550 acres tied to failed Tiger Woods golf course back on market with $19M price tag
By Kimberly King
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BUNCOMBE COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — Seventeen years ago it was Western North Carolina’s biggest golf story. Buncombe County would be home to the first Tiger Woods-designed golf course in America. But when the real estate market tanked and the venture was hit with other problems, the project failed.
In 2017, the property went up for auction after not selling for $20 million, but it also didn’t sell at auction. Broker Billy May, with Keller Williams, said South Carolina investors bought the 840 acres for $15.5 million in 2019.
Now, 550 acres are up for sale and the focus is on finding deep-pocketed buyers who’d be motivated by the idea of tax breaks from having large tracts placed in conservancies.
“Either a family compound or a collection of families coming together to build very private houses,” said Collin O’Berry, co-listing agent with May. “We’re counting on somebody liking the location and wanting the privacy.”
“This tract of land is a large contiguous tract in the Swannanoa River mountains,” said Michelle Pugliese, land protection director for the nonprofit Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy. “Southern Appalachians Highlands is aware of it, because we have done strategic planning and we know of large tracts that are out there. We would love to purchase and own it as a nature preserve and not see any subdivision on that tract of land if possible.”
But O’Berry and May don’t have any interest in that at this point since it would mean the property would sell for significantly less than the $19 million for which it’s listed.
“There’s direct prospecting to high net worth individuals and other brokers across the country who represent high net worth individuals,” O’Berry said.
The property has been on the market 20 days.
“We’ve shown it a couple times already,” May said. “And time will tell.”
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