No buyers yet for police pension-owned golf courses

Two money-losing Louisiana golf courses owned by the state’s police pension fund continue to languish on the market. The properties are being marketed by Hilda Allen Real Estate, a Georgia-based firm specializing in the sale and auction of golf courses, country clubs, resorts and other recreational properties. According to its website, the company has sold more than 500 golf courses since 1991 worth more than $875 million. The Louisiana golf courses and residential development were put on the auction block in October, but have yet to attract a buyer willing to pay even the minimum appraised values for the properties. Responding to a public records request from Daily Report, Kathy Bourque, executive director of the Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System, says bids for StoneBridge Country Club in Bossier City were “unacceptable.” She says no one has stepped forward to bid on Olde Oaks Golf Club or the surrounding development in Haughton. “MPERS still owns them,” Bourque says, “and is working with a real estate firm to find a buyer.” Records from MPERS show the pension fund has thus far spent $16.4 million to purchase, renovate and operate Olde Oaks, an Audubon Golf Trail course now on the market for $1.85 million. The fund also spent $20.8 million on the surrounding residential development that has produced just $1.66 million in lot sales and is now valued at $2.4 million. And MPERS has dumped another $6.96 million into StoneBridge, now on the market for $1.35 million. —Penny Font