WARRNAMBOOL Golf Club members will decide if a proposal to develop 42 building blocks on shared land adjacent to the course should go ahead.
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The golf club was approached by the Ample Investments Group about six months ago with a proposal to undertake the development of the land on the club’s behalf in return for a fee/share of the development proceeds.
Operations manager Trevor Brown said the club originally hoped to sell the whole parcel of land to a developer outright, however it hadn’t been successful.
“(Ample) are in the business of developing private individual’s land, so they seem to suit the needs of the club now,” Mr Brown said.
“If they can come along and develop the land for us, that way we achieve our goal of parting with the land and re-investing the profits from the sale. It’s just a different approach to selling it outright.”
If members choose to go ahead with Ample’s proposal, the club will receive a fixed return of $1.13 million and a 50 per cent share of all development proceeds above that amount, to be shared with the other land owner.
Mr Brown said the initiative was a joint venture.
“It is a partnership between freehold land that the golf club owns and R and R Coffey,” he said.
“All up there are 42 building blocks. We have had the planning permit for that subdivision for a number of years now.”
Mr Brown said when the land was originally offered up for sale with the planning permit showing the 42 blocks the public made inquiries about buying individual lots.
“The big sale point for the development is that if we put an estate there is that it is only two kilometres from the heart of town,” he said.
Mr Brown said any profits from the development would be invested.
“First of all we must use the profits for the betterment of golf in the area, that’s apart of being a golf club and the original idea of buying the land in the first place,” he said. “Secondly, the club has committed to ensuring that the profits from that land secures the finances for the future of the club. We won’t be going on a big spending spree, we’ll be investing that money. Then we will be able to use the income from those investments to improve the club house and the course.”
The meeting will be held at the club house on Monday, October 24 at 7pm.