Dozens of RV lease holders are worried they could lose tens of thousands of dollars after the Wolf Creek Golf Resort went into receivership.
Sean McGuinness plans to spend his retirement on the green, staying at the famous Wolf Creek Golf Resort in Ponoka. In 2021, he leased a lot at Wolf Creek RV Resort, adjacent to the golf course. He paid $35,000 for a 15-year lease.
“We thought it would be a pretty safe investment because Wolf Creek, and the Vold family for that matter, has been around for over 40 years,” McGuinness said.
However, his investment quickly soured when he was notified that the golf resort was going into receivership a year after he signed the document.
“It was supposed to be part of our retirement plan, so things are already up in the air,” he said.
Wolf Creek filed for bankruptcy on October 13. Five days later, the resort president sent a letter to members.
In the letter, Ryan Wold says, “As many of you already know, I have been trying to find an investor or buyer for Wolf Creek for some time. In fact, on a few occasions I felt like I had put something together, but unfortunately they all failed. Our mortgage company has lost faith that I will find a buyer, so now they are taking it into their own hands.
McGuinness said RV lease holders were left in shock.
“Nobody knew anything about it…everyone I’ve talked to seemed like it was out of the blue. Where did that come from?” McGuinness said.
“Many of the campers wonder where all the money went. When you look at the last two years, it’s the busiest two years the golf course has had, and then when you add in the $1 million that the campers contributed, there are a lot of questions about what happened here.”
McGuinness added that he and others were also unaware that Wolf Creek and Vold had been sued for nearly $3 million in April by Cobra Mortgage Services.
“Nevertheless, the tours continued. The sales continued and other investors, other tourists who were really unsuspecting, ended up investing at a stage that I really don’t think should have happened at this point.”
For example, Doug Hassett invested in his retirement fund and paid $7,500 to extend his lease for another five years in September, just weeks before the resort went into receivership.
“Shock, for sure. I had no idea. I didn’t expect it at all,” Hassett said.
The bankruptcy filing lists seven entities as secured creditors, including Cobra Mortgage Services, Ponoka County and Lacombe County. However, McGuinness and Hassett, along with more than 40 other lessors, are listed as unsecured creditors.
“None of these leases were registered with land title and if they were we would have been listed as secured creditors,” McGuinness said.
“It’s really unfortunate because the campers actually contributed probably the second largest amount of money, and we’re listed as unsecured creditors, so we’re not guaranteed any money with the sale of Wolf Creek.”
Brad Taylor bought a lease in 2019. He paid $35,000 and an additional $30,000 for improvements to his lot. He considers himself a little lucky because he paid everything in advance.
“I know a lot of people who decided to get into this and they actually went out and remortgaged their homes so they could buy these properties,” he said.
Taylor added that his attempts to contact Vold have been fruitless since the bankruptcy filing.
“I tried to contact him and had no luck getting a hold of him to ask any questions or get any answers at all.”
Vold declined an interview request and asked CTV News Edmonton to contact receiver MNP.
MNP Vice President Karen Aylward said, “I will not provide specific information or comment at this time, but you are welcome to visit our website where we are posting public information related to this engagement as it becomes available.”
McGuinness, Hassett and Taylor hope the prospective buyer honors the leases they paid for.
“The bottom line is the campers didn’t do anything wrong, so hopefully some of those wrongs will be righted in this sale,” McGuinness said.
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