A bid by Phil Mickelson and others to buy Fairbanks Ranch Country Club in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., has fallen through, the broker in the transaction has confirmed.
"It was a mutual parting of the ways," Jeff Woolson, managing director of the golf and resort group for CBRE, said Thursday. "They wanted to do a lot of things to the property, which required they go back and request a lease concession with the city. Members didn't feel like they wanted to go down that road."
Two months ago, Mickelson's group, which included his long-time friend and agent Steve Loy and U-T San Diego publisher Doug Manchester, had signed a letter of intent to purchase the club.
The 27-hole facility is owned by the membership on land leased from the city of San Diego. The process by which a new lease could be negotiated and agreed to "has never been acceptable to the seller," Woolson said. "It would take too long.
"They [the Mickelson group] were very respectful, but said that at the end of the day a longer lease was something they had to get. The board said, we appreciate that and understand it, but that's been off the table from the very beginning.' They didn't want to go down that path."
Meanwhile, Woolson said he has another potential buyer and that a deal is "very close."
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