Hawthorns Golf Club in Fishers files for bankruptcy

The owner of Hawthorns Golf & Country Club in Fishers is seeking bankruptcy protection from creditors and has asked the court to approve a loan that will carry it through the off-season.

Hamilton Proper Partners Golf Partnership LP listed assets of less than $50,000 and debts between $50 million and $100 million in Chapter 11 documents filed Jan. 24 in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Indianapolis.

Hawthorns is a private membership club within HDG Mansur's Hamilton Proper residential community. It features an 18-hole, 279-acre championship course designed by Arthur Mills, according to its website. Located northeast of Geist Reservoir, the club has about 500 members, club officials recently told IBJ.

The bankruptcy filing comes after a lender filed a $4.8 million foreclosure lawsuit on the club and asked a Hamilton County court to appoint a receiver. The California-based lender, HGCC Lender LLC, recently purchased the loan from Rhode Island-based Textron Financial Corp.

Before selling the loan to HGCC, Textron had granted Hamilton Proper Partners several extensions or forebearance agreements while the golf course owner looked for alternative financing.

Hamilton Proper Partners now is seeking to borrow as much as $200,000 to help fund operations as it restructures, according to court papers. The company said its business won’t be interrupted, and obligations to customers and workers will be fulfilled.

“Due to the fact that the debtor operates a golf course and country club, its operations are seasonally dependent,” the company said in court papers requesting approval of the loan. “The debtor is in its traditionally slow season and as a result is in need of post-petition financing to assist it during this time.”

HGCC is listed in court documents as the largest secured creditor, with its $4.8 million claim. One of the largest unsecured creditors is the Harold D. Garrison Irrevocable Trust, with a $14.5 million claim for "periodic unsecured loans over a period of 20 years."

Harold D. Garrison is the general partner of Hamilton Proper, according to court documents. He also is the CEO of HDG Mansur.

According to court records, the largest unsecured creditor is Boca Raton, Fla.-based Sana Corp., which has a claim for $24.6 million in unsecured loans made over 20 years.