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Thunder Bay Country Club sold

THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Country Club has been sold. In a Facebook post, the club confirmed the golf course will be under new ownership starting next season.
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(Facebook.com)

THUNDER BAY – The Thunder Bay Country Club has been sold.

In a Facebook post, the club confirmed the golf course will be under new ownership starting next season.

The post also noted the new owners have committed to building a new clubhouse for the 2017 season.

The club has been operating with only a temporary clubhouse since the previous one, and former Thunder Bay Curling Club, were torn down in January 2012.

At that time the club was working on building an 88-unit condominium building on the site, which was expected to be completed in 2013. The condominium building remains unfinished.

Spokesman Gino Arnone said a group of local investors have acquired both the condominium property and the nine-hole golf course.

“At this point in time they are undecided exactly how this is going to proceed,” he said.

“First and foremost they are seeking to develop the condominiums and looking to see if there is anybody out there who wants to take over the development of the condominiums. Failing which the group will try to form a consortium of local people to build them.”

Arnone added if there is enough interest in the condominiums there could be development as early as the spring.

The new ownership group is leasing the golf course back to the country club, who will continue to operate the links.

Club board of directors’ president Gil Labine said the golf course will be run on a 10-year lease for $1 per year, which is renegotiable once that expires.

It will ensure the long-term future of the course.

“It means we’re probably going to have golf for the rest of our lives,” Labine said.

“There is some reluctance, I think, by the board to part with land but the reality of it was we had to find some way of refinancing moving forward because we weren’t able to sustain ourselves with our existing membership and we had to do something to change that structure.”

Labine added its understood the golf component remains critical to the overall condominium project.

“The condominium project wants to have a golf course surrounding its condominiums so it’s in its best interests to have a golf course there,” he said. “We will be the tenants of that golf course and we will run that golf course.”





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