One of two golf courses at the Plant City, Fla., property, covering 304 acres, will likely be rezoned in order to build 180 single-family homes and 150 townhomes. The second 18-hole golf course will remain intact, but the developer is considering adding a nine-hole executive course with a golf academy for the new community.
A developer has put a neglected golf course at Walden Lake Country Club in Plant City, Fla., under contract, with plans to transform it into a residential community of single- and multi-family homes, the Tampa Bay Business Journal reported.
Visions Golf, which owns two 18-hole courses at the subdivision, has stopped maintaining one of them, largely because several years of a bad economy have drastically decreased demand for tee times. The course is overgrown with weeds and foliage, hurting the property values of homeowners who originally bought a home on a golf course, the Business Journal reported.
Curtis Crenshaw, whose Coastal Companies have developed big chunks of mostly retail in the greater Tampa Bay area, expects to close on the 304 acres in about six months, once the property is rezoned. He declined to divulge the contracted amount, citing a confidentiality agreement, but put the cost of the project at $22 million, the Business Journal reported.
As planned, the community will feature 180 single-family homes and 150 one-story townhomes. Crenshaw is considering turning some of the property into a nine-hole executive course with a golf academy, the Business Journal reported.
Walden Lake was originally zoned for a maximum of 4,500 homes and currently has 2,250, Crenshaw said. Add Coastal’s 330 and “you’re at 2,580 homes,” he explained, “which is about 60 percent of the density it was zoned for at the beginning. We’re clearly not coming in to maximize it.”
The company is also not coming in to build houses. Crenshaw plans to provide the infrastructure and sell parcels to established homebuilders, the Business Journal reported.
The 18-hole course that’s currently operating will stay that way, the Business Journal reported.
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.