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July 23, 2004Developer seeks two golf coursesMan, owner still negotiatingByRecord-Eagle staff writer CEDAR - A Florida land developer and Leelanau County native is negotiating to buy the two golf courses at the financially troubled Sugar Loaf Resort. Ed Fleis, who grew up near Cedar and is a general contractor and developer in Florida, heads a group that secured purchase contracts for about 450 acres of property around the resort, including the King's Challenge and Sleeping Bear golf courses. "(The courses) are under contract to purchase," Fleis said Thursday. The group is negotiating with former resort owner John D. Sills, who retained ownership of the two golf courses after he sold Sugar Loaf Resort in 1997. A purchase price was not disclosed. "Right now we're doing extensive research and our due diligence ... we've been studying this for three or four months, and we're still not through. Obviously it's a very, very complex thing," Fleis said. The resort's original 18-hole course dates back more than three decades and was Leelanau County's oldest public golf facility. The King's Challenge course on the west side of the ski area was designed by golfing legend Arnold Palmer and opened in 1998. Both courses continued to operate since the skiing operation closed in the spring of 2000. The separately owned resort area remains embroiled in bankruptcy proceedings after closing in 2000 after two poor ski seasons that worsened earlier financial problems. In March, the Sugar Loaf Service Co. submitted the lone $900,000 bid at a sheriff's auction for the closed ski resort. The company is a partnership that includes Sills, and it also owns the seven-acre sewer plant site adjacent to the resort. The sheriff's auction went ahead after a federal bankruptcy judge rejected a motion to postpone the sale filed by a Florida real estate investment group. It had purchased a mortgage on the resort in late 2002 from Huntington National Bank. The sale was postponed several times over the past two years because of the previous owners' financial problems. Fleis said because of the legal proceedings surrounding the ski resort there are no immediate plans to buy that property. But there is long-term interest by the investment team in reviving Sugar Loaf as a four-season resort, he said. "Our interest is in seeing that ski hill reopened," he said. "We feel pretty confident we'll be a major player out there, but we just don't know yet." Representatives of the potential buyers met with the planning board in Cleveland Township this week to discuss the possible rezoning of a 26-acre parcel adjacent to the King's Challenge course. The site is being considered for use as a driving range, for tennis courts and residential housing near the course.
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