Representatives of Homestead Country Club said Friday that the club is likely to file for bankruptcy as a way to stave off foreclosure proceedings initiated by the developers who now hold the club’s note – but that they are actively planning for business as usual this summer and beyond.
Homestead chair Cyd Nelson said there was significant appetite among the club’s leadership and members for it to continue operating as a club, and the board plans to sell portions of the eastern part of their 14.4 acres to help alleviate its debt.
“We are fortunate that we are in a position that we have property to sell,” she said. “We are being proactive about right-sizing. We don’t need 14 acres.”
Nelson said the club had been talking to people who may be interested in turning the part of the property along Mission Road into housing or green space. She confirmed that the club had been in talks with the city of Prairie Village about selling the space to them. Prairie Village’s city council has held several executive sessions over the past few months regarding the potential acquisition of an unnamed property.
Developers Jeff Alpert and Melanie Mann, who were behind Leawood’s Park Place, purchased the club’s $3.1 million note from Valley View Bank this past fall. Nelson said the bank did not inform the club of its intention to sell their note.
“When the note was sold, Homestead was current with what it was supposed to be paying,” said Colin Gotham, Homestead’s attorney from Evans & Mullinix. “The trouble is that it got its note sold to someone who wanted to make a play on the property.”
H/T to the Star’s Kevin Collison for first reporting on this story Friday.
