Japanese Developer Agrees to Buy 49% of Pebble Beach Co. : Pacific Rim: Cosmo World has tentatively agreed to pay $400 million for the golf course firm.

A Japanese real estate development firm has a tentative agreement to buy a major stake in Pebble Beach Co., which owns some of the world’s best-known golf courses on the Monterey Peninsula.

Cosmo World last week agreed to buy as much as a 49% stake in the golf course company for up to $400 million, according to sources close to the deal, which was first reported in the Monterey Herald and San Francisco Chronicle.

Sources said Cosmo World has several weeks to line up financing and complete an in-depth review of the assets of Pebble Beach Co., owned by a real estate partnership known as Miller, Klutznick, Davis & Gray. The best-known partner is Los Angeles business tycoon Marvin Davis.

A spokeswoman for Pebble Beach Co. declined comment on the pending investment, although she said “the company does talk to a variety of parties about refinancing.” Officials at Cosmo World’s subsidiary in Los Angeles could not be reached for comment.

If the deal with Cosmo World goes through, it will amount to another major Japanese investment in America’s best-known golf courses, including the landmark Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles.

At the same time, rumors have swirled for years that Japanese investors were about to buy the Pebble Beach courses, but nothing has materialized.

One potential acquirer was Nomura Securities, but the giant Japanese brokerage reportedly backed off because it felt that it did not have the expertise to own and operate such high-profile properties, sources said.

Cosmo World, which recently opened a golf course in Austria, also makes golf clubs and photography equipment.

Pebble Beach owns four golf courses, two resort hotels and hundreds of acres of undeveloped land in the Monterey area. Its golf courses include Spanish Bay, Pebble Beach and Spyglass.

Spyglass was designed by Robert Trent Jones, the prominent golf course designer. Robert Trent Jones Jr. and professional golfer Tom Watson designed Spanish Bay, the firm’s newest course and a combination recreation, commercial and residential development where the town homes cost more than $1 million.

Cosmo World, which owns golf courses in Japan, is also building a $600-million planned community in Henderson, Nev., near Las Vegas, that includes about 2,500 homes and a golf course designed by golf star Jack Nicklaus.

Called Silver Canyon, the resort development is scheduled to open in 1992. The 350-room hotel will be operated by Caesars World.

Pebble Beach Co. is the corporate offspring of Del Monte Properties, which acquired the original property in 1919 for $1.3 million from Pacific Improvement, a holding company formed by tycoons from the Southern Pacific railroad.

Del Monte Properties changed its name in 1977 to Pebble Beach Co. and two years later was bought by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. for $72 million. Davis bought Fox in 1981, and although he sold the film company several years later, he retained ownership of the Pebble Beach properties.