Holmes Harbor course and club up for sale

The Schuster Group, a Seattle-based real estate development and investment firm, will sell its interest in Holmes Harbor Golf and Beach Club in Freeland, the company announced Tuesday.

The Schuster Group, a Seattle-based real estate development and investment firm, will sell its interest in Holmes Harbor Golf and Beach Club in Freeland, the company announced Tuesday.

The residential golf-course community includes an 18-hole golf course, clubhouse and restaurant, a new community beach and dock and several home projects.

“We want to find a buyer who will take the next step,” said Mark Schuster, company chairman. “It’s a unique property, and a rare opportunity.”

He said the asking price for the property has yet to be determined.

The company bought the property for about $2 million in 2003 from former Seattle Sonics basketball star Jack Sikma.

The Schuster Group immediately invested more than $1 million to upgrade the golf-course clubhouse.

Of the company’s 100 or so planned residential units, including waterfront condominiums, 35 homes have been completed, and all but five sold, Schuster said. The remaining homes are priced from $340,000 to $420,000.

“We’ve made some price adjustments,” he said, “but they were pretty reasonably-priced to begin with.”

Schuster said current economic conditions have placed the residential projects on hold, and because the company’s private real-estate fund is closed-end, the sale of Holmes Harbor has been timed to coincide with the fund’s operational time frame.

He said the company will continue to manage the property until a “suitable buyer” can be found.

“We had originally planned to build out the entire project, but with the current housing slump and our timing for our ownership group, we’re ready to turn it over to the next owner who can take a longer-term approach,” Schuster said.

“We’re proud of what we tried to accomplish,” Schuster said. “I think we’ve done a lot of improvements for the community.”