A group of residents who hold the mortgage on Alaqua Country Club and filed suit in January to foreclose on it became its new owner on Thursday.

Alaqua Mortgage Co. was the only bidder in a foreclosure auction. The group offered almost $3 million -- the same amount it had loaned the club to keep it afloat before filing the foreclosure lawsuit. The mortgage was used as collateral, said John Ritenour, who heads a group of investors planning to keep the club in business.

Ritenour, who moved to Alaqua last year from Sabal Point, plans to form a new corporate entity to run the club. Some of the original investors will remain and others will be bought out, said Ritenour, 52, chairman and chief executive officer of Insurance Office of America in Altamonte Springs.

The clubhouse closed earlier this year, though the golf course remained open. According to the foreclosure lawsuit, the member-operated country club did not have the money to make further payments on its debts. 

Ritenour, an avid golfer, said he wants to help increase the home values in Alaqua and build a strong sense of community through the club.

"I want to enhance the neighborhood, bring it back together," said Ritenour, who plans to manage the club with help from fellow investors and Alaqua residents Stanley Sandefur and Ed Postal, a retired executive who worked for companies including Cidera Inc., a Maryland business specializing in Internet infrastructure. Ritenour would not identify other investors.

"It's just a magnificent piece of real estate," said Sandefur, who owns The Sandefur Cos., a Sanford development and property management company. 

The investors plan to pour about $1 million into the club. Plans include opening a casual-dining restaurant in the clubhouse and redesigning part of the golf course, adding sand traps to make it "a lot more friendly to the average golfer," Ritenour said.

The investors will soon start accepting new memberships and hope to reopen the clubhouse in June.