The Pipeline, april 17, 2015

     Benson, Arizona. A Phoenix-based development group wants to build a mini-city on a stretch of desert southeast of Tucson. Villages at Vigneto will spread across 12,324 acres and include, among other things, 28,000 houses, a town center with retail and commercial areas, office space, a hotel, a medical center, schools, parks, orchards, vineyards, hiking trails, and at least one golf course. According to its master plan, Vigneto will also feature “iconic towers that will act as beacons throughout the valley and will signal the decompression from the busy highway.” The Arizona Daily Star reports that the community’s developer, Mike Ingram of El Dorado Holdings, got his inspiration for Vigneto from “the Tuscany hill country of central and northern Italy.” Elected officials in Benson have given the community “generally favorable reviews,” but environmentalists are wondering where its water will come from.

     Belize. Luke Chadwick, a developer from Southern California, has set out to build the first 18-hole, championship-quality golf course in Belize, a place that he believes will eventually emerge as a hot spot for U.S. tourists. The track will be the featured attraction of Kanantik Belize, a gated, “eco-friendly” resort community that will take shape on 5,300 acres along the nation’s southern coast. Chadwick, the principal of Mango Springs Development, hopes to break ground on the 6,900-yard layout this spring and to open it in 2016. In a promotional video, Casey O’Callaghan, the course’s designer, promised to deliver a track that will be “beautiful, playable, and environmentally sensitive.” The rest of Kanantik Belize has been master-planned to include 2,800 vacation houses, 300 waterfront condos, meeting space, a beach club, restaurants, a culinary institute, and an air strip.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Balchik, Bulgaria. A fourth 18-hole golf course has been proposed for Bulgaria’s top golf destination. The Varna region, along the nation’s northern Black Sea coast, is currently home to three “signature” golf properties: BlackSeaRama Golf Club (Gary Player, designer), Thracian Cliffs Golf Resort & Spa (also Player), and Lighthouse Golf Resort (Ian Woosnam). Now, a pair of investment groups aim to build Momchil Golf Course in the town of Balchik. The course will be the centerpiece of a 364-acre community that includes 700 apartments, a hotel, a winery, a shopping area, a tennis club, and a helipad. The Sofia News Agency calls Balchik “one of Bulgaria’s top five Black Sea vacation spots” and says that tourists who have visited it “have rarely been left disappointed.”

     Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Tim Lobb, a principal of Thomson Perrett & Lobb, is making a name for himself in Nigeria’s golf circles. His first commission in the nation, Summit Hills Golf Course in suburban Calabar, is expected to open any day now, and late last year ground was broken on his second, “a world-class championship golf course” at Garden City Golf Estate in Port Harcourt. “We aren’t trying to build the world’s hardest course,” said Lobb, who operates out of TPL’s office in suburban London, England, “but it will provide a challenging and entertaining game of golf.” Garden City’s 18-hole track will be the centerpiece of what Lagos-based ARM Properties says will be the city’s “most luxurious golf estate,” a gated, 500-acre spread that features a “hi-tech blend of cutting-edge security measures.” It’s scheduled to open later this year, and it’ll eventually be joined by a nine-hole, par-3 course designed especially for beginners.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the January 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Orlando, Florida. A non-profit group that supports military veterans and their families hopes to revive part of Meadow Woods Golf Course, a venue that’s been closed since 2007. Tom Underdown, the founder of Fairways for Warriors, wants to lease part of the Meadow Woods property and create Warrior Golf Club, which would feature a nine-hole course and a practice center with three practice holes. Fairways for Warriors already hosts golf-related events for soldiers at several courses in the Orlando area, but Underdown believes it can accomplish more with a permanent home. “We can’t always do all the things we want to do or need to do for our soldiers and their families,” he told the Golf Channel. “Having our own place, we could have our guys going there every single day.” The next item on Underdown’s agenda is fundraising. He needs $1.5 million for course upgrades and $1.2 million for a clubhouse.

     Chesterfield, England. With a promised investment from a U.S. hotel group, a long-delayed resort community in Derbyshire may finally break ground this year. Rupert Carr’s Peak Resort, which is to emerge on a former coal mine roughly 40 miles southeast of Manchester, has been kicking around literally for decades. Now, at long last, Carr’s Birchall Properties appears to have found its financial partner: Grand Heritage Hotel Group of Annapolis, Maryland, which owns and operates four hotels in the United States (among them the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where The Shining was filmed) and others in Italy, Mexico, Egypt, and Qatar. Carr’s 300-acre property is home to an existing golf course that Jonathan Gaunt, a Bakewell-based architect, plans to redesign into an 18-hole, “championship-quality” layout. At build-out, Peak Resort is also expected to include about 850 houses, lodges, and hotel rooms, meeting space, a spa, a medical facility, and a golf practice center with a six-hole short course. Carr is hoping to break ground on the community sometime this spring and to open it in mid 2017.

     The original version of the preceding post first appeared in the February 2015 issue of the World Edition of the Golf Course Report.

     Ifrane, Morocco. A Nicklaus Design course is taking shape in the Middle Atlas Mountains of north-central Morocco. The 18-hole layout will be the centerpiece of Michlifen Golf & Country Club, a 300-acre community that will eventually consist of villas, apartments, and a variety of recreational amenities. Michlifen is being developed by Morocco’s national railway, Rabat-based ONCF (the acronym stands for Office National des Chemins de Fer du Maroc), which also owns one of Ifrane’s most prominent hotels, the Michlifen Ifrane Suites & Spa. ONCF is betting big on Ifrane, as it hopes to eventually add a casino to the hotel. Michlifen will be Nicklaus’ second course in Morocco. In 2008, the North Palm Beach, Florida-based firm opened Samanah Country Club.

     Durango, Colorado. In response to what’s been described as “an improving market nationally for vacation homes,” an upscale community in the Rocky Mountains is adding the second nine to its Hale Irwin “signature” golf course. “People fall in love with the lifestyle here,” Rick Carlton has said of his Glacier Club. “It’s not fancy like Aspen or Vail. We’re a real town with regular folks.” Irwin, who has a design office in Colorado, is co-designing the course with another Colorado-based architect, Todd Schoeder of iCon Golf Studio. When their 18-hole course opens, probably in the spring of 2017, Glacier Club will feature two 18-hole layouts. The community’s Cliffs course, an Arthur Hills design, has been around since the mid 1970s.