TAKING A SWING
Mercer County considers buying failed Hopewell Valley golf course to add to county’s other public courses >>
HOPEWELL TOWNSHIP >> Talk about a double bogey.
The Hopewell Valley Golf and Country Club remains closed until further notice, the sad demise of an institution that garnered water quality violations and steep declines in assessed property value.
Languishing atop 183.6 acres off Pennington-Hopewell Road, the Hopewell Valley Golf Club in the near future could actually become a publicly owned gem.
Hopewell Township Committee member John Hart publicly recommended Aug. 19 moving the Senior Center to the Hopewell Valley Country Club site, according to meeting minutes, but he isn’t the only government official exploring new possibilities for the troubled property.
The Mercer County Park Commission has taken initial steps that could soon lead to the commission purchasing and acquiring the privately owned golf course, The Trentonian has learned.
“The commission is interested in looking into whether it makes sense” to acquire the Hopewell Valley Golf Course, Aaron T. Watson, executive director of the park commission, said Friday in an interview. “It makes sense for us to take a look at this, because geographically we don’t really have any kind of assets in that part of the county.”
Mercer County currently owns four golf courses — three in West Windsor and one in Ewing — and the park commission maintains those facilities in “pristine” condition and generates a sustainable revenue stream, Watson said. “All of our courses are in the black. We make money on all of our courses. Not a lot, but we make some.”
The private Hopewell Valley greenspace could potentially sell for $2.5 million on the open market, particularly if the troubled property is improved pre-transaction above and beyond its catering hall and swimming pool.
“If it does not make financial sense and if it looks like we are going to be losing money on this,” Watson said of the Hopewell Valley Golf Club, “we would not enter into an agreement to acquire that course.”
At a public meeting last month, the park commission authorized Watson to execute a $15,000 professional services agreement with Golf Property Analysts to provide appraisal services for the Hopewell Valley Golf Club property. The appraisal, which is expected to be completed in a matter of weeks, will determine the monetary value of the oncepristine golf course.
“The county is not going to be prepared to spend $2.5 million,” Watson said of a potential acquisition, “unless it really makes sense.”
For several weeks and counting, the Hopewell Valley Golf Club’s website has featured the following notice: “Hopewell Valley Golf and Country Club will be closed until further notice. Please come back for updates as they become available.”
The website, however, does not mention the club’s contemporary challenges.
“They have a little bit of drainage issues,” Watson said of the Hopewell Valley Golf Club. “They have a couple of bridges that need repair, one needs to be replaced.”
Hopewell Township originally assessed the golf club at $5.4 million in 2015. The Mercer County Board of Taxation, however, entered a judgment downgrading the assessment to approximately $3.5 million after the club argued the township’s original assessment did not reflect true market value, records show.
New ownership acquired the private golf club in 2016 for about $1.7 million, according to county deed records, and the mortgage consideration was nearly $2.7 million.
Despite new ownership, the commercial property continued to lose value. As of Jan. 10, the net value of the Hopewell Valley Golf and Country Club was $1.8 million, according to the New Jersey Division of Taxation.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection over the last two years has taken several enforcement actions at the
Hopewell Valley Golf Club, according to public records. The club in June 2018 failed to comply with the maximum contaminant level or MCL for E. coli, an indicator of fecal contamination in a public water system, DEP alleged in its enforcement action report obtained by The Trentonian.
The course has a privately owned, transient non-community water system, according to DEP. The club in recent years has been accused of failing to monitor for arsenic and failure to retain all records of inspections and any necessary maintenance for a minimum of five years.
If Mercer County acquires the Hopewell Valley Golf Club, the park commission would expand its footprint of recreational facilities and give residents more cost-effective options to swing for a birdie or eagle.
“That’s the cool thing about Mercer County’s park system,” Watson said. “We try to make it affordable for everybody to be able to come out and enjoy it.”