As of Wednesday, the investment fund EB5AN is the new owner of Wohali.
EB5 was the bankrupt golf resort’s primary lender, representing 99 anonymous foreign creditors through a federal incentive program.
Since Wohali’s original developers couldn’t repay their roughly $79 million loan and no one else bid at a bankruptcy auction, EB5AN was able to use the debt to acquire the resort.
In a press release, EB5 said it intends to continue developing the residential side of Wohali and make good on the resort’s infrastructure commitments to Coalville.
“Our investors believed in this property from the beginning, and we are committed to seeing it reach its potential,” EB5AN partner Mike Schoenfeld said in the release. “The Eagle Course is a world-class asset, and we look forward to opening it this summer and working closely with Coalville and the local community.”
But the EB5 group isn’t a golf course operator. So it’s bringing in the golf resort company Troon from Scottsdale, Arizona, to help reopen and run Wohali’s course.
Wohali is expected to offer a mix of one-year memberships and day play.
“We look forward to working with ownership to help Wohali Golf Club realize its full potential,” Troon Vice President of Operations Justin Lake said in the company's press release.
The investment fund does have a development arm called Eagle Peak Development.
Eagle Peak will continue building Wohali homesites. According to the developer’s website, its portfolio includes two golf course and residential developments in Virginia and Georgia.
A group of landowners who bought homesites in Wohali before construction ceased have opposed EB5’s takeover.
The “Wohali concerned owners,” as they’re known in court filings, will receive some of the $4 million EB5 agreed to leave on the table for the dozens of other creditors.
But the concerned owners are losing the money they spent on golf memberships as Wohali’s founding members. As of 2024, those memberships were priced at $150,000.
They wanted Utah’s bankruptcy court to order Wohali’s new owners to honor their memberships.
Judge Peggy Hunt turned them down May 13. That’s because the now defunct golf club was a legally different entity than the bankrupt developer.
Two days later, she denied the concerned owners’ effort to block EB5’s acquisition while they appeal the resort sale.
Wohali’s original developers still own three pieces of land in the resort area through a separate LLC. One parcel includes part of the resort’s entrance, and another contains the golf course’s water pump.
EB5 is pursuing those parcels in state court, an action which the concerned owners group previously complained violates the rules of bankruptcy litigation.
Another ongoing lawsuit is challenging the ownership of Wohali’s private backcountry.
Boyden Farms, named for the family that homesteaded in the area, has sued. Steve Boyden says he signed his land over to Wohali under false pretenses.
The backcountry — which the old developers planned to use for private ski mountaineering and hiking — comprises 3,000 acres of Wohali’s roughly 5,000-acre area.
