The Mt. Prospect Park District will go after the greens–and the green–on Thursday, when commissioners vote on the $7.25 million purchase of the 99-acre Old Orchard Country Club golf course at 700 W. Rand Rd.
The special meeting is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. at Park District headquarters, 411 S. Maple St.
“We wouldn’t be at this juncture unless everyone was behind it,” Walt Cook, Park District executive director, said in an interview late Wednesday afternoon. “We deem it as a very good move. The purpose is to keep it a golf course.”
In recent years, adjacent land has been gobbled up by condominium and townhouse developers.
Besides being a potential revenue boon, the addition of the course at Rand Road and Euclid Avenue would complement the offerings at the other district course, the Mt. Prospect Golf Course at 600 S. See-Gwun Ave., Cook said.
Cook added, “We’d like the clientele that is in there to have a wait-and-see attitude” and continue to play there.
“We looked at our needs, and we felt this golf course would afford us some surplus (revenue) to turn in to the Park District to operate our parks.”
The Park District has been discussing acquiring the parcel from the property’s owners, a trust called the Albert H. Newman Family Partnership, since 1993, Cook said.
The district has kept a low profile to avert a bidding war, he said. He said the course purchase would not increase taxes to district residents. He noted that the district’s existing debt will be paid off in November 1999.
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The district has agreed to honor the contracts of the 15 or so Old Orchard employees.
Cook said some physical renovations must be made to the 18-hole facility.
“There are some things to be done over there,” he said, unwilling to elaborate. “It’s already a going concern.”