TEMPE, Ariz. — A neighborhood golf course is closing next year and is slated to be redeveloped into housing, but residents are frustrated at the prospect of losing the course and adding density to their area.
Shalimar Golf Club, a nine-hole course that first opened in 1961, is under contract to be sold to BB Living, a Scottsdale-based rental home developer.
Branden Lombardi, president of BB Living, said the course had been for sale for years, with the hopes that another golf operator would purchase it. But when no one did, the course’s owners, Jane and Dick Neuheisel, who bought the course in 1984, approached his company to buy and redevelop it. The Neuheisel’s son, Rick, played at nearby McClintock High School and later led the UCLA Bruins to the 1984 Rose Bowl title.
“If no one else is ready to step in and operate it as a golf course, there is a reason for that,” Lombardi said.
The course has a restriction on it requiring it to operate as a golf course that expires in January 2025. After that, Lombardi said the owners plan to operate it through the remainder of golfing season and close it before summer.
Neighbors seek to preserve course, community gathering space
But neighbors said they want to do everything they can to prevent redevelopment of the course, which has also served as a community gathering space for years.
“I’m a frequenter of the golf course and participated in many events there, celebrations, birthday parties,” Carl Streiff, president of the Shalimar Association, said.
Shalimar Golf Course in Tempe, Arizona, is slated to close at the end of 2025. (The Arizona Republic)
Streiff said the golf course was a draw for people who bought homes in the nearby community and is an amenity to all of Tempe. The course is open to the public to play.
“What we don’t want to see is higher density development that will wipe out our uniqueness, any special trace of the neighborhood,” he said.
Ideally, he said, the community would like some kind of solution that could involve the city partnering with a private business to keep the course open.
“We would like to come up with a way to keep the course,” he said. “What I don’t want to see is things getting nasty, people making accusations. We have a lot of smart people, if we can truly explore what are the options, I’d rather spend time finding a solution than fighting a rezoning.”
Streiff and many of his neighbors have written to the city and spoken during public comment…
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