Boot Ranch, the swanky Texas golf resort that golfer Hal Sutton was building, partly with Louisiana police retirement funds, is headed for foreclosure. In a news release today, Sutton announced that Lehman Brothers, which pumped $73 million into the 2,051-acre project in 2007, plans to sell the course and the undeveloped lots around it. Lehman went into bankruptcy in September 2008 and is selling the property to satisfy creditors. “Due to the substantial downturn in the national economy, recent Boot Ranch sales have not met expectations, and the loan is in default,” Sutton says.
Boot Ranch was a source of controversy in Louisiana after the Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System, or MPERS, opened a $30 million line of credit to launch the resort. MPERS paid off the line of credit in 2007, and Sutton’s partnership was supposed to pay the retirement system back. It isn’t clear how much MPERS has received to date or whether it will ever be paid in full. Sutton will no longer own the course, and Lehman plans to find an interim operator until a buyer can be found.
The news comes just days after the Louisiana Attorney General’s Office and the Louisiana Office of the Inspector General searched the offices of MPERS attorney Randy Zinna of Baton Rouge, looking for documents related to the sale of property around MPERS-owned course Olde Oaks in Bossier City. An investigation is ongoing. MPERS maintains more than $1 billion in retirement benefits for 10,000 Louisiana police-department employees. Municipalities across the state pay roughly 14% of their payrolls into the system.—Penny Font
