The owners of the 18-hole golf course in Phoenix are considering cutting the 164-acre golf course in half and building a single-family residential development on part of the course. Arcis Golf and Ridgewood Real Estate Partners are in talks with neighbors and the city about the potential changes.
Arcis Golf, owner of a prominent Raven Golf Club in Phoenix, are considering redeveloping the property and cutting the course from 18 to nine holes, the Phoenix Business Journal reported.
Texas-based Arcis and New Jersey-based Ridgewood Real Estate Partners are looking at cutting the 164-acre, 7,078-yard course down to nine holes and building a new single-family residential development on part of the course, the Business Journal reported.
Jordan Rose’s Scottsdale-based Rose Law Group is representing Arcis and Ridgewood as it talks to neighbors and the city of Phoenix about potential changes, the Business Journal reported.
“They have been working with neighbors for a few months and understand that keeping an element of the golf course is important to the community,” Rose said. “They are currently refining a really vibrant plan to keep a nine-hole course with the holes planned along the perimeter so that existing neighbors maintain their golf course views. The nine holes really follows a golf course trend, attracting millennials to the sport by shortening play time, making it less about a stuffy country club and committing four hours of your day and more about an achievable active entertainment choice.”
The Raven Golf Club was designed in 1995 and has more than 6,000 trees on its links. A number of neighbors are skeptical about reducing the Raven down to nine holes, the Business Journal reported.
Phoenix Vice Mayor and City Councilwoman Kate Gallego, who represents south Phoenix, said the feedback she’s received is that the community wants the Raven to remain an 18-hole course. “The golf course is an asset in the South Mountain area,” Gallego said.
She said Arcis and Ridgewood have not filed any planning or zoning changes yet with the city, and that community groups want to work with the owners to help better market the course. She hopes for a more cohesive marketing of South Mountain, the Raven and other Phoenix tourist attractions such as the Pueblo Grande Museum, the Business Journal reported.
Rose said the Raven owners have recently presented a preliminary nine-hole plan to some community leaders, the Business Journal reported.
“Through many conversations with the neighbors the owner understands that the community does not want to see the permitted RE-35 housing community without a golf course,” Rose said, referring to the zoning designation allowing for residential development. Rose said the property is currently zoned for residential development.
“Just a few weeks ago they presented some community groups with the draft concept of the nine-hole course. This is being refined now based on some thoughtful comments and they hope to create something really unique.”
Some South Mountain neighbors to the course have set up a SavetheRaven.org website to keep the community updated on redevelopment plans and the future of the course, the Business Journal reported.
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