NEWRY — The new owner of the Sunday River Golf Club, tangled up in a lawsuit with the club’s former owner over who owns the club, was the only bidder at an auction Wednesday afternoon to buy the club’s equipment and other assets, according to the Portland Press Herald.
George Marcus, the attorney for Newry Holdings of Portland, said his client was the only bidder at the auction, according to the Portland Press Herald. The bid of $700,000 was for all of the club’s equipment and assets, including the domain name sundayrivergolfclub.com.
Marcus told the Sun Journal on March 8 that the auction was a step that Newry Holdings had to take to uphold its right of ownership over the club and its assets.
The deed to the Sunday River Golf Club reads as being owned by Newry Holdings, said Newry Deputy Town Clerk Kelly Scott.
Earlier in the month, Newry Holdings filed a lawsuit against the golf club’s former owner, SR Golf Holdings, and its parent company, Harris Golf of Bath, alleging that SR Golf Holdings was still selling memberships and accepting deposits for other functions, including weddings, despite no longer owning the club.
Marcus told the Sun Journal that the civil complaint “essentially asks that (Harris Golf) stop selling memberships, tell us to whom they sold memberships so far, and to stop marketing the golf club as their own property.”
According to the Press Herald, on March 7, Harris Golf filed a counterclaim that Newry Holdings and a previous creditor, Boothbay Pool, violated a forbearance agreement that would have enabled SR Golf to use new financing to meet its financial obligations and retain ownership of the golf club.
Tom Hallett, the attorney for Harris Golf, told the Sun Journal that the deed to Sunday River Golf Club had been held in escrow and that it was “improperly transferred” to Newry Holdings, making the sale void.
According to the Press Herald, on Monday, Newry Holdings filed a motion for an emergency hearing at Cumberland County Superior Court, accusing Harris Golf of breaking into the golf club, changing the locks and leaving with items belonging to the club, including 76 GPS units, 18 golf carts, two computers, 200 folding chairs, 25 tables and a skid-steer loader.
The motion states that Newry Holdings is looking for the items to be returned.
According to the Press Herald, Ben Donahue, an attorney representing Harris Golf, admitted that his clients broke into the club and removed the items, but that everything they took either belonged to other Harris Golf properties, employees or third-party vendors, and nothing taken could be considered collateral on the Sunday River mortgage loan.
Records showed that on Jan. 5, SR Golf deeded Sunday River Golf Club to the holding company Boothbay Pool in lieu of foreclosure, Scott said.
Boothbay Pool then sold the property to Newry Holdings, she said, with the transfer tax indicating an amount of $2 million.
Since then, Newry Holdings has paid three years of back real estate taxes amounting to more than $150,000, Scott said.
The 18-hole course is off Monkey Brook Road and next to Sunday River Resort property, near the Jordan Grand Hotel.
The course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., was built in the early 2000s.
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