For the second time in three years, the Glen Meadows Golf and Country Club is on the market.
The Criddle family, which established the course 55 years ago at 1050 McTavish Rd., has again listed the 132-acre property for sale after B.C. Supreme Court granted them the right to re-sell the property after ruling a 2017 sale was not completed.
“It’s obviously a unique situation that a property is sold twice,” said commercial real estate agent Matt Pettinger of Devencore Victoria, which has the listing again.
The property, which includes three parcels of land, is for sale for $5.12 million.
Pettinger said the Criddle family has their property back after the numbered company that bought the golf course in 2017 failed to meet the terms of the purchase agreement by paying a lump sum at the end of 2019.
According to court documents, the Criddle family agreed to finance part of the sale, $3.36 million, in the spring of 2017 to a man named Hong Hua Hu, who in turn assigned the shares to a numbered company, 1125357 BC Ltd.
That numbered company, which court documents show counts among its directors Manno Pawar and Sharon So, was to make payments until the end of 2019, at which time the balance of the principal would be due.
The numbered company owes the Criddles $3.36 million plus interest of more than $12,000 monthly, the documents show.
Pettinger said when the company failed to come up with the final payment in December 2019, the Criddles moved to foreclose.
The court documents paint a picture of an asset that was left to rot.
In their court application, the Criddle family noted that after the 2017 sale the new buyers revoked golf memberships, closed the curling rink and stopped doing maintenance on the golf course, equipment and landscaping.
The buyers, who agreed to pay $4.8 million for the property, claimed the intention was to invest in the golf course and operations, but a key player, a Chinese investor referred to as Mr. Ling, disappeared before the deal could be completed, court documents say.
What’s left is a parcel of land with buildings and grounds that need attention.
Pettinger said there has been a lot of interest since the property hit the market this week.
“Three years ago, when this was an active, ongoing business there was quite a lot of demand for that kind of property,” he said.
“Our job is to find that right buyer who is looking for a unique property like this.”
The bulk of the property is in the agricultural land reserve. It includes an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, a clubhouse and a former curling facility.
The largest of the three lots, 129 acres, is inside the ALR and includes the golf clubhouse, curling rink, maintenance shed and workshop, while a second parcel, 2.34 acres, is zoned for residential use and could potentially be developed into two single-family homes. The third parcel is about one acre and features a pond used for irrigation.
