This Utah luxury golf community is bankrupt and headed toward sale — with a fight over how soon

Coalville • When Coalville city officials were deciding whether to annex 1,500 acres that were the proposed site of Wohali, a sprawling golf course community, residents worried about the impact of hundreds of new luxury homes.

But more than seven years after the annexation, the small town of 1,500 people has not been flooded by newcomers and tourists.

Instead, Wohali’s development has stalled. Contractors and others have filed lawsuits claiming they haven’t been paid. Its lender alleges that Wohali began skipping interest payments last year, and in August, the project wound up in bankruptcy court.

For now, court records show, Wohali is headed toward a court-supervised sale in March — a quick resolution opposed by lot owners who consider it a “fire sale” and by Park City tech executive Doug Bergeron, who has said he wants to buy the development.

And although Wohali hasn’t driven a surge in population so far, it still has led to a rift that many Coalville residents feared, Mayor-elect Rory Swensen and other city officials said.

“It’s really divided the community,” said Swensen, who ran on promises of bridging divides and smartly managing the city’s growth.

He pointed to the results of this year’s mayoral election, in which he beat City Council member Lynn Wood by 25 votes, as evidence of that split. Wood, an early opponent of Wohali’s initial plans, called its current disarray a “very predictable result” for development on agricultural land in rural Summit County.

Some community members, Swensen said, see the development on the city’s west side as “fundamentally changing the community in a way they don’t want,” while others are trying to make the best of it.

“Ultimately, it is part of Coalville, and we want it to succeed,” Swensen said.

Yet some aren’t sure it’s possible. “It baffles my mind that they got as far as they did,” Wood said.

Attorneys for developer Wohali Land Estates and the bankruptcy trustee now overseeing Wohali did not respond to requests for comment. Neither did city staff nor the outgoing mayor, Mark Marsh.

Wohali’s money woes

Coalville not only annexed the site, it also created public infrastructure districts to help Wohali finance roads and other improvements. These districts allow property owners or developers to issue bonds — in this case, $34.5 million in bonds to expand city sewer and other infrastructure — the way governments do.

Wohali owed — but did not have the funds to cover — a $3.3 million payment to the district for 2025, trustee Matt McKinlay told the bankruptcy judge in November, asking for permission to arrange an additional loan for that expense and others.

The judge approved his plan to get financing of $4.3 million from EB5AN — the lender that extended a loan of $79.2 million to developer Wohali Land Estates in 2022, and now says it’s owed $86 million.

EB5AN, an investment fund manager based in Florida, raised the money from 99 foreign investors via its Wohali Utah Fund XV, according to the company. Through the federal EB-5 visa program, which is aimed at injecting money and jobs into rural or economically unstable areas, the Wohali fund offered investors eligibility for permanent residency.

EB5AN, which wants the March sale, blames Wohali’s financial straits on slow sales of lots and townhomes and the developer’s focus on spending for infrastructure and amenities. Wohali was posting updates to social media but hasn’t since December 2024, and the development’s website is no longer active.

But a group of lot owners is targeting EB5AN, arguing in court documents that it “carelessly handed out massive sums” to “get as many visas for its limited partner investors as possible,” rather than effectively overseeing the developer.

The lot owners and Bergeron have argued for a longer sale timeline, asserting that working on Wohali’s infrastructure and waiting for the golf course to open its new season would increase its value for a late spring or summer sale. The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 22.

A bird’s eye view shows mostly completed roads through rolling hills and housing in various states of completion. Satellite views show years of progress, from a grassy hillside west of town in 1984 to roads and roadways and preparations for development in 2022.

The public infrastructure for housing isn’t complete, based on bankruptcy filings. They note that while the golf course has been up and running, other construction has been suspended, structures are not weather-tight and utilities are not available.

A couple of property owners are claiming that homes they have spent millions on are “nearly physically habitable.” Attorneys for various property owners also did not respond to requests for comment.

‘We want a community’

Wood was part of an effort that opposed the original Wohali proposal, which envisioned two 18-hole golf courses, a clubhouse, and hundreds of high-end residences.

Developers later scaled back certain elements; the agreement with the city for the master planned community calls for 125 homes and 303 nightly rentals in the private community.

Council member Louise Willoughby also opposed the project as initially proposed, then the nightly rentals. She and Wood said they feel Wohali has pitted “old-timers” and “move-ins” against each other, in a feud that Coalville had previously managed to sidestep.

“We didn’t want any division,” Willoughby said. “We did not want our town to turn into a resort town. We want a community.”

The division was the primary reason Swensen, who was born and raised in Coalville and moved back a decade ago after leaving for college and a career, ran for mayor, he said. His family goes back four generations in the city, he said, and he wanted to make a difference after feeling that city staff and council members were not functioning well together.

“It’s home, and you want to see it retain the things that you love about it, but also succeed and be there for other people,” he said.

Some worry about more developments gaining ground as wealth pushes out from Park City and its resort-style housing market. Second homes are pushing out into the county, Wood said, as even areas near Coalville become “a playground for the rich.”

That risks pushing out permanent residents, including Willoughby’s daughter and grandchildren, who she said moved to Wyoming because property taxes became too expensive.

Willoughby doesn’t have a problem with growth that’s right for the community, she said, but added that resort-style developments are “for people making a lot of money.”

Swensen isn’t worried about Coalville becoming the next Park City, largely because of one major advantage: Hindsight.

The “lack of planning and developers running roughshod” is an example of “experiences that maybe we don’t want to follow,” he said, and a cautionary tale that Coalville can heed.

“We’re one county, but we have the ability on the agriculture side, the rural side, to look a little bit down the road,” he said.

Wood would like to see an end to the cycle of competing voices running for council, something she says developers can take advantage of to get what they want. She is hopeful Swensen can make good on his campaign and pull the town together.

In doing that, Swensen sees his biggest challenge as working with whoever emerges from the bankruptcy with control over the development of Wohali, but doing it while communicating with the town and taking in feedback.

Communication will be key, he said, especially being proactive about telling people what’s happening and why.

“I’m very much middle-of-the-road, wanting to listen,” Swensen said, adding he is for development if it’s done wisely. “We just have to have a plan.”

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