Owned by the University of Missouri-St. Louis, the Bel-Nor, Mo. public-access club sits on 117 acres and was built in 1901. Beyond Housing, which is leasing the property for now, has so far received about $300,000 in pledges and has until the end of October to notify UMSL if it will have enough money to make the purchase at the end of the year.
The University of Missouri-St. Louis is selling Normandie Golf Club in Bel-Nor, Mo. for $1.5 million, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported, and the nonprofit Beyond Housing is seeking pledges to help buy the property, the group’s CEO announced during a virtual town hall October 21.
The 117-acre public golf course, built in 1901, claims to be the oldest public course west of the Mississippi River, the Post-Dispatch reported.
“If the folks of Bel-Nor and Greendale didn’t care about the course, we may not be as interested in trying to step up and be in this space, but we know how important this is to the residents,” Beyond Housing CEO and President Chris Krehmeyer said.
C+RB reported in January that the club faced possible foreclosure.
Beyond Housing, which is leasing the property for now, has so far received about $300,000 in pledges, Krehmeyer said, adding that the group has until the end of the month to notify UMSL if they will have enough money to purchase the property at the end of the year, the Post-Dispatch reported.
The golf course closed indefinitely in January after its management company opted out of a contract, the Post-Dispatch reported, then reopened in April under a joint contract between Beyond Housing and the Metropolitan Amateur Golf Association.
The Post-Dispatch reported in 2015 that UMSL purchased the Normandie Golf Club for $1.4 million and leased it to Walter Golf Management, which later opted out of the lease, for $1 per year under a 10-year contract. C+RB reported on the planned purchase in 2014.
In 2018, a group called NormandieFore!, made up mostly of Bel-Nor and Greendale residents, announced a plan to renovate the golf club for $20 million, the Post-Dispatch reported. But on October 21, when a participant in the town hall asked about fundraising efforts for “much-needed improvement” on the course, Krehmeyer said the dollar figure for renovation had shrunk to between $500,000 and $1 million.
Also during the town hall, Kenneth Nuernberger, of ND Consulting Group, presented a plan for an $11 million, 53-unit senior mixed-income housing project across from the golf course, the Post-Dispatch reported.
Rents for the new units will range from $550 to $750, and residents must be at least 62 years old, the Post-Dispatch reported. Construction is slated to begin next year and completed one year after that, but both Nuernberger and Bel-Nor Mayor William Hook acknowledged those dates were tentative.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.