Premier North Carolina Golf Resort Purchased; Readies for $500M Re-Development

The Little River Golf & Resort in Carthage, N.C., has been snapped up by a new owner that will submit the 630-acre property to a $500 million redevelopment project. Portugal-based Oceanico Group, making its entrée into the U.S. market, acquired the resort from a group of nine owners and will move forward with the group’s previous plans to expand the resort into an upscale mixed-use destination. Located about an hour from Raleigh in the prestigious Pinehurst golf enclave, the 12-year-old Little River is home to a celebrated Dan Maples-designed 18-hole golf course, as well as a 20,000-square-foot clubhouse (pictured), 64 residential apartments, a restaurant and a pro shop. The sellers, collectively known as Little River Resort Properties L.L.C., had acquired Little River in July of 2006 with plans of adding additional single- and multi-family residential offerings, a retail village and a golf school. Oceanico will now take up the expansion endeavor, taking advantage of the 550 acres of undeveloped land on the site. Susan Clift Brown of Clift Commercial Real Estate Services and Ron Myers of Village Properties co-marketed Little River on behalf of the sellers. “Absolutely, there was a great deal of interest among national and international developers and investors,” Myers told CPN today. “There were three or four groups looking at it at the same time.” Oceanico officials cited the property’s close proximity to the booming Raleigh-Durham and Research Triangle areas as one of the factors it found attractive about Little River. The company, one of the top property developers and golf operators in Portugal, plans to re-create Little River as a world-class destination for golfers as well as for those seeking five-star resort accommodations.