The company that hoped to build a Greg Norman-designed golf course on a 1,300-foot hill overlooking Dubrovnik has, for all practical purposes, gone belly up.
A European news service reports that Golf Development Company, Ltd. has dismissed its employees and “decided to temporarily suspend all operations” at its office in Zagreb. The company blamed its demise on “political bickering.”
Political bickering in Croatia. Imagine that.
Golf Park Dubrovnik was supposed to be built on 800 acres atop Srd Hill, which the city has been trying to develop since the early 1990s, during the nation's war of independence. The community had been planned to include a hotel, a spa, meeting space, and other attractions. In addition to an 18-hole private golf course, Norman was to design a six- to nine-hole public course and a Norman-branded practice center.
Golf Development Company is led by Aaron Frankel, a well-connected Israeli arms dealer who's has been trying to build a golf course on the property for several years.
Ivan Kusalic, one of Frankel's partners, once called Golf Park Dubrovnik a “project of national interest.” Last week, he called the closing of his company's office “a cold business decision.”
ireland It's a Long Way to Tipperary Venue
A controversial sports complex, featuring a casino and a golf course, may soon transform a rural Irish village.
Irish planning officials have given a lukewarm approval to Tipperary Venue, which will take shape on 800 acres in Two-Mile-Borris, a small enclave along the M-8 highway in Tipperary County, 75 miles southwest of Dublin. Work on the complex's infrastructure could begin by the end of the year.
Tipperary Venue has been master-planned to include a casino, a hotel, a pair of horse-racing tracks (one of them will be capable of hosting events as big as the Breeders Cup), a greyhound-racing track, a heliport, a shopping area, a replica of the White House in Washington, DC, and an 18-hole “signature” golf course.
The venue is the brainchild of Richard Quirke, the owner of Dr. Quirkey’s Good Time Emporium, a long-established (since 1992) arcade in Dublin. The emporium is no hole in the wall. It’s huge, and so popular that some of the world’s biggest video game makers use it to beta-test their forthcoming titles.
Quirke's proposal worries many local residents, who fear its size, the traffic it'll generate (its parking lot will hold 6,000 vehicles), and the impact it'll have on the area’s architectural heritage. But elected officials believe that it'll create jobs, which are at a premium in Ireland these days. “This is as good as getting three factories for us,” one of them told the Irish Examiner.
A planned 15,000-seat theater didn't survive the approval process, and Quirke won't be able to build the casino until Ireland approves gaming.
You may be wondering why Tipperary Venue will have what's being called an “Irish White House.” The building will honor James Hoban, the Irishman who designed the president's residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
scotland Donald Trump, Out of Pocket?
It sounds as if Donald Trump's golf project in Scotland may be feeling the proverbial financial pinch.
As I'm sure you know, the U.S. television celebrity and erstwhile presidential candidate aims to build two 18-hole golf courses, including “the world's greatest golf course,” on the 1,250-acre Menie Estate along Scotland's northeastern coast. Course number one, a 7,407-yard track designed by Martin Hawtree, is on track to open next summer. But during a recent site visit, Trump suggested that the rest of the Trump International Golf Club Scotland -- 500 houses, a hotel, 950 apartments -- may not be built anytime soon.
“The timing will depend on the markets,” Trump told reporters who assembled to record his pronouncements. As if the press corps needed reminding, Trump pointed out that “the world has crashed” since he began planning the project.
The Daily Mail cites a report from the Guardian in which Trump comments on his construction schedule, saying, “Where's the market? You look at what's going on with Europe, you look at what's going on today -– I look at the Wall Street Journal every day, things about Greece going to collapse.
“I'm looking at all of these horrible stories going out, so you would have really to tell me the market. When I originally bought this site, the market was perceived as being very good. The world has taken lots of turns and twists.... Everything we do is dependent on market conditions.”
And as for the course's clubhouse, well, there appears to be some uncertainty with it as well.
“Very rarely is the clubhouse built at the same time as the course,” Trump explained. “If you build it too soon, you might say, `Oops, we built it in the wrong place.' What we will do is build a temporary clubhouse, then build a permanent one. You want to wait until the course is taken care of and almost complete.”
In other words, we can expect construction to begin next year, probably in the spring. Or am I being optimistic?
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: Trump took a few swings on the golf course and declared it was “more magnificent” than even he thought it would be.
Why doesn't that surprise me?
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