The clock has started ticking on the final tee times at River Oaks Golf Club.
Chris Manning of Chris Manning Communities closed this week on the purchase of the remaining 18 holes of the golf course, setting the stage for it to become a residential development in the next few years.
The Fox and the Otter nines will remain open for the foreseeable short-term future, however, as Manning and Mungo Homes combine to create a residential community with 220 single-family lots on what used to be the Bear nine holes at the one-time 27-hole facility.
“That will stay in operation while we’re going through the process,” Manning said. “The same folks will be in place. Nothing will change there, it will be open for golf and all that. It’s already zoned for single-family homes [however]. That’s the reason we purchased the property.”
River Oaks is operated and managed through a lease by a group of investors under the name River Oaks Golf Club LLC that includes club general manager Scott Taylor.
“River Oaks will continue to operate as a golf course,” Taylor said. “We look forward to continuing to operate and maintain the course as we always have.”
River Oaks is a 6,800-yard Gene Hamm design that opened in 1987 and became a 27-hole facility with the opening of the Bear nine holes in 1991. It has some of the more affordable green fees in the Myrtle Beach market.
The Bear nine, which was on the east side of River Oaks Drive, closed in September 2021 and was sold to Manning.
That sale was for $3 million, according to Manning and Horry County online records, and he sold it for $9.5 million to Mungo Homes on Tuesday. Manning will develop all of the lots, he said, and he and Mungo Homes will share in the building of homes.
“This [relationship] is new and we have a few others planned so we’re excited about the relationship,” Manning said.
Manning paid $9.2 million for the Fox and Otter, he said, which comprise 172 acres. The Fox is the most scenic of the once-trio of nines, reaching the Intracoastal Waterway on a couple holes.
Manning expects to begin installing infrastructure to the former Bear nine this summer and could begin building homes by the summer of 2025.
In the meantime, he said he’ll get the engineering and permitting due diligence started on the remaining 18 holes to follow up the completion of houses on the former Bear nine.
“River Oaks is great land,” said Manning, who recently sold International Club of Myrtle Beach to Sandesh Sharda and is building 44 homes on the course’s former driving range. “We have [Intracoastal] Waterway access on the Fox and Otter and it’s in Carolina Forest. It’s an A-plus location. I think it will be a very successful community out there.”
The Fox and Otter nines are zoned SF-10 & GR, which would allow a residential development under the guidelines of minimum 10,000-square-foot single-family lots.
Manning said he doesn’t plan to request a zoning change and will develop the large lot sizes.
Recent, future developments
The course has been owned by a group of investors headed by the Gray family of Myrtle Beach, including former Myrtle Beach City Councilman Wayne Gray.
A developer representing course ownership had requested a rezoning last fall to allow for more density, and presented a proposal to Horry County officials calling for redevelopment into a housing development. But the rezoning request was withdrawn on Oct. 19 and didn’t appear to have support among Horry County Council members.
The proposal featured 558 housing units for a density of about 3.25 units per acre on the 172 acres – 397 single-family lots, 63 townhome units and 98 semi-detached units (adjacent duplexes) – and about 68 acres of common open space.
If it closes, River Oaks Golf Club will join a handful of courses in the market over the past six years that have closed in favor of housing projects including The Witch Golf Links, Farmstead Golf Links, Possum Trot Golf Club, Heather Glen Golf Links and Indian Wells Golf Club.
Additionally, nine holes have closed at River Oaks, Aberdeen Country Club and The Pearl Golf Links.
Manning said he is planning to purchase another property east of the waterway in 2024 or 2025 for another residential development.
“I think everybody understands that lots of people want to move to this market and development is a critical part of the community,” Manning said, acknowledging there will be residents against further residential development in certain areas.
River Oaks Drive is generally a two-lane road with some turn lanes, and its developments include Waterway Plantation, Waterway Palms, The Bluffs, Berkshire Forest and Village Oaks, with Manning’s developments and others planned.
A road widening project might be coming.
An 18-member RIDE IV Sales Tax Advisory Committee, of which Gray is the chairman, has recommendations totaling more than $880 million that would be paid for through a one-cent sales tax that will be on the voting ballot in November.
The widening of River Oaks to four lanes with turn lanes at intersections and a full-length multipurpose path has been recommended to be among the expenditures at an approximate cost of $142 million.
