Reynolds Plantation is many things – high-end homes, top-flight golf, a secluded resort. But there’s one thing Robert Merck says it is not: a quick flip.
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Merck, senior managing director and head of real estate investments for MetLife, which is under contract to buy the Lake Oconee community, said in an interview Friday with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that New York-based MetLife sees its acquisition of the community 80 miles east of Atlanta as a long-term investment.
“I don’t think there are many assets in the country that are comparable to Reynolds,” said Merck, whose company entered the Reynolds Plantation sweepstakes only about two months ago.
MetLife announced on Wednesday it had an agreement to acquire the struggling Reynolds Plantation, six golf courses, four marinas, nearly 5,000 acres of undeveloped land and the Ritz-Carlton Lodge at Lake Oconee.
Merck said the luxury golf community segment of real estate isn’t fully recovered, but he feels confident in this purchase.
“When we think the time is right, we will start developing more phases,” he said.
In February 2011, Linger Longer Development Co. Chairman and Reynolds Plantation developer Mercer Reynolds notified members that the company's lenders were demanding repayment of debt and offered to sell the members the community's golf courses, marinas and other public areas for $45 million.
The members declined and in May of last year, a receiver was hired to operate the clubs and market the community and undeveloped land.
Merck declined to disclose terms of the deal, which is expected to close in the summer. MetLife has a $50 billion real estate portfolio.
Birmingham-based Daniel Corp. will oversee Reynolds Plantation. Daniel and MetLife, which have a 25-year relationship, are partners on 12th & Midtown, a complex of office, retail, condos and a hotel near Peachtree and 12th streets.
Reynolds Plantation has long been a vacation and retirement destination for wealthy Atlantans. The development stumbled in the wake of the Great Recession like many high-end golf resorts such as Sea Island on the Georgia coast.
But Merck said he saw something unique in Reynolds Plantation and was sold on the quality of the development.
Michael Lefkove, a Reynolds Plantation resident, said in an email the reaction among members he’s talked to about the deal with MetLife and Daniel “has been universally positive.”
But many of Reynolds Plantation's 3,600 property owners are concerned, he said, about the status of membership deposits, which were as high as $110,000 for some. They worry they will not see that money returned as they initially were promised if they were to sell their properties.
MetLife wasn't ready to comment on membership matters. The company is still in the closing period of the sale.
“Many details are yet to be determined, however we will be meeting with the Membership Plan Task Force to address the anticipated closing and will present a new plan to members soon,” MetLife spokesman Chris Breslin said in a statement.
Andrew Bolnick, the receiver who marketed Reynolds Plantation for sale, called the deal “a huge win” for the development.
Many big names were said to have stalked the property, including a group that counted Mercer Reynolds as a partner. Bolnick declined to identify other bidders for the properties.
But he said Reynolds Plantation garnered interest “from some of the strongest people in real estate and the golf business that I know.”
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