The Framingham, Mass., property will likely be sold to Capital Group Properties, which intends to build a residential development on the 68-acre property. However, the town has 120 days to decide if it wants to match the offer to buy the golf course and convert it to another use.
The owners of Millwood Farms Golf Course in Framingham, Mass., have agreed to sell the property to a developer for $5.5 million, triggering a countdown for selectmen to decide whether they will match the offer, Wicked Local Framingham reported.
Town officials were formally notified last month that the Drake family, the longtime owner of Millwood Farms, has signed an agreement to sell the course to Capital Group Properties, a real estate development and management company, Wicked Local reported.
Capital Group intends to build a residential development on the 68-acre property, according to a May 12 letter sent to the town by a lawyer representing the Drake family. In an interview Tuesday, Capital Group spokesman Bob Depietri said the company is exploring several options, ranging from building condominiums to age-restricted housing or single-family homes, Wicked Local reported.
The firm will perform more detailed research once the town decides whether it will exercise its right of first refusal to buy the 14-hole golf course, Depietri said.
“We’re kind of waiting to get an indication on what the town’s level of interest is before we really get into the development part of it—really coming up with a concept,” Depietri said.
Under state law, the town has the right to match any bona fide offer to buy the golf course and convert it to another use. That privilege stems from the fact that the owners currently enjoy tax breaks on a portion of the golf course classified as recreational land. The town now has 120 days to decide whether to buy the property, an option that has drawn support from residents pushing to preserve open space on the town’s Northside, Wicked Local reported.
Located beside Callahan State Park, the course houses only a handful of existing structures, including a snack bar with a full liquor license. The course is located on the historic site of Millwood Farms, once an award-winning dairy farm. It was converted into a golf course in 1968, and has been owned and operated by the Drake family for 48 years, Wicked Local reported.
Current owner Jim Drake said the family listed the property for sale last fall—a move they long viewed as inevitable. “The family is, you know, we’re getting older and it’s time, basically,” said Drake, 62. “We never thought it would go beyond this generation—the generation that has it now.”
Drake said the course will stay open through the end of the 2016 season. It will also operate throughout the 2017 season if a sale is not finalized by early next year, Wicked Local reported.
Selectmen now have until early September to decide whether to buy the course. During a nonpublic meeting Tuesday, the board voted to authorize a study of the feasibility of operating the facility as a municipal golf course. Town Manager Bob Halpin said the study will be led by the town’s parks and recreation director, and will include work by a “respected analyst” of golf operations, Wicked Local reported.
“The first step is to determine the market feasibility,” Halpin said.
The board will juggle a range of competing considerations, including the significant price tag for the property, which was on the market for only a matter of months. The sale price far exceeds the most recent assessment from the town, which pegged the taxable value of the golf course at $1.2 million. The actual value is closer to $2 million, since the assessment excludes much of the recreational land, Wicked Local reported.
One potential argument in favor of allowing Capital Group Properties to consummate the sale is that doing so would allow Framingham to claw back some tax revenue it lost over the last several years, Wicked Local reported.
The golf course currently pays 25% of the commercial and industrial tax rate on a majority of its land. In all, it was assessed taxes of $27,092 during the current fiscal year. If the property is sold for a residential development, the golf course will be required to pay the town five years’ worth of so-called “roll-back taxes”—the full amount it would have owed without the special recreational use designation, Wicked Local reported.
The town has yet to calculate that figure, which could add up to several hundred thousand dollars. Nevertheless, the potential revenue windfall may not be enough to outweigh desires to prevent new construction. Neighbors are unhappy over developer Howard Fafard’s plans to put in a 39-home gated community nearby on Grove and Winch streets, and the future is unclear for the 100-plus acre Eastleigh Farm, whose owner is trying to avoid a foreclosure auction, Wicked Local reported.
Depietri said Capital Group was drawn to the large acreage available at Millwood Farms in Framingham. “I think historically, the projects that have been built in that area of town have done pretty well,” Depietri said. “There’s not a lot of areas in Framingham where you can do a development, so that’s why we kind of like that.”
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