Started approximately 30 years ago thanks in large part to philanthropist and Coca-Cola bottling heir Jack Lupton, the Council Fire Golf Club in Chattanooga has recently changed hands.
Former Chattanooga Mayor Jon Kinsey sold the course to its members earlier this year. Originally opened around 1992, the golf course was Lupton’s idea, although Kinsey and some of his business partners owned the land where it was developed, he said.
“I decided I’m 71 years old and that I didn’t need to keep owning it,” Kinsey said in a phone call.
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Kinsey was initially talking to private equity firms about purchasing the facility, but the members ultimately decided they wanted to buy it. Kinsey, the managing general partner of Council Fire, owned just under half of the club, and he estimated about a dozen other people owned the balance of the facility.