The 75-year-old club, the site of the plane crash that killed pro golfer “Champagne” Tony Lema in 1966, includes property across the state line in Munster, Ind. where an additional nine golf holes had been added to appeal to more serious golfers. The buyer plans to build an industrial park on the land in Indiana, but it’s not clear what will happen to the part of the club that is in Illinois.
Sometime next year, a golfer will tee off for the last time at the Lansing (Ill.) Country Club, known among members as “the Blue Collar Country Club” that at one time had the “sportiest 11-hole course around,” the Northwest Indiana Times reported.
The Lansing Country Club’s 110 equity members have decided to sell the sprawling 175-acre property to Chase Development for $5 million, member Jerry Paucek said.
C&RB reported last year on the club’s denial of an impending sale and a new initiative it had launched to try to boost membership going into its 75th year (http://clubandresortbusiness.com/2015/01/06/update-lansing-ill-cc-members-launch-aggressive-campaign/).
Generations have dined, fished, hunted, bowled bocce balls, or golfed the short-nine holes at the club that straddles the Illinois-Indiana state line since it was first opened as the Lansing Sportsman’s Club, the Northwest Indiana Times reported. The club had claimed to be the largest privately owned recreational facility in the Calumet region that is southeast of Chicago and extends into Northwest Indiana.
About half of the club’s property is in Munster, Ind., the Northwest Indiana Times reported, where nine full-size fairways, known as “the long nine” had bee added to appeal to more serious golfers.
The developer making the purchase plans to build an industrial park on the Indiana side, but it’s not clear what will happen to the property on the Illinois side, Paucek said.
The club was originally slated to close at the end of the year, the Northwest Indiana Times reported,but now will be open to at least April 2017, because the developer needs more time to do preliminary site work for the industrial park.
The course’s long history includes a 1966 plane crash that killed four people, including pro golfer “Champagne” Tony Lema, who was flying to the nearby Lansing Municipal Airport to play at the Lincolnshire Open, the Northwest Indiana Times reported. Golfers were playing on Hole 6 when the plane crashed on Hole 7.
The current membership of the club, which once had as many as 1,200 members, decided to sell largely because of Cook County (Ill.) taxes, the Northwest Indiana Times reported. In Indiana, the club paid about $10,000 a year in property taxes, but its Illinois property taxes skyrocketed from about $30,000 per year a decade ago to $150,000 a year today. The taxes jumped dramatically because of across-the-board tax hikes and Cook County’s decision to start taxing the two lakes and six ponds on the property, the Northwest Indiana Times reported.
The club managed to appeal its Illinois property taxes down from about $180,000 a year to $150,000 a year, Paucek said, but the membership still decided that the tax burden was too high.
Dues at the club jumped from about $40 a month a decade ago to around $100 a month today for married couples, the Northwest Indiana Times reported.
In addition to the 18-hole golf course made up of the short nine in Illinois and long nine in Indiana, the club also has a pro shop, restaurant, banquet hall, bocce ball courts, pontoon boat rentals, two lakes and six ponds stocked with walleye, pike, bluegill, crappie, bass and lake perch. About 30 people just had fishing memberships, Board Secretary Jeanne McCall said.
At one time some members joined just because the club was the premier dining spot in town, McCall told the Northwest Indiana Times. The country club had a top chef and Friday-night buffet diners had to get reservations.
“It’s been a big piece of Lansing,” McCall said. “A long tradition is ending. It’s where the [Chamber of Commerce] had their outings. Everybody had weddings there. There were so many memories for so many people.”
Country clubs in the region have also suffered because local community banks used to have 10 members each at clubs like Woodmar Country Club in Hammond, Ind., the Northwest Indiana Times reported. But the number of community banks in Northwest Indiana has dwindled from more than 50 to just five, Paucek noted. Visiting business people from companies like U.S. Steel used to be entertained with dinner and golf at local country clubs, but that practice has largely faded, he added, and younger people also are less likely to join clubs, whether it is the Elks Club or a country club.
“There have been big cultural changes,” Paucek said. “Young people have so much going on in their lives. They’ve got their kids enrolled in everything. Even younger people are busy, riding bikes, working out, drinking a lot of beer on Friday nights.”
Paucek had been a longtime member of Woodmar CC, which was sold to be redeveloped into Cabela’s and a Wal-Mart Supercenter, the Northwest Indiana Times reported.
“When Woodmar closed, about 40 people came to Lansing,” he said.
Other private clubs in the area that have closed, the Northwest Indiana Times reported, have included Broadmoor Country Club in Merrillville, Ind. and the Lake Hills Golfers Club in St. John, Ind. Others have been opened to the public, such as The River Pointe Country Club, formerly the Gary Works Supervisors Club, in Hobart, Ind., which became a public course after a foreclosure and bankruptcy in 2010.
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