The Board is considering three offers, but a final decision is not expected for two weeks.
Westwood Country Club, Williamsville, N.Y., is being sold after 66 years in its current form, but exactly who will buy the financially ailing club is not certain, reports The Buffalo News.
The 13-member board of the private club is currently “vetting” three offers by outside groups to purchase the Westwood, president Barry Singer confirmed in late August.
A final decision is not expected for at least two weeks, but Singer said there’s no doubt the money-losing club would be sold after years of rising deficits and declining membership.
“It is certain that it will be sold. We, as volunteers and members, can no longer sustain the financial viability of it,” he said. “So unfortunately, it’s time. We have to reach out and put it into someone else’s hands.”
He would not divulge specific details of any of the offers, citing confidentiality, but said all three groups would continue operating it as a full-service club, with its complete golf course, dining and banquet facilities.
Earlier this year, the club had agreed to sell 4.6 acres of its property for $1 million to developer John Yurtchuk, who in turn planned to build a 50,000-square-foot medical office building at the corner of North Forest Road and Sheridan Drive. But that plan fell through after the town of Amherst balked at rezoning the property.
In the meantime, he also stressed that the club “is open and will remain open through the decision period” for any weddings and other events that have already been booked over the next several months.
“The club will be open next year and will continue. We just don’t know under what ownership it will be at this time,” he said. But it “will be open in the future under someone’s guidance.”
The board, which has already met and begun evaluating the proposals, will meet again within the next couple of weeks to make its decision, Singer told The Buffalo News. The winning proposal would then be put before the club’s shareholders for a final vote within the next 30 to 60 days.
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