St. Lucie West Service District bid $2 million to purchase the 18-hole golf course in Port St. Lucie, Fla., with plans to lease a portion of the course and install retention ponds to alleviate flooding. A spokeswoman for the PGA said the organization “would like additional time to seek out offers which would maintain the property as a golf course.”
The PGA of America has rejected St. Lucie West Service District’s bid to buy the St. Lucie Trail Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla., the Stuart, Fla., TC Palm reported.
C&RB reported on the PGA putting the property up for sale in April.
District Manager Dennis Pickle was notified Saturday that the PGA had rejected its $2 million bid for the 18-hole course, he told the district Board of Supervisors on Tuesday. The district, which provides water-utility and surface-water management to 7,000 properties, intended to lease a portion of the course to either the Country Club Estates Homeowners Association or a third party to operate the existing golf course after an unspecified amount of retention ponds were installed to alleviate heavy flooding during major rain events, the Palm reported.
The district wanted to maintain the greens; residents with golf-course views would have had waterfront property. For the PGA’s part, it would rather sell the course to a different kind of buyer, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.
“We informed the water district that we weren’t accepting their pre-emptive offer at this time because we would like additional time to seek out offers which would maintain the property as a golf course,” a PGA spokeswoman said in an email.
The district’s effort to buy the course was met with fierce opposition from some residents of Country Club Estates, who feared property values for homes along the course would plunge with a district purchase, the Palm reported.
“I am optimistic the course will be purchased by a reputable individual and/or entity who will maintain the course as it has been maintained by the PGA,” Country Club Estates HOA President Mary Ann Russell said.
The rejection is a blow to the district’s customers, Vice Chairman Gregg Ney said . “The vocal minority within Country Club Estates took very careful aim over the last couple of weeks and shot us all in the foot,” Ney said. “They put the entire community at risk of going to a developer as opposed to the services district, which would have worked with them to maintain the golf course and would guarantee that it would never be developed into condos.”
The course is the only available St. Lucie West site for more retention ponds to lessen flooding during major rain events, Pickle told the Palm.
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