Cliffs meeting hints at new membership plan

        Sometime late this summer, a bankruptcy judge is expected to formally turn The Cliffs Communities over to a group of new owners that includes an established developer of high-end golf communities, the real estate investment firm that staked a claim to 70% of the undeveloped lots in the community, and a wealthy couple who own property at High Carolina, the Cliffs community at which Tiger Woods intended to build his first U.S. golf course.

        During a meeting with club members last week, the putative owners indicated that they plan to revise the legendary Cliffs membership program, once described by the golf community’s former marketing firm as “the most comprehensive membership plan” anywhere.  According to a few members who attended the meeting, the top initiation

fee will cap out at $50,000 under the new owners’ plan; that top memberhsip will include access to the full roster of six golf clubs -- soon to be seven, with the completion of the Gary Player layout at Mountain Park.  Other membership plans will include a smaller number of courses, with members affiliated directly with the club in their community and limited play on other Cliffs courses.  (We hope to obtain soon a copy of the slideshow presented at the meeting.)

        The group that has purchased The Cliffs includes Sun TX Urbana, which bought most of the unsold lots from Cliffs original developer Jim Anthony in the year leading up to the bankruptcy filing (other lots were purchased by an Atlanta investment firm at auction in March); Arendale Holdings, whose affiliated company, Stokes Land Group, has experience in developing golf communities in Alabama; and wealthy Texans Steve and Penny Carlile, who made their money in the freight trucking business and have owned two homes in The Cliffs, at Walnut Cove near Asheville, and at High Carolina, beside the ill-fated Tiger Woods golf course.

        For the time being, the Cliffs’ web site is down and, presumably, there is a hold on the sale of developer lots.  There are, however, plenty of resale properties available in the Cliffs Communities in the Greenville area, along Lake Keowee and at Walnut Cove, near Asheville. At Walnut Cove, for example, a bank owned 1 ½ acre lot is listed for $139,900; the most expensive home on the market is a 7,500 square feet palace to be built on two acres, featuring four bedrooms and more than five baths, as well as four fireplaces.  One local real estate agency listed 122 properties currently for sale at Walnut Cove.  An hour away, at Lake Keowee, you can find a bank owned lot of 1.4 acres at The Cliffs at Keowee Falls for just $77,900 and homes at Keowee Vineyard for well into the millions.

        In the coming weeks, we will be listing Cliffs properties for sale in the Greenville area at GolfHomesListed.com, our companion web site.  The Realtor with the listings, Wanda Reed, worked at The Cliffs for more than eight years and knows the Glassy, Valley, Mountain Park and High Carolina developments extremely well.  Look for her listings soon.