BALDWYN – For rent or for sale, James M. Davis' former golf accessory plant in Baldwyn belongs to a local business group after nobody else offered to acquire it.

Thursday, Baldwyn Group LLC officially purchased the Forefront Golf Facility in the town's industrial park at 309 Robert M. Coggins Jr. Drive.

The price tag: $1,695,000.

Baldwyn Group is led by Guy Lipscomb, CEO of Southern Motion furniture company, said Tupelo attorney Albert Delgadillo, who represents the group. He said other local investors are part of the group but deferred to Lipscomb to be more specific.

Baldwyn Group offered the starting bid for the property to be auctioned but after weeks of published legal notices about the opportunity, no one else offered anything for the plant, said Tony Davis of Dallas, Texas, who works for the court-appointed receiver.

Davis' property was seized by a federal receiver after an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission alleged that Stanford Financial Group, for which Davis was chief operating officer, was in serious financial jeopardy.

Ultimately, Davis, company founder R. Allen Stanford and four others were indicted on allegations they worked a $7.2 billion Ponzi scheme of certificate of deposit investors.

Davis pleaded guilty but the others insist they are innocent. Their trials have not yet been set in Houston, Texas, where the company's corporate headquarters was located.

• Read more in Saturday's Daily Journal.