Two Boston area businessmen and a Mississippi real estate developer have announced plans to build a private golf club on the former Vineyard Acres II property off the West Tisbury Road in Edgartown.
The would-be developers are Jay Swanson of Medfield, Owen Larkin of Boston and William Vandevender of Jackson, Miss. Their partnership is called Swanson Ventures L.L.C.
Mr. Swanson met with the Gazette late last week to discuss the golf course plans, along with Tom Wallace, a partner in Wallace and Co. real estate, and Edward W. Vincent Jr., an Edgartown attorney. The three men described plans to build an 18-hole golf club on the site of a subdivision that was at one time designed to hold 148 houses. Among other things, the early schematic plans call for building an unspecified number of “golf cottages,” intended to be used by club members and their guests.
The announcement by Swanson Ventures signals that the race is now on for who — if anyone — wins the right to develop an 18-hole private golf club in the rural perimeters of Edgartown.
Last week, the Edgartown zoning board of appeals held a public hearing on a proposal by a father and son team from Natick who hope to build a golf course on land owned by the MacKenty family on the Edgartown Great Pond. The application by Rosario and Barry Latucca has been referred to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission as a development of regional impact (DRI).
The Swanson Ventures project is expected to follow a similar route.
Mr. Swanson, Mr. Wallace and Mr. Vincent said they expect to have their application before the zoning board of appeals within 30 to 60 days. They hope to complete the review and permit process by next March.
Like the Latuccas, Swanson Ventures plans to apply for a special permit for a private club — a conditionally permitted use under the Edgartown zoning bylaws.
And like the Latuccas, Swanson Ventures intends to present a team of planning and environmental experts associated with the project.
A 245-acre failed subdivision on the north side of the West Tisbury Road, Vineyard Acres II was created in the 1980s by a group of Rhode Island developers. The cluster subdivision was never developed and it was later the subject of numerous complicated foreclosure proceedings. Most of the land is currently owned by Fidelity Inc., a title insurance company, although there are also a handful of individual owners.
Mr. Swanson said last week that all the final agreements with landowners are not yet complete. One landowner who has signed an agreement with Swanson Ventures is the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, a local conservation group that owns four lots in the subdivision and also has other rights associated with the conservation restrictions on the property.
The foundation has signed a complex option agreement with Swanson Ventures. In simple terms, Sheriff’s Meadow has given Swanson Ventures an option to buy the four lots, but the foundation will retain the right for a thorough environmental oversight of the project. Sheriff’s Meadow manages a 45-acre rare frostbottom on the Vineyard Acres II property, and the agreement spells out careful control and protective measures for both the frostbottom and the Dr. Daniel Fisher Road, an ancient way that runs through the property.
Mr. Swanson said the agreement gives Sheriff’s Meadow the last word. “They have the final say in what happens on the golf course,” he said.
If it can win regulatory approval, Swanson Ventures plans to replace the old subdivision plan with a 300-member private club devoted exclusively to golf. Plans call for building a clubhouse with a restaurant facility for members, and also for building some kind of employee housing and the golf cottages, although it is not yet clear how many. Like the Latuccas, the Swanson group said there are no plans for tennis, swimming or other recreational facilities.
“When they [club members] are on the Island on vacation they want to know they can go over and play golf — and that’s what we are trying to create,” said Mr. Swanson.
A former investment executive with John Hancock, Mr. Swanson said he at one time managed a $4 billion portfolio, primarily agriculture and timber investments. He later began his own investment company. Mr. Swanson has no direct Vineyard connection, but he said he learned of the potential golf project at Vineyard Acres II “from a friend of a friend.” He and Mr. Larkin are golfing friends, and Mr. Larkin has been involved with the United States Golf Association. Mr. Vandevender’s background is in real estate development, Mr. Swanson said, and the two are longtime business associates.
Mr. Swanson said the partnership is shared equally among the three men, and he made it clear that they are not scouting for other investors. “We have the financial wherewithal to put this together and we do not need financing,” he said.
“The idea of making decisions not by a large committee but by executive committee, is obviously attractive,” added Mr. Wallace, who described his own background in local real estate development and conservation work as the reasons for his involvement in the project.
Mr. Wallace has been associated with numerous development projects on the Island. Among them is the development at Boldwater on property formerly owned by the Flynn family in Edgartown.
Mr. Wallace was also a member of the Edgartown planning board during the early 1980s when developers Louis Giuliano and Patricia Lett were actively engaged in seeking approval to subdivide the Vineyard Acres II property.
“I am fascinated with the land use component of the process,” said Mr. Wallace, recalling the many long nights more than 15 years ago when the planning board struggled to adopt some form of control for the Vineyard Acres II subdivision. “We had limited parameters at the time and the idea of going back now to try and clarify some of those parameters is very attractive to me,” he said.
Mr. Swanson said he expects the project to come before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission as a development of regional impact, and he said he welcomes the review.
The three men also made it clear that if the project is not approved, the alternative is 148 more houses. “That plan stills exists and the bottom line is that Fidelity has the ability to take the property and build those houses,” Mr. Wallace said.
Mr. Swanson declined to comment directly on the Latucca project.
“I don’t believe it is fair or appropriate to comment on the Latuccas’ proposal, or where they are, or where we are, except to say that we are comfortable that we are in the best site for the Island — and we wouldn’t be spending the money we are spending if we didn’t believe that,” Mr. Swanson said.
But he did acknowledge that the two projects are in somewhat of a horse race, since it appears that the market on the Vineyard will support one more private golf course — but probably not two.
Concluded Mr. Swanson: “The first one in the ground wins.”
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