Jun. 19--TAMPA, Fla.--An Orlando-based time-share company purchased the once famous Grenelefe Golf and Tennis Resort on Tuesday for $12.75 million. 

"Now I own three golf courses, and I don't play golf," said David A. Siegel, president and chairman of the board of Central Florida Investments Inc., which owns 12 Westgate Resorts time-share communities in the United States, including River Ranch in east Polk County. 

Siegel said he does not know what the company will do with the 1,000-acre Grenelefe site, which is in northeast Polk County. The property has three golf courses, 22 tennis courts, a convention center, three restaurants, four swimming pools, a marina on Lake Marion and 405 resort-owned rental condominiums. 

"I don't have any plans, really," said Siegel, who visited the property on two days last week, for a total of about two hours. "I didn't think I'd get the property. I was not going to bid high on it, so I didn't think I'd get it. This could be a bonanza or it could be a disaster." 

Westgate Resorts owns time-share communities in Orlando; Miami Beach; Daytona Beach; Gatlinburg, Tenn.; Park City, Utah; and Las Vegas, Siegel said. 

Last year, the firm bought the 1,700-acre River Ranch Resort, 21 miles east of Lake Wales and one mile west of the Osceola County line, for $5.5 million. 

A grand opening for Westgate River Ranch Resort, described as "the world's largest dude ranch," is scheduled for July 5 and 6. Plans call for more than 2,500 vacation residences, including time-share, whole ownership and private hangar homes on the airstrip. 

Two other groups posted the required $250,000 deposit to bid on Grenelefe. 

One of them, Charro Developers LLC of California, did not appear at the auction at a law firm in Tampa. The other, Peter M. Lenhardt, a Clearwater developer representing himself and John P. Barrett Jr., a Clearwater orthopedic surgeon, did not raise the bid after Siegel made the court-appointed minimum bid of $12.75 million. 

"It sold for the right price," said Lenhardt, who with Barrett owns Crescent Oaks, a private golf course in Tarpon Springs; semiprivate Magnolia Valley Golf Club in New Port Richey; and a semiprivate golf course in Brunswick, Ga. 

Central Florida Investments must put up a second $250,000 deposit by Friday and must pay the remainder of the bid price by July 1. 

First Columbine Life Insurance Co. in Colorado, which holds the first lien on most of Grenelefe's assets, became the backup bidder with its $12.5 million claim against Grenelefe. It was not required to meet the minimum bid amount. 

If First Columbine has to take title to the property, it would release any claim against the estate and market the resort for sale, said its attorney, Michael Seese. 

Several members of the Grenelefe Homeowners Association, which represents about 500 privately owned, single- family homes, attended the auction. Although they are not personally affected by the bankruptcy, they are worried about maintenance of the golf courses and facilities. 

"We're concerned about the future of the resort and how that will affect our lifestyle and our property values," said Gale Waters, secretary of the association. 

Reopening and refurnishing the golf courses is the first priority, the association members told Siegel when he asked them what needed to be done first. 

The owner of the resort, Sports Shinko Florida Co. Ltd., a Japanese-owned company, and three other entities filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy Feb. 18. Combined, they have listed liabilities of $64.6 million, compared with $33.5 million in assets. 

The Grenelefe resort began in 1974 when a group of investors took over a development that consisted of one golf course and a few homes. Sports Shinko purchased the property in 1987 from Marine Midland Banks of New York for $27 million. The bank had foreclosed on a loan. 

At one time the resort hosted some of the world's top golfers and tennis players. Its golf courses regularly hosted PGA qualifying tournaments and for several years hosted the United Airlines Tennis Tournament of Champions, featuring some of the best female players in the world and a national television audience. 

In 1982, the west golf course was named the state's best course by Florida Golf Week magazine. 

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(c) 2002, Tampa Tribune, Fla. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.