BY JOE CARLSON, Times of Northwest Indiana
HAMMOND | For the third time since November, officials with outdoor retailer Cabela's Inc. have increased the purchase price in their bid to buy the 93-acre Woodmar Country Club.
Woodmar Board President Peter Lanman confirmed reports on Tuesday that the Nebraska-based sporting goods chain has increased its purchase offer to $14 million.
The country club's 148 voting members had not even voted on a two-month-old offer of $12 million when Cabela's increased its price again. Lanman would not comment, except to say that the club is likely to vote before the end of the month on whether to sell.
Officials with Cabela's say they hope to open one of the company's expansive stores on the Woodmar site at Indianapolis Boulevard and the Borman Expressway. The company is also negotiating to build another new store on 30 acres in Hoffman Estates, a suburb northwest of Chicago.
The company is widely known among sportsmen for its national catalog operations and has seen rapid expansion of its retail side since going public in June 2004. The company was called "a hunter's and fisherman's Disneyland" this year by investor research firm Hoover's Inc.
On Tuesday, Hammond insiders could not say for certain whether the company's increased purchase price for the Woodmar golf course would be high enough to convince a majority to vote to sell the club.
Seventy-five members would have to approve the sale, with absences counting as 'no' votes. When the membership voted on an $11.4 million purchase price last April, only 51 members voted to sell.
One equity-holding member who declined to be named said the controversy surrounding the offers had Balkanized the club's membership, dividing longtime friends and colleagues. He predicted the schisms would make a sale more likely.
"It's kind of sad, but the membership has just run out of gas," the member said. "It's like civil war."
It's not clear what profit each equity member would receive through the buyout, but the unnamed member said estimates ran between $60,000 and $70,000 each, after taxes.
However, the $14 million offer -- like all the previous offers, Lanman said -- is not a firm commitment. It would be an option to purchase the club, with an undisclosed amount of earnest money from Cabela's if the purchase fell through.
In related news, the company has apparently rejected an entreaty to build in Schererville.
After seeing the resistance in Hammond, Schererville Building and Planning Director Ed Malinowski tried to woo Cabela's to a 51-acre location on U.S. Route 30 in his suburban bedroom community.
"I called them to see if they would be interested in coming to Schererville," Malinowski said. "They told me Schererville was a little out of the area they wanted to be in, and they suggested (the site) was too small."
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