Developer and golfing businessman Rosario Lattuca (center) plans to build an exclusive 18-hole golf course on Cape Cod. With him are golf membership specialist Cheryl Hughes and Lattuca’s son Barry.
It’s the same old story: constricted supply, unprecedented demand, record run-up in rates. In this case, however, the real estate product enjoying its greatest stretch ever in the Bay State is not office space, hotels or multifamily housing. Driven by a strong economy and rising popularity, the golfing industry is finding itself on par with those booming sectors, underscored by a continuing flood of new courses being proposed statewide.
“Definitely, the demand is there,” developer and golfing businessman Rosario Lattuca said last week while discussing plans for an exclusive 18-hole course his company is pursuing on Cape Cod. “Just about everybody plays golf today.”
Developer George McGoldrick seconds that notion, and is so bullish that the Hub real estate veteran and partner James Read are pushing ahead with a high-end course slated for a former rock quarry in Hingham. Their company has just closed on the site and hopes to begin work this week on what will be known as the Black Rock Golf Course, one that will feature such challenges as a 600-foot rock outcropping that rises 50 feet high at one point. Despite the rugged terrain, McGoldrick noted the site is located just 15 miles south of Boston.
“Membership has gone extremely well,” said McGoldrick, estimating that 200 people have already signed up despite a $90,000 bond required and the lack of an active marketing campaign. A residential component featuring 138 units of single-family, duplex and triplex housing will be laid out at the four corners of the site, said McGoldrick. CBT/Childs Bertman Tseckares of Boston is architect for the housing aspect.
Lattuca’s group, Falmouth Golf LLC, is going after an even more exclusive crowd with its project, known simply as the Golf Club at Cape Cod. Currently navigating the state and local permitting maze, Lattuca said an August groundbreaking is anticipated, with a goal to open the course for the 2003 season. His firm recently reached a milestone when the town agreed to sell a nine-acre slice of land critical to knitting the golf course together, and Lattuca said he is “encouraged” by the overall progress of gaining approvals.
With memberships starting in six figures, Lattuca hopes to attract golfers tired of gathering cobwebs from the waiting lists at existing Cape courses. With existing members often trading their positions to younger generations, it can take upwards of 20 years to work one’s elbows into the clubhouses of such exclusive courses as Ballymeade and Woods Hole, making high-end, private courses among the most sought-after, according to golf membership specialist Cheryl Hughes.
Having successfully sold out the Charter Oaks Country Club in Hudson in just nine weeks, Hughes has turned her attention to Lattuca’s undertaking. Coupled with a course designed by renowned golfing architect Rees Jones, the Golf Club at Cape Cod offers impressive views of Buzzards Bay, said Hughes, and should also be attractive because memberships will be capped at 300. Logistically, there could be upwards of 550 slots, but Hughes said the idea is to capture golfers who prefer a more open course schedule. Even at such a hefty investment, Hughes said she believes the Cape plan hits the right demographics.
“With the demand and the development team we have assembled, I think it will do well,” she said, citing the physical aspects of the course as a bonus. “It’s beautiful land that lends itself well to a very nice, traditional design.”
Changing of the Guard
Hughes, who has spent the past dozen years focusing on the golfing industry, said she has seen a significant demographic shift in the industry. Once the domain of the “old guard,” Hughes said the average age of the golfer has dropped from 55 to 38, while women are also helping to even out the gender imbalance of the past. The result has been an increased need for courses, said Hughes, one that has led to a slew of activity in Massachusetts.
“All indications are that there is a very strong need right now,” said Hughes, who cited National Golf Foundation statistics that say there are currently 36 golf courses under construction or in the planning stages in the state.
As with Hughes, Lattuca said he believes the views from the Golf Course at Cape Cod will be a strong selling point, noting that a portion of the land is considered the highest on the Cape, 186 feet above sea level. Much of the course is uneven, allowing holes to drop off and rise up as one travels the property, while some greens will be tucked into hills to provide an amphitheater layout.
“We’re going to have a great golf course,” proclaimed Lattuca, who has previously owned courses in New York and Georgia and currently operates the Golf Learning Center in Natick. Lyman Perry Architects of Pennsylvania, which designed the renowned Nantucket Golf Club clubhouse, has been retained to build the clubhouse the Cape Cod project.
Golf course activity is also helping spur additional commercial construction, as witnessed at the Park at Great Woods in Norton. There, Meredith & Grew has been retained to market 1 million square feet of office/hotel space surrounding the Arnold Palmer Course Design Co’s 360-acre Tournament Players Club golf course. Scheduled to open in the summer of 2002, the 18-hole course is located along Route 140, half an hour’s drive from downtown Boston. M&G officials note the commercial space is already fully permitted and ready for construction, adding that the presence of the golf course is expected to enhance the marketing of the commercial complex.
