Erving’s longtime “friend” turned him on to a “great deal” in 2007 regarding investing in the Atlanta area Heritage Golf Club, which sounded like the perfect opportunity. His business partner handled all of the details, according to his attorney, Dorna Taylor, and it was a done deal.
Soon after, he found himself stuck with a dud. It took $75k monthly to run the course, but it had to come from his personal finances because no profits were ever realized … he never even took a salary. On top of that, the club’s previous owner had defaulted on his loan for that very reason, but his “friend” didn’t share that information with him.
Erving renamed the course “Celebrity Golf Club International” and later moved to Atlanta to make an attempt at wrangling in the expenses and to stop the bleeding, but there wasn’t much he could do. Now the course is up for foreclosure and Erving is out approximately $5 million dollars so far, his attorney revealed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“From day one, the business could not support the expenses,” Taylor said.
In fact, Erving’s former friend knew the property wouldn’t appraise for the loan amount and the numbers were being misrepresented, she said. It was never worth the $11 million loan Ervin assumed. The property is now worth $2 million.
With friends like that, who needs enemies? Maybe Dr. J and his team could have done more due diligence — and been a bit more discerning when choosing friends — to avoid this situation, but it is nice to know that not all our current and former sports figures are squandering cash versus attempting to be responsible with their fortunes. –gerald radford
