The golf-club grip manufacturer has proposed to build an $8 million, 36,000-sq. ft. facility on land currently owned by the Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort and Country Club. The Planning and Zoning Board will consider the plan on November 2, and if it is approved, groundbreaking could occur before the end of the year.
Golf Pride, a manufacturer of golf club grips, is hoping to build a facility just inside the gates of the Pinehurst No. 8 golf course, The Pilot of Moore County, N.C., reported.
The company, a division of the international conglomerate Eaton Corp., will go before the Pinehurst Planning and Zoning Board on November 2 to present its plans for an $8 million facility that would include corporate offices, a consumer interactive wing, and a research and development operation. The company is calling the project its “Global Innovation Campus,” The Pilot reported.
Pinehurst (N.C.) Resort and Country Club, which owns the land, would sell roughly 10 acres for the project. The building would be just inside the No. 8 gates and nestled in among a wooded lot, The Pilot reported.
The building would be 36,000 sq. ft., and between 40 and 50 people would work at the headquarters. Golf Pride President James Ledford said the company wanted to be able to have ready access to consumers. While most of Eaton’s divisions are businesses that sell to other businesses, Golf Pride sells its grips directly to golfers, The Pilot reported.
“We’re betting on staying in the local community for the long term,” he said. “We’re learning how to plug into consumer product development, and we were looking to be more visible.”
Golf Pride employees began talking more than three years ago about a new location, spending time with consultants and construction professionals about the presence it wanted to project. Ledford, who worked previously as an executive with Callaway Golf in Carlsbad, Calif., said the company wanted a building true to its natural surroundings but modern enough inside to represent its innovative work process, The Pilot reported.
“It needed to be additive to the local community,” he said. “It draws on the history and heritage of Pinehurst. And it has that excitement factor of a global brand pushing growth and innovation.”
With that in mind, the company began talking with the Pinehurst Resort in 2015 about a possible partnership. “We need to be more visible,” Ledford said, “and there are not many places to be more visible than right there when people come to play No. 8.”
“The synergies of these brands coming together makes a lot of sense,” said Tom Pashley, president and CEO of Pinehurst Resort and Country Club. “Why not Pinehurst?”
The key benefit to being at Pinehurst No. 8 will be the ability to walk new products out the back door of its research and design space over to the driving range and solicit immediate feedback from potential customers, Ledford said.
The village’s Planning and Zoning Board will get its first look at the project on November 2. The property would have to be rezoned from residential to professional office. Consultants have designed the facility to have less parking and built-on space than would otherwise be allowed. Bob Koontz, the Southern Pines-based land planner, said the project was designed to fit within the confines of what is an Audubon Society Signature Sanctuary golf course, The Pilot reported.
The village planning staff has recommended approval with no conditions. Assuming the project proceeds without any snags, a ground-breaking could occur before the end of the year, and Golf Pride could move in by early 2019, The Pilot reported.
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