The land includes the golf course clubhouse as well as three homes.
STOCKTON, Calif. — The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors is considering turning the shuttered Oakmoore Golf Course in Stockton into a safe camping site for the unhoused.
Supervisors recently approved a notice of intention to purchase two parcels of land, totaling 67.25 acres, located at 3737 and 3801 N. Wilson Way. The land, which is owned by Gurpartap Singh of Oakmoore Properties, includes the golf course clubhouse as well as three homes.
Supervisors have not yet decided on a use for the property. However, they are planning to discuss a short-term plan and a long-term plan for the property, which involves safe camping.
Safe camping provides a dedicated space for unhoused individuals to live in tents, provided by the county, on a short-term basis.
The Oakmoore Golf Course is located at 3737 N. Wilson Way in Stockton on Tuesday, Nov. 19, 2024. (Photo: Clifford Oto/Stockton Record)
The 2024 Point-in-Time Count reported a total of 4,732 people experiencing homelessness in San Joaquin County, compared to 2,319 in 2022 and 2,629 in 2019.
The county’s short-term plan is to use a small portion of the property — about three acres — for a safe camping site. The long-term plan includes the possibility of moving the community development, environmental health, and public works departments to the site.
District 2 Supervisor Paul Canepa said the county had been looking for a property for safe camping, and he expressed excitement over the golf course.
If the plans are approved by the board, supportive services will be in place at the camping site, along with rules and regulations to keep the area clean and free of drugs and crime, according to county officials.
“It’s an absolute home run,” Canepa said before the Nov. 12 vote on the property.
District 3 Supervisor Tom Patti commended the board for its willingness to partner with cities to find solutions to homelessness, but also for “really doing more than what a lot of counties are doing.”
The county has set a price limit of $9.6 million. The board is set to make a decision on the purchase at its Dec. 10 meeting.
Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman.
The borough’s Planning Board is set to finalize its approval of a proposal.
EATONTOWN, N.J. — CarMax and self-storage facility CubeSmart on Route 36, along with 145 age-restricted single-family homes off Monmouth Road, will replace the links at the Old Orchard Country Club.
At an upcoming meeting, the borough Planning Board is set to finalize its approval of a proposal by Surrey Equities LLC to redevelop the 18-hole golf course, a 136-acre plot that was designed by famed architect A.W. Tillinghast and opened in 1929.
The project culminates years of efforts to build on the property. More than 15 years ago, a proposal to build 700 homes and 535,000 square feet of retail disintegrated after opposition from Eatontown officials, as well as from neighboring Oceanport, West Long Branch and Monmouth County freeholders.
In 2013, Eatontown Ventures sought to purchase the property to build 175 age-restricted townhomes plus 450,000 square feet of commercial space on the Route 36 boundary. A second proposal was to build a 450,000-square-foot commercial complex on 60 acres of the property and preserve the remaining 75 acres. Those plans were denied because commercial uses are not permitted on the property.
The township’s zoning rules only allowed 129 single-family homes or a golf course.
Last year, the Borough Council approved new zoning to allow commercial development along Route 36 but would secure 100-foot buffer zones between existing residential homes that border the course and 145 new age-restricted single-family homes that a developer is planning to build.
Surrey Ventures, a contract purchaser, later filed a plan to build its project: 145 age-restricted single-family homes and an 8,316-square-foot clubhouse, a CarMax used car and truck sales and service facility, and a CubeSmart self-storage facility. A 35-acre parcel on the property will remain wooded and undeveloped as dedicated open space.
According to documents filed in Borough Hall, the CarMax will be 7,694 square feet and include a 936-square-foot associated carwash, fuel dispenser and sales staging area. Currently, CarMax has stores in Edison, Green Brook, Maple Shade, Sicklerville and Wayne.
Plans call for a 33,780-square-foot three-story building for CubeSmart self-storage. It will have 101,340 square feet of floor space and 1,200 square feet of office space.
David P. Willis, an award-winning business writer, has covered business, retail, real estate and consumer news at the Asbury Park Press for 27 years. He writes APP.com’s What’s Going There column and can be reached at dwillis@gannettnj.com.
In 2018, Golfweek reported the club was preparing itself for a sale. A group led by Brad Faxon bought it.
EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. – New renderings of a planned development of the former Metacomet Golf, a historic Donald Ross design, show a supermarket-anchored suburban shopping center flanked by more than 800 apartments.
Developer Marshall Properties purchased the golf course in 2019 and two years later won city approval to build on the 140-acre property off Veterans Memorial Parkway over fierce resistance from neighborhood residents.
The plans submitted to the city Waterfront Commission show that the whole development would be branded “The Met.” The shopping plaza, with 163,000 square feet of commercial space over several buildings, would be at the front of the complex, closest to the parkway, the East Bay Bike Path and the Providence River.
A mix of retail stores and apartment buildings
Most customers would enter the complex through a new roundabout built where Veterans Memorial Parkway meets Lyon Avenue. The main access road leads to an unnamed supermarket and an internal roundabout feeding cars to smaller shops and the apartment buildings.
The commercial buildings include restaurants and a drive-through bank. Some of the shops front a walkway that leads to what looks like an amphitheater.
Nine apartment buildings would occupy the northeast half of the development and include 844 rental units, according to a market study submitted to the Waterfront Commission. There would also be 22 duplexes and 24 townhouses.
The study says Marshall intends to rent 10% of the units to residents who make 80% of the Area Median Income.
The apartment buildings range from three to five stories with hotel-style double-loaded corridor layouts. Some feature basement parking garages to supplement the surface parking lots around them. There are 1½ dedicated spaces per unit.
At least three of the buildings are advertised as “senior living.”
Why did neighbors oppose the development?
The first work on the Metacomet site began last year to reduce the 18-hole golf course to nine holes.
The contentious fight over a city zoning change to make way for the development focused on whether the golf course should be developed at all, and, if so, how much open space should remain.
When fully built, the Metacomet development will generate $5.3 million in annual tax revenue to East Providence, 4Ward Planning estimates, $4.9 million when the cost of providing municipal services is deducted. (4Ward did not attempt to estimate the additional educational costs of the new residences.)
Marshall Properties presented the renderings and a video about the development to the East Providence Waterfront District Commission last month.
Waterfront Commission Chairman William Fazioli said Thursday that the developer did not say which parts of the complex would be built first, or if it would happen in phases.
He said the commission will probably begin its review in February.
Lianne Marshall, owner of Marshall Properties, did not return a phone call Thursday. The developer has said little to the media since parting company with a public relations firm after the permitting process.
Metacomet
The renderings show the shops and parking lots overlooking the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Veterans Memorial Parkway and shimmering Providence River, with downtown Providence in the background.
Candy Seel of Keep Metacomet Green, the resident group that fought the development, said Thursday that in meetings Marshall has described a two-phase development, with the shopping center built first and homes later.
“As to whether Keep Metacomet Green thinks that these renderings look better or worse than we expected, 60+ acres of dense commercial and residential development bordering the historic parkway and the surrounding neighborhoods filled with family residences, an elementary school and a public park is completely out-of-scale no matter how the pieces are put together,” Seel wrote in an email.
The 18-hole public golf course — which spent this past season in hibernation — was sold in bits and pieces to nine separate buyers during a simultaneous online and in-person auction at the site Friday afternoon. No one submitted a bid to usurp the individual buyers, all but ensuring the property will not return as a golf course.
About 175 people attended the sale, conducted by Kaufman Realty & Auctions of Sugarcreek, at the former course. In slightly less than an hour, all 159 acres and an adjacent house just east of Hartville were gone.
The final overall sale price was a combined $3.3 million.
The former Seven Hills Country Club, which closed at the end of the 2022 season, is up for auction this week. The 18-hole course just outside Hartville was once considered one of the premier courses in Stark County. (Photo by Michael Criswell)
Interest, but no offers to buy entire Seven Hills Country Club
The likely future for most of it is as new home sites. The property is zoned for houses already.
“Building sites galore,” auctioneer Jr. Miller had advised the crowd.
A renovated house on more than four acres sold first, for $620,000, plus a 10% buyer’s premium. Then came the course itself. Chunks and slices of between five and 44 acres were offered in packages and separately in per-acre bids until all of it was sold.
“Don’t go home landless,” Miller said during a lull in bidding.
Miller said that a couple potential buyers had expressed pre-sale interest in acquiring the entire site at the auction, so it could be operated as a golf course again.
At the end, bidders had a chance to step in and buy the entire site for at least 1% more than the combined $3.3 million from individual bids. Miller waited. He waited some more.
He even took a break in case someone needed to make a phone call.
But no one bid on the site as a whole. If someone had, each previous individual bidder would have had one opportunity to up their offers ― the overall buyer would then have to top that.
The former Seven Hills Country Club, which closed at the end of the 2022 season. The 18-hole course just outside Hartville was once considered one of the premier courses in Stark County. (Photo by Michael Criswell)
Golf course was idled for this past season
Miller said he expected the sales to close within 90 days.
Seven Hills was built along William Penn Avenue NE in 1968. The Gran family had owned the site for most of the past half-century. In its heyday, the finely manicured course was often rated one of the premier public layouts in the region.
The Grans sold the course and two houses in 2020 for $2.7 million to a limited liability corporation. The purchasing group was headed by James Gesiotto, a Jackson Township resident and Mount Eaton dentist, and family members, who solicited Kaufman to handle the auction.
The course remained open through most of 2022, but it was closed for this past season.
Another auction was scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, to sell course maintenance and restaurant equipment.
Reach Tim at 330-580-8333 ortim.botos@cantonrep.com.On Twitter: @tbotosREP
Another golf course in Northeast Ohio will close its doors for good this fall, according to a statement released by the owners on Tuesday.
The Sanctuary Golf Club in North Canton, about 25 minutes south of Akron and just a few miles from the Pro Football Hall of Fame, will close for good in October.
According to a story at our network partners, the Canton Repository, staffing issues forced the final closure, although the course had not made money since it had opened in 2001, and had been pared down from two courses to one in advance of this final step:
McKinley Development Co., a partnership of DeHoff Development Co. and Lemmon Development, said the 18-hole public golf course was never profitable and is facing increased staffing issues and significant capital investment because of aging equipment.
“The economics of running a golf course has changed dramatically over these last several years,” Bill Lemmon said in a prepared statement. “Although we tried our best to make it work, it was no longer sustainable.”
McKinley Development acquired the Sanctuary, formally known as the Bob-O-Link Course, in 2001 when it purchased the land from the Paul Weber family. The south golf course, purchased a few years later, was developed into a mixed-use residential development for single-family homes, villa homes and multifamily units.
Lemmon came up with the name change to The Sanctuary when the north course was reconfigured in 2003 and 2004. The name alludes to a back-to-nature feel of wetlands on the back nine.
The plan is to maintain the course through the 2023 golf season, then close the course permanently in October, the company said.
Daniel Gambone of Hoover tees off on the second hole during their match against GlenOak at the Sanctuary Golf Club on Wednesday, Sept. 15, 2021.
“We know the Sanctuary has been a beloved golf course by many in our community,” Bob DeHoff said in a prepared statement. “It was a difficult decision and one we did not take lightly.”
There are no immediate plans for development, according to the company, which said McKinley remains optimistic that future plans for the property will have a positive impact in the Plain Township and North Canton communities.
This continues a disturbing trend of closures in the area, many in the last few years. According to another story from the Repository, here’s a list of other area courses in danger or already closed.
As the crow flies, The Sanctuary is:
Six miles southwest of Seven Hills, which went up for sale in March after 50-plus years as a golf course.
Five miles northwest of Skyland Pines, which closed in 2021 to make way for an Amazon hub.
Five miles northeast of Tam O’Shanter, which closed its 36 holes in 2018 and was repurposed into residences and a park.
Two miles northwest of Edgewood, which shrank from 18 to nine holes after First Christian Church acquired the land in 2002; the remaining nine holes closed in 2013 to make way for housing.
Seven miles east of Rolling Green, whose 18 holes near Canal Fulton closed in 2016 amid plans for a residential development.
Seven miles southwest of Lake View, a nine-hole course in Hartville that closed in 2017.
The former Beacon Hill Golf Club near Leesburg, Virginia, has been acquired by Resort Development Partners, which plans to reintroduce golf to the property in 2024.
The course, originally known as Golf Club of Virginia, opened in 2001 with a layout designed by former PGA Tour star Johnny Miller – original plans also included a second course to be designed by Jack Nicklaus. The club later was renamed Beacon Hill, then it shut down in 2006 because of financial difficulties. The property has been neglected and overgrown since.
The Virginia-based Resort Development Partners has entered an agreement with the Beacon Hill Community Association to take over the abandoned and neglected 27-hole private course. The company plans to reopen it as 18 holes named The Preserve at Beacon Hill and later to add a nine-hole family-style course, a new clubhouse and a practice facility.
“Our sleeves are rolled up and work begins immediately to transform this property into an extraordinary golf experience commensurate with the beauty and prestige of the community,” Frank Denniston, Resort Development Partners co-founder and managing partner, said in a media release announcing the news.
Resort Development Partners has experience in operations and strategic planning for hotels, clubs, residential and resort communities in the United States. Its portfolio of clubs includes The Country Club of Indianapolis, Hidden Valley Country Club in Virginia, Pine Island Country Club in North Carolina, Out Door Country Club in Pennsylvania, Timacuan Club in Florida and Cat Island Club in South Carolina.
The homeowners association acquired the course in 2014 from absentee owners and has tried for years to renovate the property. Past deals to renovate have fallen through, leaving the future of the course in limbo for more than a decade.
“The commitment and support to reinstate golf have led to this opportunity to finally fulfill the promise that Beacon Hill was founded upon more than 20 years ago,” Beacon Hill Community Association president Sid Rudolph said in the media release.
Ever dream of saving an abandoned golf course? An Alabama prison officer made it happen.
ALPINE, Ala. – Ever seen an abandoned golf course and wondered, is it still possible to play golf there? Is it salvageable? How much would it take to reopen, at what cost?
With hundreds of courses having closed in the U.S. after 2008’s market meltdown, there are plenty of such overgrown properties – including dozens of layouts by famous designers. Nothing comes from many of these properties except memories and maybe a few dreams of golf renovation.
Rarely, those dreams of resuscitating an abandoned layout become reality. It just takes the right person.
Enter Tony Parton, a former federal corrections officer living in rural Alabama. He had no plans to take over a failed course. But he loved golf – and one particular layout.
It was called Alpine Bay. The majority of Alabama golfers never heard of it, and most of the minority who knew of it never bothered to play it. They couldn’t tell you how to get there or even if it was still open.
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama, after the course was salvaged and reopened (Golfweek)
Located in east-central Alabama 44 miles east of downtown Birmingham near the southern shore of Logan Martin Lake (part of the broad Coosa River water basin), Alpine Bay Golf Club originally was planned to have two 18-hole courses. But as funds for a major resort development were lacking, only one of the two courses opened in 1972.
That course had a lot going for it: a par-72, 6,518-yard championship layout designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr., namesake of Alabama’s Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail that was built decades later. Moreover, Jones built it with assistance of his son Rees Jones, then in his early 30s, who became a prizewinning course designer and brand name in his own right, as well as young Roger Rulewich, the architect who two decades later would actually design most of the courses on the Trail.
Troubled financially from the start, Alpine Bay – with its one course and a sparse nearby population – struggled year after year to stay in business. Although a beautiful layout in a brilliant natural setting, Alpine Bay was hard to reach even from Birmingham, with at least part of the drive on winding, lonely two-lane roads. After barely managing to stay alive for decades, it was shuttered in 2014.
The closing of Alpine Bay caused hardly a ripple in the golf world, even in Alabama. But the place had built a loyal following. Namely, Tony Parton. And Alpine Bay’s closure did not end Parton’s love affair with the layout. One summer evening in 2016, he and his wife, Jan, took a walk along the abandoned course.
Course architect Robert Trent Jones Jr., left, with Alpine Bay Golf Club owner Tony Parton (Jim Hansen/Golfweek)
“When we got to what had been the eighth green [a par 3 over a small lake],” he remembers, “we were shocked at the abysmal condition of the course. It was all grown over, just terrible, with weeds and wild plants growing waist-high and the original grass all but dead.”
The Partons committed themselves to pulling up the worst of the weeds on just the one green. “We came back several nights in a row, working to uncover what was left of the golf course we loved.”
During one of their first trips to the abandoned layout, Tony got a phone call from his friend Mark Calhoun, also a previous regular at the golf course. “Mark asked where I was,” Parton remembers. “I said, ‘You’ll never believe me, but I’m at Alpine.’ ”
Calhoun got in his pickup truck and drove right out to the spot where Tony was power-mowing weeds and grass. “Mark and I took a close look at what had been the green, trying to figure out what we could do about it,” Parton said. When the tall grass on the former green was mown to a reasonable length, they realized, “There was hope for this course.”
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama (Golfweek)
The 144-acre property that was the golf course, practice range, putting green and small clubhouse had been for sale for months. Parton quickly called the realtor and made an offer. The price tag was $144,000. The process took only a few months. By early 2017, Parton, then retired from the federal prison system, put together enough money to take over the course.
Buying Alpine Bay was one thing, but getting it ready for golfers was something else. The next step in the process was to get more people on board. With Calhoun’s help, Parton established Alpine Group LLC. A handful of investors boosted the value of the limited liability company to $520,000. Still not much to run a golf course.
It took five months of diligent restoration and backbreaking work to get the course ready for play. “No words can describe the emotions of watching golfers tee off at the course for the first time,” Parton said.
In the 12 months following its reopening in the summer of 2017, the semiprivate Alpine Bay Golf Club acquired 60 members. Today it is home to just more than twice that many, virtually all of them from the surrounding communities of Lincoln, St. Clair, Vincent, Coosa Pines, Harpersville, Childersburg, and Talladega. Right at 15,000 rounds have been played on the course each of the past two years, with peak green fees reaching just $46 on weekends and holidays.
Still, Alpine Bay is the Rodney Dangerfield of Alabama golf – it gets no respect. Rarely does anyone from Birmingham, Montgomery or Huntsville make the drive to play. Most golfers in the state still have never heard of Alpine Bay, and those who have heard of it dismiss Alpine Bay as no longer in business or not worth playing.
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama (Golfweek)
To demonstrate the long-forgotten and ignored virtues of the Alpine Bay golf course, Golfweek included a day at Alpine Bay in its 2021 Architectural Summit near Birmingham honoring the legacy of Robert Trent Jones Sr. The summit was attended by 44 of Golfweek Best’s course raters. By and large, the raters, who came from as far away as Northern Ireland, found Alpine Bay more than deserving of their visit. The course’s conditioning still needed substantial work, but the bones of the course are outstanding. In many respects, it is a truer example of a classic Robert Trent Jones Sr. layout than any of the courses on the Trail.
Putting in a special appearance that day was Robert Trent Jones Jr., the eldest son of Trent Sr., along with Jr.’s own son, Trent, the chief operating officer of Robert Trent Jones II, Inc. This was the first time for either Jones Jr. or Trent to visit the course that Jones Sr. had designed a half-century earlier.
Alpine Bay Golf Club in Alpine, Alabama (Golfweek)
As Jones Jr. went around the course with Parton, he was constantly reminded of the characteristics that were typical of his father’s designs. In an impromptu talk after the round, he said that Alpine Bay “deserved a much better fate than it has gotten, so far.”
Truth is, if made a part of the Robert Trent Jones Trail – and updated and refined accordingly – Alpine Bay could become one of the more remarkable and unique golfing destinations in the state of Alabama.
But perhaps it is better to keep it as the neglected hidden treasure that it is –the way Parton has loved it.
