American billionaire Sheila Johnson sells PGA Tour golf resort for $19.8 million

Sheila Johnson, the American billionaire who co-founded Black Entertainment Television, has agreed to sell Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Florida, the home of the PGA Tour's Valspar Championship, for $19.8 million in cash.

Her hotel company, Salamander Collection, agreed on Oct. 28 to sell the resort in Palm Harbor, near Tampa, to companies connected to Concert Golf Partners, which will also take on certain liabilities, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission signed on Nov. 3. The deal includes the resort's golf courses, its hospitality operations and three condominium units with related assets.

Salamander will keep about 34 acres of land and the development rights that come with it. The sale is set to close on Dec. 31, though the date can be extended, and depends on conditions that include a development agreement and lease covering the land Salamander is keeping. Salamander expects to repay a loan from Truist Bank when the deal closes.

A tournament stays put

Innisbrook's Copperhead Course has hosted the Valspar Championship since 2000, when the event began as the Tampa Bay Classic. An agreement keeps the tournament at the resort through 2030, and the next edition is scheduled for May 6 to 9, 2027.

The two companies said in a joint statement that the sale is expected to close "in the coming months, subject to customary closing conditions," and that "no immediate operational changes are planned at this time." Concert Golf said it plans to "build on the foundation established by" Johnson and Salamander and to keep Innisbrook's staff. Salamander will stay on as a consultant after the deal closes.

Concert Golf, based in Lake Mary, Florida, owns about 40 private golf clubs in 20 states, including Carrollwood Country Club in Tampa. Innisbrook would add 63 holes of golf, restaurants, a spa and more than 65,000 square feet of meeting space to its portfolio.

Losses after the hurricanes

Salamander bought the roughly 600-acre resort from Golf Trust of America Inc. for $35 million in 2007. It sold about 54 acres to homebuilder Toll Brothers Inc. in 2023 for net proceeds of $12.5 million, and Toll plans to build 122 single-family homes and 52 townhouses there.

The resort's revenue fell 1.6% to $46.5 million in 2025, and it posted a net loss of $2.15 million, after losing $2.01 million in 2024. Room revenue dropped 10.6%, which management blamed largely on lost lodging and food and beverage business after Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck Florida in 2024. Innisbrook had 474 employees at the end of 2025.

Johnson's fortune

Johnson, 77, co-founded BET with her former husband, Robert Johnson, in 1980. The couple became the first Black American billionaires when Viacom bought the network in 2001 for $3 billion. She received about $400 million when their divorce was finalized in 2002.

She founded Salamander in 2005 and opened its flagship, Salamander Middleburg, in Virginia's horse country in 2013. Johnson also holds stakes in teams owned by Monumental Sports and Entertainment, including the NBA's Washington Wizards, the NHL's Washington Capitals and the WNBA's Washington Mystics. Forbes puts her net worth at $1.3 billion.