Laurelmor to re-launch in second half of 2009

By Scott Nicholson

The new owners of the Laurelmor development hold different portions of the property but are funded by the same investment group, according to Watauga County land records.

Under recently announced agreements, a bankruptcy filing by the Ginn Company led to the transfer of the property to two new groups, BR Development Group LLC and Blowing Rock Resort Venture LLC.

The property has an approximate listed value of between $30 and $32 million, according to deed stamps paid in Watauga and Wilkes counties.

About 5,400 acres of the 6,200-acre total property is in southeastern Watauga County.

Watauga County Register of Deeds JoAnn Townsend said the Lubert-Adler Partnership, the entity behind the formation of BR Development Group LLC, paid $18,572 in deed stamps for part of the Watauga property, an estimated $9 million worth of property, as well as about $5 million worth of Wilkes property.

Reynolds Capital Group, under the name Blowing Rock Resort Venture LLC, paid $37,344 in deed-stamp taxes, for property of about $18 million, all in Watauga County.

Reynolds Capital Group was also the parent company of the Lubert-Adler Partnership.

Lubert-Adler is a real estate private equity firm specializing in redevelopments through joint ventures with local operating partners and was a joint-venture partner with the Ginn Company in Laurelmor and other developments.

It also owns Marriott hotels in Raleigh and Winston-Salem, according to its online portfolio.

According to the company history, the firm was co-founded by Ira Lubert and Dean Adler in 1997 and invests in all property types throughout North America. Lubert-Adler claims investments in more than $15 billion of real estate assets and a current fund equity of $2.5 billion.

The company has five branches in the United States, with the Atlanta, Ga. office listed on Watauga County deed records as the property purchaser.

Reynolds Signature Communities, a subsidiary of Linger Longer Communities LLC, announced it had acquired the property in a press releases last week.

“We are very excited to extend the Reynolds lifestyle to this beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain setting,” Mercer Reynolds, chairman of Reynolds Signature Communities, said in a news release.

“My family was blessed with some magnificent waterfront land in the Oconee River Valley (Georgia) for Reynolds Plantation, and the mountains and ridges at this property are every bit as glorious. I think it is a great sister community for Reynolds Plantation.”

The company has developed three golfing communities in Georgia totaling 14,000 acres.

Laurelmor is one of four Ginn Company properties that were under a loan-agreement deadline after missing payments in June on $675 million in debt affecting four Ginn-owned properties. The company had been reducing its staff over the past year while negotiating with creditors. Lubert-Adler had an 80 percent share of the Ginn LA entity that was developing Laurelmor.

According to the Reynolds Strategic Communities release, the development will be re-launched in the second half of 2009. The company said it would release more details next month.