Auction planned for Cherry Hill’s Woodcrest Country Club

Cherry Hill's Woodcrest Country Club will not open this year and an auction of the property is imminent, a bankruptcy trustee has informed members.

The trustee, Bonnie Glantz Fatell, said in a telephone interview Friday that a motion to set a date for the sale of the course, long a haven for Jewish golfers, is expected next week.

Club members who have property at the club can pick it up between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Saturday and March 16, Fatell informed members in a notice posted on the Woodcrest website.

Additional dates may be set in April since some members are wintering in Florida and will not return before then, the trustee said.

In a related matter, Fatell filed a motion Thursday asking U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Judith H. Wizmur to return to members funds held in two escrow accounts. One account contains about $120,000 in deposits from members who contributed to the club's plan fund and the other contains $92,000 in prepaid 2013-2014 season dues.

In announcing that the club would not open this year, Fatell said, "Unfortunately, the club has no funds to operate, and I have concluded that the only option is to market the club and its assets for sale to the public."

At this stage of the game, only one firm, calling itself Crestwood - a clear play on the Woodcrest name - has stepped forward to make an offer for the 155-acre club.

Crestwood's principals are members of the Brown family who also control Sun National Bank of Vineland, the country club's only secured creditor. Sidney R. Brown, the bank's vice chairman, was a member of Woodcrest's board.

Fatell said she has engaged SSG Capital Advisors of West Conshohocken to market and conduct the public sale.

She urged members interested in bidding for the club to contact SSG.

Woodcrest filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in May as it was about to undergo a sheriff's sale sought by Sun, which financed a disputed and ill-fated clubhouse expansion.

In a reorganization plan filed in January, Woodcrest reported claims of more than $20 million, including $11.8 million by the bank.

The par-71 course dates to 1929 and later began operating as a daily-fee public course. It became a private club and haven for area Jewish golfers starting in 1948, a time when Jews found it hard to get into other private clubs.