Forest Lake rejects ‘significant’ sale offer
Country Club equity members will renovate and move forward
The equity members of Forest Lake Country Club voted down a “significant” sale offer from developers this week.
“Forest Lake is settled on one of the prettiest, most beautiful 94 acres in Bloomfield and there’s a lot of passion and love for the club as well as the employees,’’ board president Creighton Forester said on Thursday.
The 94-year- old club, which has about 300members, includes an 18-hole golf course, clubhouse,
Olympic swimming pool and tennis courts.
Forester would not reveal the amount of the unsolicited offer from Toll Brothers, luxury home builders based in Pennsylvania, due to a non-disclosure agreement.
“The board of directors, and myself as president, felt we had a fiduciary responsibility, it was a significant offer. We had a fiduciary responsibility to take it to the equity membership as owners of the organization,’’ Forester said.
A town hall meetingwas held to explain the opportunity to the equity members, who own the club, as well as another opportunity on the ballot to invest and grow the organization.
“An overwhelming majority elected to maintain, preserve and grow the club through membership, as well as through renovation to bring it into today’s current times that we live in with new innovative structures,’’ Forester said.
Subdivisions are situated near the club, which is off Square Lake Road in Bloomfield Township.
“The neighborhood rallied, as well we picked up 42 additional members through the various neighborhoods,’’ Forester said.
“They like the green space and they love the wildlife.
“Based on that momentum and the passion the equity members have for the club, our employees and associates it was overwhelmingly voted to keep Forest Lake Country Club as a country club enjoyable for many years to come,’’ he added.
Forest Lake is one of four country clubs in Bloomfield Township along with
Oakland Hills, Birmingham and Wabeek. Several others are nearby.
“The country club business is a competitive marketplace. Each club has its distinctive flavor and Forest Lake stands out. We’re a very diversified, familyoriented club. We have a very passionate membership,’’ said Forester who has been a member for 20 years.
He is optimistic about the future.
“We have a lot of great energy right now. We have a lot of younger members who have joined over the last couple years and brought a lot of energy to the club. We’ve had an extremely high participation rate this year in all of our events,’’ Forester said.
Prior to the vote, Bloomfield Township trustee Michael Schostak spoke in favor of keeping Forest Lake as it is now.
“I’m very pleased that they will apparently try to make a go of it. They got some publicity that led to new membership. I think there’s some new blood that’s going to be injected in there,’’ Schostak said on Thursday.
As a trustee, he had environmental concerns about turning the club into about 100 new homes, including the loss of wetlands and habitats for animals.
“There could also be an impact to the surrounding homes by changing the landscape for new development — you have to run new sewer lines and new water lines and all that kind of stuff,’’ Schostak said.
“It would be an expensive proposition and potentially impactful to the dense housing development. I don’t think that would be harmonious with the existing neighborhoods that are there.’’