The club’s 260 members have received two offers, but the club’s board of directors has decided to continue to run the club as a golf course for now.
First it was Glenway Golf Course, then Highland Gate Golf Club, following that Magna sold a portion of its iconic front lawn for development.
At points over the past few years, Markham’s York Downs was sold for $412 million and Mandarin Golf and Country Club was sold for $22 million.
Applications for development have also been submitted for Vaughan’s Copper Creek and Board of Trade golf courses.
But the development of prominent green space and golf courses is not just happening in York Region, one of Canada’s most famous golf courses is also in jeopardy of development following a protracted battle between the owners, Club Link and the Town of Oakville. A recent Freedom of Information by the Oakville Beaver found this battle has cost the municipality some $5.3 million, spent on consultants and lawyers.
Now members at Aurora’s Beacon Hall, consistently ranked in the top 10 golf courses in the nation, and this year the top 20 in the world, are considering offers after receiving two real estate proposals from developers.
The financial offers, the nature of which have not officially been made public, were discussed during the Annual General Meeting, in May.
A leaked letter, sent out recently, spells out what the members and the board of directors were considering.
“Your board of directors is in possession of two unsolicited expressions of interest to purchase a portion of the Beacon Hall property,” the letter reads. “Both of these expressions of interest are highly conditional. Do we initiate considering of a potential sale … Or do we decline to take any action … and continue to operate as a golf club? It was evident that there are strong opinions on both sides of the issue.”
Although just rumours at this point, the numbers have been confirmed by a number of golfers at between $800,000 and $1 million for each of the club’s 260 members.
Phil Hardy, the club’s membership director, though suggested those numbers are “highly speculative” and would likely be “a far cry” from what members might expect to get as a net once final offers were “looked into by a financial advisor”.
