Arlington Project Sells for $51 Million

By STEVE McLINDEN

ARLINGTON - The 2,000-acre Lakes of Arlington mixed-use project, a work in progress in north Arlington for the past half decade, has been sold to Golf Communities of America of Orlando, Fla., for $51 million in cash and stock.

GCA, which operates 11 upscale golfing communities, including sites in Naples, Fla., Pinehurst, N.C., and in Port-land, near Corpus Christi, purchased the property from investor Jim Salim. The firm plans to build a private country club and golf course on the northeast corner of the sprawling parcel, which stretches along Farm Road 157 just south of Euless.

GCA officials called The Lakes of Arlington one of the most desirable properties in the country.

The company's long-term development plans call for 920 homes in exclusive gated communities, parkland and as much as 3 million square feet of retail and office buildings, including an urban center for high-rise office towers and hotels, the new owners say.

The golf course will supplant "some of the less desirable commercial property that wasn't going to be developed for years," Salim said.

The 18-hole golf course, which would be built on approximately 200 acres, is expected to be among the premier country clubs in the area, developers said.

Credit Suisse First Boston, a 24.9 percent equity owner in Golf Communities of America, provided $50 million of financing. In turn, Golf Communities will issue about 11.4 million shares of its common stock to Salim. Salim will become the second largest shareholder in the firm, which trades on NASDAO as GVIM.

The transaction closed Friday in New York and is expected to be made public to Wall Street this morning.

Warren Stanchina, chairman and chief executive of GCA, said appraisals show that the Lakes of Arlington parcel "is one of the most valuable pieces of real estate in the country."

"The area's strong residential market and the development's prime commercial location have already created excitement for national and regional real estate people," he said.

Stanchina said his firm hopes to deliver home sites to builders by early 1999.

Plans for an elaborate clubhouse are in the formative stages. But the company, which constructed an $8 million clubhouse at the Naples complex, views the Arlington golf property "as a similar if not more promising investment opportunity," Stanchina said.

The Lakes of Arlington development, which has long been expected to generate desirable upscale housing and have a significant property tax impact, has developed an even more desirable focus with the latest plans, said David Sampson, chairman of the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

"Arlington looks real smart having had the foresight to annex that property," said.