Aaron Thompson/Special to the Sun
Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2009 | 8:02 a.m.
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Beyond the Sun
Map of Lake Las Vegas Resort
Lake Las Vegas’ third and final golf course, the private Southshore Golf Course, is heading for foreclosure.
The resort, which has been in bankruptcy reorganization since July 2008, has already abandoned its two public courses, The Falls and Reflection Bay, allowing them to enter foreclosure. Though the courses are being maintained, they remain closed.
Like the two public courses, the Southshore Golf Course, a private course for members of the resort’s Southshore community, is mired in debt and, according to court documents, operating at a significant loss.
Southshore was temporarily spared by a federal bankruptcy court-ordered stay put in place to prevent foreclosure while lender Dorfinco and interested parties within the Southshore community tried to negotiate a way to keep the course open. But after negotiations stalled earlier this month, Judge Linda B. Riegle granted Dorfinco’s request on Friday to lift the stay and allow the course to be foreclosed and sold.
Riegle had previously denied a request to lift the stay in July, but agreed after negotiations entered an impasse.
Dorfinco is expected to file a notice of trustee’s sale on Friday and conduct the sale on Sept. 9. According to court documents, when Lake Las Vegas filed for bankruptcy in July 2008, the Southshore Golf Club still owed $6.2 million of the almost $6.8 million it borrowed from Dorfinco in 2001 for the course.
Southshore Golf Club took out more than $1.8 million in loans after the bankruptcy filing in order to operate the course during court proceedings. That money ran out in July, and a temporary extension will run out in September.
In their petition for the stay to be lifted, attorneys for Dorfinco argued that Lake Las Vegas owners have not included the Southshore Golf Course in their reorganization plan and that as such, Dorfinco should to be allowed to foreclose and sell the course before it loses any more value.
“Given that Dorfinco is the economic party in interest with respect to the property, any diminution in the value of the property that might result from gaps in funding or management of the property would directly and materially impact Dorfinco,” attorneys wrote.
The court ruling likely comes as a blow to Southshore residents, who had hoped to band together and raise sufficient funds to acquire the course, or at least keep it operating until a long-term solution could be found.
Calls on Tuesday to Lake Las Vegas resort officials and residents of the Southshore community involved in efforts to keep the course open weren’t returned.
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