MIAMI The 693-key Doral Golf Resort and Spa is being placed on the market, three months after it and four sister properties were placed into bankruptcy by a firm controlled by billionaire owner John Paulson.
The Paulson & Co.-led investment group known as CNL-AB says a sale of the iconic golf resort would generate needed cash to fund its other financially struggling resorts. Hodges Ward Elliott Inc. has been tapped to market Doral, which the ownership group says is at a “strategic crossroads.” Doral generates less operating income as a percentage of its asset value compared to other resorts in the CNL-AB portfolio requires a cash infusion to make it competitive in the luxury market, according to a bankruptcy filing.
Paulson’s firm in February acquired Doral in a foreclosure proceeding along with Grand Wailea Resort and Spa, Maui; Arizona Biltmore Resort and Spa, Phoenix; La Quinta Resort and Club and PGA West in La Quinta, California; and Claremont Resort and Spa in Berkeley, California. All five were immediately placed into bankruptcy.
Doral includes five championship-caliber golf courses, and one of them—the Greg Norman-designed Great White course—could be spun off for commercial or residential development.