Mission, EDC purchase Cimarron Country Club for $5 million

Mission Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza

After months of negotiations, the city of Mission and the Mission Economic Development Corporation have jointly announced their purchase of the Cimarron Country Club.

The city and MEDC announced the acquisition via a news release Monday, but the deal formally closed on Thursday, according to officials.

“Gaining control of such an important asset was absolutely critical to Mission. (Cimarron) has been an eyesore for years, and that was no longer acceptable,” Mayor Norie Gonzalez Garza stated in the news release.

“This now means we can move forward with a positive plan working with Cimarron residents, the City, the EDC, and potential buyers to bring back the country club we all knew and loved…” Gonzalez Garza further stated.

The mayor was referring to the city’s plan to be just a short-term owner of the property. City leaders hope to entice a private buyer into purchasing the property and returning it to its former glory.

Mission will pay $5 million for the 200-acre golf course and country club to the Kamels, a local family who run a property development company called Black Diamond Developers.

The city will contribute $2.5 million toward the purchase, while the MEDC will contribute the remaining $2.5 million.

The MEDC plans to pay the city back for its contribution using sales tax revenue bonds, officials said.

“The city conveyed to us (the MEDC) $5 million. We bought the thing for $5 million. And then what we’re gonna do is we’re doing some … revenue bonds and we’re gonna pay them back,” Telco Garcia, CEO of the MEDC, said Monday.

Further, the Cimarron’s residents are expected to form what’s called a “public improvement district,” or PID, that will raise the capital funds needed to maintain the property.

PIDs are specialized taxing entities that can implement assessments, or taxes, that will be used solely to fund public improvement projects within the PID’s boundaries.

Site preparations are underway for The Shoppes at Tres Lagos subdivision on Friday, Sept. 17, 2021, in far North McAllen. (Delcia Lopez | dlopez@themonitor.com)

For instance, Tres Lagos — a so-called “master planned community” in north McAllen — residents pay a PID assessment of 25 cents per $100 valuation each year for the upkeep of that community’s public spaces, such as pools and parks.

That fee is in addition to any property taxes or homeowners association dues that residents also pay.

Back in Mission, the Kamel family originally bought the Cimarron property in August 2020 with the intent of renovating its facilities and continuing to operate it as a golf course.

But those plans never came to fruition.

Instead, a year later, Black Diamond had shuttered the golf course and had let its grounds become so unkempt that the city’s code enforcement department had begun to issue citations.

That and other issues prompted a flurry of litigation in both state and federal court, as communication between the Kamels, the city and the Cimarron’s homeowners became increasingly acrimonious.

Another year later, in November 2022, the principal members of the Kamel family who operated Black Diamond Developers turned to the courts for a different reason — for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

But things began to change last April, not long after the Mission City Council appointed Mike Perez to be Mission’s new city manager amidst a financial crisis.

While Perez had been hired to rectify the city’s budgets, he also began working on another objective just weeks after his hiring — finding the solution to the Cimarron problem.

By October, Mission had tentatively reached an agreement to purchase the Cimarron from the Kamels. But the deal fell through, according to a Dec. 9 court filing.

Negotiations picked back up over the holidays.

In its bankruptcy filings, Black Diamond listed the appraised value of the defunct golf course at $3 million.

When asked how the city and the Kamels arrived at a figure $2 million above that appraisal, Perez said it was the fair price Mission reached after obtaining an appraisal of its own from Leonel Garza Jr. & Associates, a real estate firm out of McAllen.

Mission City Manager Mike Perez

“We got a quick appraisal on the property, and it was between $4.5 and $5.5 million, so we offered them ($5 million),” Perez said Monday.

“Now, they (Black Diamond Developers) might have put that in the bankruptcy (filings), but that’s not what they gave us,” Perez said of the $3 million valuation Black Diamond had listed in its statement of assets.

“They gave us an appraisal that said the property was worth $13 million,” Perez said.

Now that the city and EDC own Cimarron, the clock is ticking to sell it to a third party buyer.

As long as the property sits on the Mission’s balance sheets, it will not generate any property tax revenues for the city.

But Perez was optimistic that a buyer can be found “before the end of this fiscal year,” and nodded to a closed door discussion that was slated to take place Monday afternoon for city officials to discuss next steps.

But already, potential buyers have show interest.

“We’ve got three nibbles. Can’t tell you who they are right now, but we do have three nibbles,” Perez said.

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