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The Ginn Companies
Founded by Bobby Ginn, Ginn Clubs and Resorts is located in Celebration, FL. Ginn-LA (Bobby Ginn and his financial partner Lubert Adler) has four projects in Flagler County as well as several others in Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina, Colorado, Vermont, Georgia, and The Bahamas. The Flagler projects are:
Hammock Beach and Beach Club - Oceanside resort condo/hotel and single family home sites. Hammock Beach has a great location on the Atlantic Ocean coastline. Hammock Beach Resort hosted two successive years of the Ginn Classic, a PGA Champions Tour event.
Yacht Harbor Village - An Intracoastal Waterway marina village, which includes Admirals Cove condominium. Yacht Harbor sold out when launched but only a few homes have been built. Lots and condominiums in the complex have suffered several foreclosures.
The Conservatory at Hammock Beach - Private golfing community with Tom Watson designed course. Lots originally sold between $329,900 and $529,900. Of 340 lots, over 150 have entered foreclosure. As of Feb 2010, lots are selling as low as $16,000. There are only four builders' models and on owner-built home in the Conservatory. The golf course and clubhouse are completed, but the clubhouse dining facilities remain closed. The Conservatory is inland from the Hammock Beach Resort. The Conservatory hosted one year of the Ginn sur Mer PGA tour event.
The Gardens at Hammock Beach - Private golfing community between Bulow Creek and the Intracoastal Waterway. Only 14 lots were sold at the launch of phase one. The Gardens will likely be repositioned for a changing market. Likely changes include enlarging lots and abandoning the golf course for an equestrian facility
Bulow Shores - Single family home sites on the Intracoastal Waterway near The Gardens. This project is on indefinite hold.
Ginn has been remarkably successful marketing his projects, painting a beautiful lifestyle in a luxury setting. Famous for selling out his projects at pre-construction prices early in the decade, Ginn typically priced his offerings attractively enough for the initial buyers to resell at a profit(flip). This strategy helped him build a significant following of investors that moved from one Ginn project to the next, often buying multiple properties.
As the decade progressed, Ginn abandoned his early strategy, opting instead to create a maximum price at his now famous sales launches. As the overall real estate market abruptly turned down, the fallacy of Ginn's strategy was exposed as buyers were left holding overpriced and highly leveraged properties that could not be sold. Prices for building lots in some of Ginn's communities dropped as much as 95%.
Ginn-LA became increasingly leveraged. In June 2008, Ginn-LA defaulted on a $675 million loan brokered by Credit Suisse. The default triggered the bankruptcy sale of Tesoro in Port St. Lucie, FL and Quail West near Naples as well as the sale of Laurelmor near Blowing Rock, NC. All three properties sold for a small fraction of their their earlier value. A fourth property encumbered by the Credit Suisse loan was Ginn sur Mer, a planned luxury golf and yachting resort on Grand Bahama. The Ginn sur Mer foreclosure was finally settled at the end of 2009.
Ginn and mortgage brokers, appraisers, and lenders associated with Ginn's sales now face a host of lawsuits from buyers. While many plaintiffs can be correctly labeled disgruntled investors, there seems to be a preponderance of evidence that some charges against Ginn-LA and parties associated with the sales have merit. Hammock Beach and Reunion are the only remaining viable communities in the Ginn-LA stable. Of these Hammock Beach is in the strongest position. Ginn once hosted five golf events on the PGA, LPGA, and PGA Champions tours. The company has since pulled out of the golf business.
GoToby.com has written more about Ginn than any other news source. To find articles go to the GoToby Archives (left column) or use the search bar at the bottom of any page.
