The Balboa Bay Club and Resort and the Newport Beach Country Club are set to be sold to a wealthy Chinese investor, according to officials familiar with the transaction.
International Bay Club Inc., a Newport Beach-based company that owns the tony oceanfront yacht club and the nearby golf club, is being sold to Seven-One Capital Business Inc., an entity headed up by Chinese-based energy and transportation entrepreneur Winston Chung.
A price hasn’t been disclosed.
The deal was set to be announced late last week, as the Business Journal was going to press.
Chung, founder of Winston Global Energy Ltd. in China, made waves locally earlier this year for investing at least $9 million in Brea’s Krystal Koach Inc., one of the country’s largest makers of limousines.
International Bay Club Inc. was last put up for sale about 11 years ago for a reported $74 million in a deal that was never completed.
This time around, the company could go for twice that amount if not more, according to sources.
International Bay Club is privately held. It’s owned by Beverley Ray Parkhurst, whose former husband, William Ray, bought the Balboa Bay Club nearly 40 years ago and followed up with the Newport Beach Country Club in 1985.
William Ray died in 1991.
The Balboa Bay Club, described by the Los Angeles Times as “an exclusive setting for local millionaires and Hollywood glitterati in the 1950s,” was built in 1948 along the Mariner’s Mile section of West Coast Highway.
It counts about 145 high-end apartments, 160 hotel rooms, and a 144-slip private yacht marina. The club got a $65 million expansion in 2003.
Balboa Bay’s membership is said to count several thousand members, and over the years has included John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart, John Travolta, Jerry Seinfeld and several others, according to the club’s website.
A few miles away, next to Newport Center and Fashion Island, the Newport Beach Country Club is the site of the annual Toshiba Senior Classic golf tournament.
International Bay Club is in the midst of seeking city approval to nearly double the size of the clubhouse at the 18-hole golf club to about 51,000 square feet, among other upgrades.
Dues at the golf club run about $720 per month, according to the club’s website.
Both sites are operated on land that’s leased to International Bay Club under long-term deals.
The Newport Beach Country Club land is leased by locally based Golf Realty Fund. The owners of the land have been seeking city approval to get some of the land on that property entitled for hotel and residential uses, independent of International Bay Club’s efforts to expand its clubhouse, according to city records.
The long-term lease for the golf club is transferrable to Chung, according to the sellers.
The city of Newport Beach owns the 15-acre property used by the Balboa Bay Club, and it recently agreed with the current owners on a new 50-year lease at the site.
A sale to Chung is dependent on getting that lease transferred to the new owner. A sale could close within a month.
Chung reportedly took an interest in buying the properties after staying at the Balboa Bay Club earlier this year. He is not believed to have a local residence, although he’s said to have bought several Southern California businesses the past year.
In addition to an investment in Brea’s Krystal Koach, Chung also has reportedly invested $310 million in MVP RV, a Riverside-based maker of recreational vehicles, among other transportation firms in the region.
In June, he gave $10 million to the University of California, Riverside’s Department of Engineering, in part to support an energy innovation professorship.
Winston Global Energy makes batteries for electric vehicles. Among other products, the company has reportedly developed an electric RV that can travel 180 miles on a single charge and recharge in 20 minutes.
Chung is said to be interested in investing in several boating companies in Southern California.
The current management for both Newport Beach clubs will remain in place following the sale, according to sources close to the deal.
