The member-owned White Plains, N.Y. club has been up for sale for several months and announced plans in June to lay off employees and close on September 30th. The property’s zoning allows residential development, but it is possible that at least a tennis club operation would be retained.
A New Jersey-based developer recently purchased Elmwood Country Club in White Plains, N.Y. for $13 million, according to a deed filed with the Westchester County (N.Y.) Clerk’s office, The Journal News of White Plains reported.
Ridgewood Real Estate Partners of Florham Park, N.J., closed the deal during the week of August 21st to buy the 119.5-acre, member-owned club, The Journal News reported.
Elmwood has been up for sale for several months and in June, the club filed a worker adjustment and retraining notification, known as a WARN notice, with the state Department of Labor, announcing the layoffs of 76 employees, effective September 30th, The Journal News reported.
Harold Bordwin, Principal and Managing Director of Keen-Summit Capital Partners, which represented Elmwood CC for the transaction, told The Journal News that the club’s Board had to make the move “based upon changing demographics.”
“The club had lost a number of members, and had to figure out how to recapitalize the club,” Bordwin said.
The property’s zoning allows residential development, and the club was open to considering different types of proposals, from a plan to maintain the property as a golf club to a proposal to subdivide the site for real estate development, The Journal News reported.
“They had a number of different offers on the table,” Bordwin said, adding that at the end, the Ridgewood proposal was the best one.
The club’s last day for operation will be September 30th, he added.
Bordwin, who is also an Elmwood member, said it’s not the club’s concern what the new owner would do with the property, although he believed the existing tennis courts on the property will continue to operate as a tennis club, The Journal News reported.
A shortage of developable land, combined with changing demographics, has brought some golf clubs in the New York metropolitan area to the center of redevelopment discussion, The Journal News noted. In Mamaroneck, N.Y. the owner of Hampshire Country Club has been trying to build a residential community. In White Plains, the French-American School of New York wants to build a campus on the former Ridgeway Country Club. And in Ramapo, N.Y., the new owners of the Minisceongo Golf Club wants to develop housing on the site.
Ridgewood Real Estate Partners also purchased 98.3 acres of the former Philips Research North America site in the White Plains area for $12.25 million in June, aiming to transform the research campus into a residential community, The Journal News reported.
Jonathan Grebow, Chief Executive Officer and President of Ridgewood, didn’t return phone and e-mail messages seeking comment on the Elmwood purchase, The Journal News reported.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.