Tara Preserve Golf Club up for sale in Bradenton

The scene at Tara Preserve Golf Club on April 8 looked rather typical as golfers teed off and sped along the pathways to their next shot.

There is one major exception.

The 274-acre, 18-hole Tara Preserve Golf Club is up for sale.

Keith Cubba, senior vice president of National Director Golf Group and an agent with Colliers International, said the sale is happening because course owner Charles Staples, the managing partner, chairman and CEO of Fore Golf Partners, is preparing for retirement.

Staples has owned The Preserve Golf Club since Dec. 5, 2008.

Cubba said he has sold three of Staples’ golf courses since November 2019. They include Maryland National Golf Club, in Middletown, Md.; Majors Golf Club in Palm Bay; and Northdale Golf & Tennis Club, in Tampa.

Cubba said he’s using the Ten X marketing platform, an online auction process, for the property because it has a broad, international database of buyers, and he’s had success with it in the past. The platform uses an auction format, which is faster than the traditional selling process.

“Of the three deals we’ve closed through the platform since November, two sold to international buyers,” Cubba said. “While historically it hasn’t been a platform for golf, that is changing.”

In this case, the Tara Preserve Golf Club is being marketed now and will be up for auction April 21-23. Prospective buyers will be able to see one another’s bids during that time. A starting bid of $750,000 will open the bidding process. However, there is a reserve bid that is not published, Cubba said.

If no bids are high enough, the sale does not happen. If there is a successful bidder, there is a 30-day closing, Cubba said.

“If we did this in a more conventional platform, it would take a really long time [to sell],” Cubba said.

Cubba said the property is being sold as a golf course. The property currently does not have any entitlements, but it is zoned Planned Development Residential.

“Unless a property is entitled for additional development, we can only sell something as the current use,” Cubba said. “It’s up to someone else to decide what they want to do with the asset. We’re selling it as the asset, the golf course.”

Nelson Maynard, president of the Tara Master Association and a resident of Tara Preserve, said he and other residents enjoy the view the golf course provides, and there is concern the property could be developed. How development might impact property values or stormwater management systems, for example, is a concern too.

For now, however, the association is watching to see what happens.

“We’re going to follow it and keep our residents informed,” he said.