Legal Quagmire Engulfs Meadow Creek GC

An ongoing dispute between Jeff Brem, who owns the Dracut, Mass., course, and Realty Financial Partners, which has domain over the property’s clubhouse, restaurant, and parking lot, may deter potential buyers from purchasing the troubled course at auction.

An ongoing dispute between the owner of Meadow Creek Golf Club, Dracut, Mass., and the company that possesses the club’s parking lot, restaurant, and clubhouse could deter potential suitors from purchasing the financially troubled course at an auction slated for May, reports the Boston Golf Examiner.

Currently, Jeff Brem owns the course and Realty Financial Partners (RFP) of Wellesley, Mass. has domain over the property’s clubhouse, restaurant, and parking lot. Under the unusual agreement that the town of Dracut okayed in a 2009 special permit, Brem leased the non-course-related items from RFP. When Brem, blaming the sluggish economy, defaulted on his lease agreement with RFP, the company erected barriers around the parking lot and clubhouse, effectively blocking daily-fee golfers and the club’s 400 members from using the facilities.

So Brem went to court, seeking an injunction against RFP but failed to get relief. Late in March, Middlesex Superior Court Judge Edward Leibensperger denied Brem’s request.

Brem, who will likely appeal the decision, opened the five-year-old club for the season on April 4 — after receiving a cease-and-desist order from Dracut’s building inspector Dan McLaughlin.

McLaughlin ordered Brem and RFP to halt “further golf course related activity,” claiming they had breached a 2009 amendment to the club’s special permit, which the town provided the two parties.

The stop order, which includes a daily fine of $100 for each party, said Brem and RFP violated the special permit by closing the clubhouse, function room, pro shop, and main parking lot; barricading the parking facilities; using the first fairway as a parking area; and employing the facility’s utility building as a pro shop without obtaining appropriate permits.

“While we had all hoped for a speedy resolution to your contract dispute it appears this has not happened, and as of today we find the golf course being operated in a manner radically different to that required by the special permit,” McLaughlin wrote in the letter to Brem and RFP’s chief executive, David Allen.

What will happen next is anybody’s guess. JJ Manning Auctioneers, which has banged the gavel on the sales of several courses in the Boston area, plans to go ahead with the auction of the club but not the clubhouse, restaurant, or parking lot. A bankruptcy filing by Brem, which town clerk Joseph DiRocco suggested was a possibility, would affect the auction as well.

Tags: Dan McLaughlin David Allen Jeff Brem Meadow Creek Golf Club Realty Financial Partners RFP