A pair of local developers have partnered up and bought a former Pender County golf course.

Mike Pollak, a Wilmington-based developer, said this week that he and longtime Hampstead-based developer David Greer, have purchased the defunct Topsail Greens Golf Club along U.S. Highway 17 in Hampstead.

Hansen Matthews, partner and principal broker with Wilmington-based Maus Warwick Matthews & Company, represented First Federal Bank during the Feb. 20 cash transaction for the full asking price of $1.05 million.

Topsail Greens closed last spring after First Federal Bank foreclosed on the property to the surprise of a number of residents living around the 40-year-old golf course, which is surrounded by roughly 200 residences.

The recent transaction covers just the golf course and not the residential area, officials said.

The course opened in 1973, according to Pender County tax records. The 18-hole Topsail Greens was designed by Russell Birney and renovated in 2007 by Ed Beidel, according to a listing description from when the bank had it on the market.

No details for why the bank foreclosed on the golf course were released. First Federal Bank officials could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday morning.

While Pollak would not disclose immediate plans for the 154-acre golf course, he said its repurposed focus would have a “profound positive impact” on Pender County’s growing real estate market, and will incorporate a mix of residential and commercial.

Pollak, who developed hundreds of custom homes and lots in a number of metro Houston’s housing communities, is no stranger to flipping defunct bank-owned properties into cash cows.

In 2012, Pollak purchased the Muirfield Townes development in Echo Farms, which was originally developed by Raleigh-based St. Lawrence Homes Inc., after the 92-lot townhome development fell into foreclosure.

After resurrecting the formerly stalled housing development, Pollak said his firm priced the townhomes between $199,000 and $239,000 dollars – garnering record sales and delivering inventory in a highly-desirable zip code.

But those price points are about to change, now that the greater Wilmington’s housing market appears to be on the rebound.

Pollak said he plans to start constuction next week on the new phase of 38 townhomes in the planned development for $300,000 and up – back to its pre recession asking prices prior to Pollak purchasing the development.

Pollak also has partnered with Greer to build The Walk at Sloop Point, a 45-lot subdivision along Sloop Point Road in Hampstead where homebuilders Hardison Building Company of Wrightsville Beach and American Homesmith of Raleigh are currently constructing homes.

The building boom comes as no surprise to area Realtors.

The Hampstead area of Pender County continues to see active home sales and dwindling inventory.

Realtors say the county’s school system, proximity to Wilmington and Jacksonville and access to the county’s beaches are driving a mix of families and retirees to the Pender County community.

Pollak said he and Greer think the area holds great potential.

“We’re encouraged by what we see,” Pollak said. “We think what we have planned is going to be very exciting for the entire area.”