Members of the West Springfield, Mass., club agreed to sell the golf courses and clubhouse for an undisclosed sum. The Hannoush family operates a chain of jewelry stores and boutiques, and says they do not have “concrete plans” on what to do with the club, other than “improve the looks” of the dining room and update the property.
The membership of Springfield Country Club in West Springfield, Mass., voted this week to sell the club, golf courses and clubhouse built in 1920 to the Hannoush family for an undisclosed sum, the Springfield, Mass.-based MassLive Media reported.
“It was unsolicited. They came to us,” said club president Tim Flynn. “In the end, the golf industry is a difficult business right now. People don’t have the time to play as much. It is hard.”
The club, founded in 1892, has held steady at about 450 members including social-only members, Flynn said. But the club has had to discount membership in order to maintain that number and running the banquet operation profitably requires professional managers, MassLive reported.
“The members were running the club,” Flynn said, adding that the club will change hands quickly. “It would be nice if it could all get done before the end of March.”
The Hannoush family, with its chain of jewelry stores and Giftology boutiques along with other businesses, is well known for hospitality and customer service. It will continue to be a members-only golf club, Flynn said.
“We don’t have concrete plans yet on what we want to do,” said Camile Hannoush, a member since 1991, who is buying the property with four of his brothers and an unnamed non-family member. “We obviously would like to improve the looks of the dining room and update it a little bit.
“I love the course. I love the club,” he said. “We want to do everything we can to keep the members happy.”
The property includes more than 180 acres with an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts and the clubhouse building. The condominiums are a separate entity, MassLive reported.
This will leave Longmeadow (Mass.) Country Club as the only member-owned country club left in the region. In 2012, members of Crestview Country Club in Agawam, Mass., sold to investors headed by course architect David M. Fleury. Last year, Fleury headed a group that bought Elmcrest Country Club in East Longmeadow, Mass., for $1 million at a foreclosure auction. Both courses were eventually reopened, MassLive reported.
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