auction. The move increased the overall sales price by $47,500, $17,500 for the Mountain Springs course and $30,000 for the balance of the property.

At the auction, Greystone WMM LLC bid $632,500 for the Mountain Springs course. The limited liability company was represented by Brooks McRae, executive broker of commercial real estate with McKimmey Associates Realtors in North Little Rock.

Greystone Community Development, representing a small group of Greystone residents, bid $385,000 for the Cypress Creek Course, a 5-acre commercial tract and two out parcels with lakes totaling about 17.5 acres.

Despite the golf club’s outward signs of management and money troubles, Greystone residents were stunned when the country club actually closed on Aug. 21.

Metropolitan National Bank took possession of the Greystone Country Club, the Cypress Creek and Mountain Springs semi-private golf courses along with the undeveloped land in lieu of foreclosure in December. The property secured mortgages that originally totaled almost $1.9 million.

Cabot developers Bill Minton and Jack King relinquished their stake in Greystone after selling more than 275 lots and houses. They acquired the courses and residential property for $5.4 million in October 2004 deals with Regions Bank, which entered the ownership picture through foreclosure. Minton and King sold 725 acres for $3.2 million in September 2010.

Mountain Springs, a 7,000-yard, par-72 course designed by The Kevin Tucker Group of Nashville, Tenn., opened in 1995. Cypress Creek, a 7,300-yard par-72 course also designed by Tucker, opened in 1998. It is named for a creek that flows through the property.