Developer Glenn Straub allegedly backed out of a deal to sell a shuttered Palm Beach County golf course for nearly $21 million to BH Group.
On Dec. 10, an affiliate of Aventura-based BH, led by Liat and Isaac Toledano, sued an entity managed by Straub that owns the Polo West Golf Course, a 150.5-acre redevelopment site at 2470 Greenview Cove Drive in Wellington. The complaint, filed in Palm Beach County Circuit Court, seeks a court order to force the sale, which allegedly was supposed to close last month.
“All the terms of the agreement were finalized, and then the seller refused to close,” Robert Stok, an attorney for the BH affiliate, told The Real Deal. “My client is ready, willing and able to close, but [Straub’s entity] just backed out of the deal.”
A Straub spokesperson provided a statement from the developer’s legal team that said “the transaction stalled not due to a lack of cooperation by the seller, but because the buyer failed to perform under the terms it originally set, and later declined reasonable alternatives offered to facilitate closing.”
According to the complaint, Straub’s entity agreed in August to sell the site for $20 million. BH Group paid a $250,000 deposit, later adding $100,000 when the inspection period was extended to Oct. 31, the lawsuit states.
On that date, the buyer and seller agreed to amend the contract to raise the purchase price to $20.7 million, with Straub’s entity providing $20 million in seller financing at a 3 percent interest rate with a two-year maturity, the complaint alleges. Prior to a Nov. 10 closing date, the seller’s attorney allegedly requested that the loan amount be reduced to $18.6 million, but did not provide an updated agreement.
Straub’s entity failed to consummate the sale, the lawsuit states.
According to the Straub legal team statement, BH initially represented that it required no more than 30 days and a soil test to close on the property in full cash.
“That representation formed the basis for allowing the contract to proceed,” the statement said. “However, once those conditions were satisfied, BH Group did not close as stated. Instead, the buyer repeatedly requested extensions, despite having previously asserted readiness to perform.”
Straub offered seller financing to prevent the deal from collapsing, but that BH wouldn’t agree to terms that protected the seller for assuming lender risk, the statement said.
Straub, who owns Palm Beach Polo & Country Club, reacquired the Polo West property from veterinarian Scott Swerdlin about a year ago. Swerdlin had purchased it from Straub for $16 million in 2019, but Straub resumed control earlier this year, per state records.
Polo West Golf Course once hosted PGA Tour events and had polo fields and croquet lawns, but Straub’s failed efforts to redevelop it left the property overgrown and idle. He’s faced decades of code citations from Wellington officials over property maintenance and permit issues.
BH has no immediate redevelopment plans, a person familiar with the deal said. The firm is one of the most prolific development-site buyers in South Florida, and has partnered with firms like Related Group, Pebb Enterprises and Kolter on several mixed-use, hotel, and condo projects.