The Parma, Ohio club named a construction manager at risk for the project and set a new opening date of 2024 for the clubhouse/community center. Service Director Tony Vannello says the current plan is for groundbreaking to take place in the summer, with construction expected to take roughly a year.

The timeline for completion of a new $9 million clubhouse/community center at Ridgewood Golf Course in Parma, Ohio has been moved up from 2025, cleveland.com reported. While a new opening date of 2024 is still a ways off, city officials are ecstatic about the construction timeline.

This update came a week after City Council named Cleveland, Ohio-based Albert M. Higley Co. as the construction manager at risk for the project, cleveland.com reported.

“Construction manager at risk essentially acts as the general contractor for the project,” Parma Service Director Tony Vannello said. “We went through a selection process ranking three firms out of the five that submitted a proposal. Now the city is in the process of negotiating a fee [with Albert M. Higley Co.]”

The service director said the current plan is for groundbreaking to take place in the summer, with construction expected to take roughly a year, cleveland.com reported.

“There are a lot of moving parts to this,” Vannello said.

“We do have a timeline that seems aggressive, said Mayor Tim DeGeeter. “We’re also factoring in what we learned through this process with issues facing the supply chain. The construction world has adapted to that, but there are a lot of moving parts from that aspect as well.”

Appointed by City Council, John Patrick Picard Architect and American Structurepoint are teaming up on the Ridgewood Golf Course project, cleveland.com reported, with the latter being the lead agency.

Recently, Cuyahoga County Council awarded $4 million toward the estimated $9 million project, cleveland.com reported.

“That gave us a good head start,” DeGeeter said. “We just need to come up with the rest of that.

“We want to talk to our new state representative when the capital bill comes up the next time in Columbus. We’ll try to see if there are dollars there, because obviously this doesn’t just have a Parma component,” he continued. “It’s a regional component that will attract golfers and non-golfers from surrounding cities as well.”

Parma Auditor Brian Day noted other forthcoming financial opportunities that could help in paying for the new clubhouse, cleveland.com reported.

“The fire station and the justice center will be falling off our bond schedule in the next couple of years,” Day said. “That will free up some opportunity for us to go ahead and look to secure some bond funding.”

As far as how golfers this year handled using trailers as a clubhouse at Ridgewood Golf Course, Recreation Director Mickey Vittardi said comments were positive, cleveland.com reported.

“They’re very excited on what’s coming right around the corner and very pleased with the trailers,” Vittardi said. “Some said the temporary clubhouse was nicer than the old building.

“They were very pleased we did our homework and had the least amount of impact on the golfers as possible.”

The mayor said due to excellent planning by the recreation department, Ridgewood Golf Course operations didn’t miss a beat, cleveland.com reported.

“We were able to handle a number of scheduled golf outings, which were successful,” DeGeeter said. “That was huge for us. We have our fingers crossed that once again the course will turn a profit at the end of the year. We’ll have to wait to see at the end of December.”