Deal reached for Bonita Bay golf course | Mediterra owners may buy facility

BY DICK HOGAN • Naples News • AUGUST 25, 2009

An advisory committee at Mediterra has reached a tentative agreement with Bonita Bay Group for residents to buy the community’s golf and beach clubs for $6.8 million cash or $8 million financed.  In addition, the deal would require the residents to assume $15 million in debt to the bondholders of a community development district set up to build the infrastructure of Mediterra.

The committee acknowledged that the agreement is “essentially the same” as Bonita Bay’s original offer to sell the clubs three months ago except that financing can be arranged through Key Bank – a major creditor of the financially strapped Bonita Bay Group.

Financially troubled Bonita Bay Group is negotiating with committees from its communities to sell the clubs. A committee representing members at Bonita Bay in Bonita Springs, the company’s oldest project, announced Thursday that it had failed to reach an agreement and recommended taking legal action instead.

At Mediterra, “Something over 80 percent of current members rejoining will be enough to do the deal,” according to a memorandum sent Saturday to Mediterra residents by the committee.

Naples-based Michael Lissack, a Mediterra resident, said he thinks it’s a bad deal and doesn’t expect it to get enough support to go into effect. “I think there will be more than enough (who oppose the agreement) to make sure they don’t get it.”