For the enthusiastic golfer, life on a course would have its obvious appeal. A Manhattan real estate developer is the latest to test that theory, acting after three years of country club red ink generated by a single parcel in the town and village of Mamaroneck.
One possible future for Hampshire Country Club”™s 120 Mamaroneck acres includes 121 townhouse/condos attached to the current Hampshire clubhouse, with golf left intact.
But if that fails, the developer has lined up a Plan B that utilizes current zoning to eliminate the golf course and build out the entire 120 acres with single-family standalone homes ”“ perhaps totaling 100.
“It was no secret the club was not doing well,” said Thomas Nappi, senior project manager for the club”™s owner, Manhattan-based New World Realty Advisors L.L.C. “It closed in December 2009. But we thought it was an intelligent real estate investment. First, we wanted to run it a few years, wait for the economy to recover, see if we could make a go of it. In running it, we discovered it is not a profitable business.”
New World bought the Hampshire”™s 120-acre property in June 2010 for $12.1 million and continues to run it as a country club, open for business.
“The property is zoned for single family,” Nappi said. “Our thinking was: What could we develop to preserve open space that we thought the community would welcome?”
New World has not submitted any plans to the village, but Nappi said the company is finalizing an application for “about 121” condo units to be attached to the current clubhouse and not to exceed the clubhouse”™s height. That plan would maintain the country club amenities of tennis, pool and golf.
“I apologize for the vagueness, but we”™re pretty close to a final proposal,” Nappi said. “I am confident we”™ll see it through to fruition.” As for opposition: “A project like this always has its detractors.”
The Hampshire parcel sits on a stubby neck of land bisected by Delancey Cove in Mamaroneck Harbor. It factored in the village”™s comprehensive plan, three to four years in the making and approved Feb. 27, 2012. That document says the entire country club is in the 100-year flood plain and recommends that it up by one-third the acreage required for a single-family residence on the plot ”“ from R-20”™s 20,000 square feet (0.5 acre) to the 30,000 square feet required for an R-30 house.
“We have a fully engineered single-family plan that would require some regrading, but would comply with all post-Sandy FEMA rules,” Nappi said. He said the parcel could support 100 homes, “If the community and the village board say no to the condos.”
Mamaroneck Village Manager Richard Slingerland, however, said, “No recommendations have been enacted yet to amend zoning for Hampshire Country Club and upzone from R-20 to R-30.”
The village of Mamaroneck holds 113 acres of the 120-acre parcel, with the remainder in the town of Mamaroneck.
Slingerland said the village has received no new proposal and, “not knowing the details,” offered no comment on any new proposal. “The history of this is that community groups are concerned,” he said. “But until we see the actual application, it”™s premature to comment. Once the application is in, everyone can have their say.”
The town of Mamaroneck could also comment. It owns 7 of the 120 Hampshire acres. Town Administrator Stephen Altieri said, “Anything done on those 7 acres will fall under the town”™s land-use policies.” Additionally, he said the town considers itself legally an “interested party” and would weigh in on the village decision.
A similar plan to reimagine a club as a club-village surfaced fall 2012 at Brynwood Golf & Country Club in North Castle, where Brynwood Partners L.L.C., the developer, seeks to place 98 upscale condos/townhouses on 140 acres, clustered on the property.
Or, as surfaced last September, the Brynwood developer could close the golf course and build 49 upscale standalone homes based on current two-acre zoning if its condo plans crater. A now-withdrawn Brynwood plan originally envisioned 243 condos on the 568 Bedford Road (Route 22) site.
For the Brynwood condo plan, the North Castle Town Board determined in January an environmental impact statement must be prepared in accordance with state requirements “to assess the potentially significant adverse environmental impacts of the redevelopment of a 156-acre site with a proposed 88-unit residential community, as well as renovations to the existing Brynwood Golf & Country Club clubhouse, recreational facilities and existing 18-hole golf course.”
Should the Brynwood plan pass muster, the town of North Castle would create a new residential special permit use for its single-family residence district to be known as “golf course community,” and change regulations governing membership clubs. Permit approvals are required from the North Castle town and planning boards and from the state departments of environmental conservation and transportation, and county planning and health departments.
Brynwood Partners said last fall it expects permit determinations by September. In January the town board accepted as complete Brynwood”™s assessment of the scope of issues to be considered.
Brynwood Partners now seeks 58 two-bedroom units and six three-bedroom so-called golf residences; 14 “club villas” with three-bedrooms; five detached golf cottages with four bedroom; as well as five “fairway residences” with three bedrooms units in one building south of the clubhouse. The total unit count would be 88 residential units. The plan envisions improvements to the golf course and clubhouse/banquet hall, with meeting space for 250 (down from original proposals for 400); and a reduction of tennis courts from 14 to six.
