Don and Tom Salmon “accidentally” purchased the closed golf course while bidding on 664 acres of adjacent farmland, and have decided to donate the property to the city of North Little Rock, Ark. It is not yet clear how the land will be used.
Don Salmon and his brother plan to donate the former Stonelinks Golf Course to the city of North Little Rock, Ark., after accidentally bidding on part of 664 acres being sold at a December auction that included the closed golf course, the Fayetteville-based Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette reported.
“We bought it by accident, to tell you the truth,” said Salmon, who, with his twin brother, Tom, are executives with Pat Salmon & Sons Inc. and already owned about 260 acres of adjacent farmland. “I bought the 210 acres that touched me. That was all I wanted. When the rest didn’t sell, they said, ‘why don’t the Salmons take it for the same price?'”
The brothers purchased the farmland and the golf course for $1.73 million. The December 11 auction also caught by surprise many residents of the Stonelinks subdivision, whose luxury homes are adjacent to the closed golf course, said Shannon Armand, president of the Stonelinks Neighborhood Association, the Democrat Gazette reported.
“We still didn’t realize until the actual auction what exactly was going to happen,” Armand said. “People were a little surprised the golf course was going to fold.”
After dozens of Stonelinks residents flooded a North Little Rock City Council meeting January 26 with concerns about what would happen to the 200-plus acres of golf course property, which has hundreds of acres of farmland adjacent to it, Mayor Joe Smith reached out to the Salmons for help. After discussions with the Salmons and the Stonelinks Neighborhood Association, Smith announced last week that the golf course property would be donated to the city. The Salmons will keep the adjacent farmland they purchased, the Democrat Gazette reported.
The city is working with Stonelinks homeowners to decide whether to develop single-family homes on the property, turn it into a city park or use it for some other purpose that’s yet to be determined, Smith said.
“Tom and Don Salmon are old friends of my family, and I’ve known them since I was 5 years old,” Smith said. “I thought that the best thing to do when the issue came up was to sit down and talk to them. While we were tossing around ideas, I asked if they would consider donating the property to the city.
“Don called me back a week later and said that North Little Rock has been so good to their family that they would love to have the opportunity to donate the golf course to the city,” Smith continued. “This may be one of those situations that’s a win-win for all, where we can make something special for central Arkansas.”
Don Salmon said the donation has “no strings attached,” the Democrat Gazette reported.
“I’m giving it to the city,” Salmon said. “They can do what they want with it. Put in a swimming pool, a golf course, a day camp, I don’t care. That’s my position on it. We’ll donate it to them with no strings attached.”
The neighborhood association, Armand said, is happy that the city has become involved and that residents and city officials are “working together” for the owners of the approximately 250 homes in Stonelinks, the Democrat Gazette reported.
“I think the best thing [for the golf course] would be if part of it could be developed and some of it is used as a park area and let the community utilize the [golf] clubhouse,” Armand said. “That’s what we thought would be best. Develop part of it, then saving part for a community center or something.”
Stonelinks Neighborhood Association members came up with a list of nine possibilities for the property. Keeping the property a golf course is the first recommendation, said North Little Rock Alderman Maurice Taylor, who represents the Ward 2 neighborhood. Continuing as a golf course isn’t really an option, however, Taylor said.
“We told [Armand] where the city was with the golf course and that we didn’t have the money to lose $250,000 a year on a golf course,” Taylor said. “We kind of put the ball in their court for them to give us some ideas as to what they would like to see happen.”
Other ideas include having the state Game and Fish Commission manage the land and stock a small pond there with fish, or convert it into a nature park with the golf-cart paths becoming walking trails, the Democrat Gazette reported.
“A lot of things are possible,” Smith said. “Maybe we can develop part of it and take the money we get from that development and invest it into a park or whatever. Of course, we’re certainly very pleased with the generosity of the Salmon family, and we would like to make it something as special as we can in that location but that won’t kill the city budget.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.