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Brothers Dan and Mike Collins formed the company in 1990 and led IMI to dizzying heights in a dynamic, competitive field, branding their name on numerous high-profile developments in some of the world’s most desirable locales while generating more than $7 billion in property sales. Through its ventures, IMI formed strategic partnerships with some of the most celebrated developers, builders and golf course architects in the business, even sponsoring a small stable of the PGA Tour’s brightest stars along the way.

Perhaps it was because of IMI’s glittery résumé, but Mike Collins admits he was not expecting much the first time he visited a fledgling community near North Carolina’s Outer Banks called Innsbrook Golf and Boating Community. He visited the property mostly as a favor to a financial group in New York with whom IMI had done business in the past. One of their clients, a wealthy privately held company based in Austria, was looking for a development partner on the project.

“I was expecting a ho-hum golf course in a run-of-the-mill community,” says Collins, despite knowing that Innsbrook is located on the Albemarle Sound and featured a centerpiece Arnold Palmer Signature Golf Course that opened in 2008 and would later be ranked among the best new private courses in the country.

Arriving at the site, Collins spent an hour driving around the golf course. By the time he arrived at the tee box of the 14th hole Collins had reached an unexpected determination: “There wasn’t a thing I would change on this golf course—not a single centerline, tee to green, not a bunker, nothing. This golf course is as good as you’ll find anywhere.”

Collins returned days later with an eightsome of IMI’s decision-making team. “Everybody was blown away,” says Collins. “There were mounds and elevations, ponds everywhere, big bodies of water. We truly felt like we were on the coast of Ireland playing golf.”

Adding to the attraction, the Austrian family corporation had already devoted five years of planning and development work, along with a capital investment north of $40 million. That meant 250 developed lots with sewer treatment, roads, power and water, 24-hour security and a world-class golf course were already in place. In November 2009, just months after Collins’ initial visit, IMI reached an agreement to serve as managing partner and developer on a project that has been on the fast track ever since.

The first major move was renaming the development “Scotch Hall Preserve,” honoring an adjacent 200-year-old plantation—fitting recognition given the colonial history of the land IMI is now developing.

A thousand-acre parcel hugging more than two miles of shoreline at the convergence of the Chowan River and Albemarle Sound in the quiet town of Merry Hill, North Carolina, Scotch Hall Preserve is part of the state’s Inner Banks region and is about 20 minutes from the historic towns of Windsor and Edenton, North Carolina’s first colonial capital and widely considered one of the South’s prettiest small towns. About an hour away are bigger cities like Norfolk, Virginia, and Greenville, North Carolina—close enough for shopping and recreation—while Scotch Hall Preserve is an easy two-hour drive east of Raleigh.

Currently working on the permitting for a 107-slip boat basin and marina with fuel dock, IMI has ambitious plans for the property. Near the golf practice complex, they are now breaking ground on the first of what will eventually be 11 cottage-style homes uniquely designed around the Family Club Retreat—a 6,000-square-foot family club pavilion with an additional 4,000 feet of outdoor space, including a large swimming complex, which should be open by the end of 2010.

“It will all be soothing to the eye, not overdone, very coastal North Carolina,” says Collins. “The best part is that our price points will not be half-million-dollar lots; many will be $225,000 to $325,000 in the first year, with 15-mile views down the Albemarle Sound, while the golf course lots will be $150,000 to $225,000. Plus, it’s not expensive to build in this part of the state. Residents here can build a generous, quality home, including the lot, for under a million.”

IMI has hired former University of Georgia All-American and Walker Cup member Nick Cassini as Director of Golf, and Cassini said Scotch Hall is as good as anything he has seen. “I have played tournament golf all over the world and this course has everything that a championship layout requires to be great,” he says. “It is challenging but very fair.”

“The level and the quality of our upgrade, the whole experience, to have an amazing young guy like Nick and his background—we’re going to do things different than they’ve been done in the past,” says Collins. “Our program is going to be centered around developing legacies and multi-generational memberships with a very active golf program and extensive outdoor pursuits.

“Frankly, I don’t think we could have a better situation even if we had been here from the beginning.”

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