A four-decade Chestermere resident has expressed interest in keeping the Lakeside Golf Club operating as a second formal offer to purchase the amenity has been made to the owners.
“I want to keep the golf course as it’s important to Chestermere,” the Chestermere resident said.
Adding, “I want to restore it, do upgrades that have been left for several years, and make the members proud to be guests once again. If done properly there could a huge benefit, it has things going for it that could make it very successful.”
On April 1, the Chestermere resident received notice that his offer was rejected.
“I will wait until Slokker Homes puts an application into city council,” he said.
“I’m 99 percent sure the application will be rejected, and if they can’t develop it, I think they will be more susceptible to selling,” he said.
The Chestermere resident is hopeful that council will reject the application to rezone the land, as multiple offers to purchase the golf course have been submitted.
“Slokker had the report conducted to show that the club has been losing money for many years and would never be viable as a golf course. I can’t image now that council knows there are two offers to purchase and keep the golf course, how they could change the zoning.
“The zoning will never be changed to allow housing. The owners appear to want several million for the course at the same time saying it’s losing money and never will be viable. The question is how much is a company that is losing money and never will make money worth?” he said.
Slokker has published the responses to an online questionnaire they had hosted but some individuals maintain that Slokker cherry picked the answers.
Members of the Lakeside Green Golf Course Preservation Society have screenshots of the original questions Chestermere residents asked Slokker Homes during the March information sessions.
The questions included residents requesting to see the full MNP Economic Assessment Report that indicated that the golf course is not viable to be successful, concerns around current homes losing property value, and concerns of businesses being able to be successful in the potential development in Chestermere.
It was important for the Chestermere resident to put an offer forward on the golf course to ensure it stays in the community.
“It effects everybody that lives in Chestermere. We say near the lake, or near the golf course, it’s everybody’s property,” he said.
“Everybody who lives in Chestermere, as well as the local businesses would benefit from the golf course being here,” he said.
Adding, “Re-invigorating the golf course and restaurant would have a big benefit for Chestermere.”
This is great news, now the current owners can’t say there is no interest in keeping Lakeside a golf course. We know if this course has proper ownership it will stay strong and viable .
Hoping that the current city council and any future councillors realize that there is no reason to approve rezoning of the Recreation land to give developers pure profit vs no real benefit to most Chestermerians. With now 2 offers in the works it shows that there are residents that believe the course is viable with proper management and shows the overwhelming spirit and community values evident in Chestermere.
Covid golf boom will eventually come to an end and people will start travelling and getting back to the old life that made golf decline in the first place. The person making this offer was probably aware of this and probably proposed a price based on pre-covid revenue/EBITDA. I find it crazy how residents are criticizing a private citizen for not taking offers that are likely to result in large financial loss. Looking at Calgary and Vancouver, rezoning golf courses doesn’t appear too hard. Golf course for the community is always better than no golf course, but that does not give the residents any right to treat private property/ business the way they are doing now. I’ve always been anti-development mostly that my husband calls me a NIMBY, but I’ve been just so off-put by how entitled some people are in this debate.
So amazing to hear that another amazing Chestermere resident is interested in purchasing the golf course and keeping it as a golf course! Thank you for the great article and all the useful information.
This was never about a golf course losing money, this is greed plain and simple. Thank you to this individual for stepping up and exposing current ownership and Slokker.
I take it you do believe in individual’s property rights and are looking for a communist state solution of the government telling people when and for how much they can sell their property.
Whenever the time comes that you decide to sell your house likely for more than you bought it. Can I call you and tell you that “this is greed plain and simple” and you are not allowed to sell it?
Come on people you either want to be free to do whatever is legally allowed or turn this into socialist’s utopias where the local party member dictates what you are allow to do.