Attorney: Source Erred on Owner of Mahogany Run

A view overlooking Mahogany Run Golf Course (photo by James Gardner)

Mahogany Run Golf Course and related properties, which have been up for sale since last summer, have already changed hands once after being badly damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017, according to the attorney who used to represent the former owner.

George Dudley wrote to the V.I. Source this week to complain about a July 2019 article that he said misstated the name of both the current and most recent former owner of the golf course.

“When I represented the owner that intended to improve the golf course as part of a master plan of development, which included both the golf course and land located in Mandahl Bay, the owner of the golf course was Dun-Run Golf, LLC, a subsidiary of a publicly traded company, Transcontinental Realty Investors, Inc. (‘TCI’), ” Dudley wrote.

TCI has shared officers and board members with a number of companies, including American Realty Investors, Inc., but Dudley said American Realty was never the owner of the Mahogany Run properties, as the Source story stated.

Dudley said TCI’s subsidiary – Dun-Run – continued to maintain the golf course for several months after the storms.

“However, because TCI has no experience or expertise in the development of golf courses it was not prepared to repair and redevelop Mahogany Run and on March 31, 2018, the golf course was sold to ABC Land Company.”

In a subsequent interview with the Source, Dudley said the sale was accomplished through a transfer of stock from Dun-Run to ABC Land Company.

“No, it wasn’t publicized,” he said of the transaction. But he added that some former Mahogany Run employees knew about it because they were let go by the new owner.

The Source was unable to find an on-line presence for ABC Land Company.

“I don’t know them myself,” Dudley said. He said he did not know where the company was headquartered or who represents it. He also said he does not know whether it had intended to reopen the golf course or if it had another plan for the property.

“I had no part of any of those conversations,” he said, adding he was just told to put through the stock transfer.

Dudley confirmed that ABC Land Company obtained all the properties currently listed for sale: about 130 acres for the golf course, 87 contiguous acres above the course, 20 acres in Tutu Bay and a number of buildings and improvements including a restaurant, convention center, offices and pro shop. It also received the rights to the name and trademark for Mahogany Run.

April Newland, who has the current listing, said Thursday that she has been dealing with individuals associated with Pillar Income Asset Management Inc. as representing the seller.

Pillar is associated with TCI.

However, Dudley was adamant that Pillar is not involved with the property anymore, and that there is no connection between ABC Land Holding and TCI.

“TCI has no direct or indirect relationship to ABC Land Company and has no say in how the property is to be maintained or when or how it is to be sold,” he stated in his letter. He reiterated in the interview that there is no connection between TCI and ABC.

Dudley said he was asked by his former client to write to the Source about the July article.

The golf course and surrounding property was listed for sale in August of 2018, about four months after Dudley said it was transferred to ABC Land Company.

The Source regrets the error.