Ironwood Golf Course for sale in Gainesville?
Hello from Gainesville, Florida. It's Monday, June 22, and you're listening to StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman. StreetSmart is a weekly podcast from Mainstreet Daily News where we cover local news that informs, engages, and inspires listeners like you.
Lillian:A big thanks to our sponsor, Forest Meadows Funeral Home, where compassion meets experience. Check out their beautiful gardens, funeral home, and tribute center. Cremations, funerals, and memorials all in one trusted place. With exceptional care and personal attention, Forest Meadows is here to honor every life with care.
Lillian:Here's the top headlines we're rounding up.
Lillian:First responders gave a hearty send off to eight Special Olympic athletes from Alachua County. The athletes and coaches will compete for team Florida at the Special Olympics USA games in basketball, bowling, gymnastics, and cornhole.
Lillian:The cities of Newberry and Archer broke ground on an $80,000,000 wastewater plant. The 1,200,000 gallon capacity facility will finish construction in 2029.
Lillian:The Fraser School in Gainesville filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy and school officials sent a letter demanding $5,000,000 from the former owner.
Lillian:A federal jury met in Gainesville and decided that a Levy County sheriff's deputy violated the fourth amendment when entering a Bronson home in 2019. The sheriff said last week that he stands by his officer.
Lillian:The school board of Alachua County bailed on signing an agreement to purchase Citizens Field and replace it with a new stadium. The school board asked staff to return with alternate options.
Lillian:The city of Waldo hired Amanda Brown as city manager with former manager Kim Worley saying goodbye after twenty five years. Several projects will keep the new manager busy, including upgrades at city hall, eco tourism opportunities, and a new area school.
Lillian:For more information about any of these stories and to find even more articles, visit MainstreetDailyNews.com. Thanks for our generous members. This news stays free for the whole community with no paywall.
Lillian:Thanks for joining us here on StreetSmart. I'm Lillian Hamman, and I was pretty excited about this past week's print edition of our newspaper. I don't know if you got a chance to see it, Seth, but it was pretty unique. And I know we teased it on last week's episode too, but what do think? No photos.
Seth:Yeah. No photos on the front page of a newspaper. It's not something you see very often, but it has a very unique and very pointed purpose and that is that we are hiring a staff photo journalist. So another position coming to Main Street and they're gonna be providing some really awesome photos, week in and week out for the front page of the newspaper that's gonna make it look really nice.
Lillian:Yeah. He'll be starting here in July and it's pretty exciting. Not many newsrooms have their own full time staff photographer and he is coming to us through the Report for America program which is also what our education reporter Nick Anschultz does.
Seth:Yeah. And Nick is obviously on the podcast pretty frequently talking about all things education that he's in the weeds on And we'll probably get Walker Smith who is our new photojournalist in the studio as well to talk about his background. He's got a master's in journalism and has just a ton of experience from South Carolina all the way to Alaska doing different projects.
Lillian:And maybe one of those first projects we can get him to do when he arrives in Gainesville is heading out to Ironwood Golf Course.
Seth:Yeah, we could use some photos of the course there before some big changes could be coming down the pike. And that was the subject of a lot of discussion at the Gainesville City Commission meeting last week and actually wrote a preview of that meeting even earlier in the week. I'm always looking at agendas for the different cities coming up and I've checked the city Gainesville one and it's a potential, you know, sale of Ironwood Golf Course. And so we put that out there and a lot of people had comments and put out their perspective of the course, you know, from their time playing it and what the city should do about it. And that's what we're gonna be talking about as our featured story on this episode.
Seth:I will admit, I've never played golf before. Lillian, I know if you've been out and actually taken to the course.
Lillian:I have never played an official game of golf unless you include putt putt. I have gotten kicked off of golf courses for running on them, but I have not played.
Seth:Yeah. A true cross country runner over here. I have also done some putt putt putt on the list or mini golf. I don't know. Is there a real difference in those two?
Seth:I don't know. I've probably done them both. And then I've also done disc golf and I've also done Oh, yeah. One round of foot golf.
Lillian:Interesting. Dang. Okay. Yeah. I see you with your soccer jersey on there.
Lillian:Yeah.
Seth:You go
Lillian:Viva Mexico.
Seth:Yep. You know, it's World Cup season. It's the time to do it. So with all of that golfing experience, I'm just gonna give a rundown of that meeting last week. So the city Gainesville has an unsolicited proposal process.
Seth:So anyone who has an idea that they would like to pitch to the city, but there's not a current format to do it in can use this proposal process. So a company called Hangtime Golf, which is actually owned by two University of Florida grads, approached the city and said, hey, we'd like to buy Ironwood Golf Course, invest in it and reopen it to the public and try and make it an amenity Gainesville can be really proud of. I think a lot of people have said Ironwood has kind of gone down in its condition, its facility in greens and everything else in the last many years or several years at least recently. And that's something the city of Gainesville has been trying to address, you know, Ironwood Golf Course was on a manager's watch when city manager Cynthia Curry was here talking about the financial feasibility and they said last year that they want to invest a little more in it. But the city also has a budget for Ironwood and Ironwood is exceeding that budget by about $300,000 each year.
Seth:So it's costing some money and a city consultant that they hired to do a study of Ironwood said course needs significant capital investment. So that proposal from Hangtime came to the city in February and the city staffers had questions. So they went back to Hangtime and Hangtime presented kind of a second proposal in May and the city staff thought it was good enough to bring to the city commission. Now, the city commission on Thursday kind of reviewed it and, you know, there's several options moving forward. City Gainesville could say, you know, we're not interested in selling at this point or the city could move forward in the next stage of the unsolicited proposal process is to open it up for bids from everybody.
Seth:So they don't want one person coming forward and then the city says yes to just that proposal. So they do open it up for a thirty day process. So anyone who has an idea concerning Ironwood Golf Course can submit their proposal and be in the running to also get a chance to do something really unique there.
Lillian:Does it have to be golf related or could I turn it into anything I wanted to if I had a proposal?
Seth:What would you turn it into?
Lillian:I might fence it in and let it be the first cat park in Gainesville. There was plenty of dog parks but no cat park.
Seth:One giant outdoor cat park? Yeah. You know, it's an option. I think it depends on how the request for proposals is structured. They say, you know, just around golf.
Seth:I think that's where the state commission was focusing on is they do want it to continue to be a golf facility for the community that's open to the public. So I think it would need to stay in that vein. But the actual structure of it, whether it's a outright sale, whether it's a company that just leases the property, the golf course, or whether it's a public private partnership. So the city of Gainesville retains ownership, but they kind of just hire out the actual operations to another company. The city commissioner seemed flexible on.
Seth:HangTime would like to buy it. So they offer two options, an outright sale for $1,100,000 or a three year lease where they kind of pay a lease for three years and then they buy it outright at the end of those three years.
Lillian:Is 1,100,000 what the city had it appraised for or was that just their offer?
Seth:That was their offer. It would be enough to get rid of all the remaining debt on Ironwood which is about $570,000 plus another $600,000 chunk on top of it. HangTime also said they'd be investing $2,400,000 into the course in the very first year to get it kind of up to their standard. And that includes upgrading the driving range, They and wanna bring in some technology like Top Tracer technology to make it more accessible even to young people and have glow in the dark nights and a bunch of different activities to make it a destination.
Lillian:What are some of the current commissioners saying about it?
Seth:They were mostly in support, I think, of this initial stage, which is opening up the request and seeing what options are out there, what they get back. And they seem fairly open to the proposal from hang time. I mean, we'll see it could be very different when these projects come back in the fall, which is when staff said by the end of this year, they hope to come back with recommendations on all the proposals they get.
Lillian:We're gonna take a quick break to hear from our sponsor, Forest Meadows Funeral Home, and get back to you with the news forecast and event segment coming up this week.
Sponsor:At Forest Meadows, our commitment is simple. Exceptional care, personal attention, and respect for every family we serve. Forest Meadows offers every option in one trusted place. Visit our beautiful gardens in Glassford niches or plan ahead for cremation, funerals and memorials at our funeral home or tribute center located on our cemetery grounds. Forest Meadows where compassion meets experience and every life is honored with care.
Seth:The Alachua and Newberry City Commissions will both meet tonight. Alachua will pick up where it left off during its previous meeting for approving zoning changes for the farmland's development. Newberry will approve or deny site plans for two concrete batch plants.
Seth:Alachua County's commission will have a light agenda tomorrow discussing whether to move forward with the certified local government program.
Seth:The High Spring City Commission will meet on Thursday and discuss budget options for Priest Theater renovations.
Seth:The Gainesville City Plan Board on Thursday will review an amendment to allow more density to a 12 story building proposed just east of UF's campus.
Lillian:Now for our event segment covering upcoming family friendly events this weekend. Did you miss celebrating Father's Day last weekend? There's still time with Father's Fest at the Briar Patch Farm in Newberry on Saturday. The event starts at 5PM and will feature vendors, food, and live entertainment for making memories with dad.
Lillian:Hawthorne is hosting its ninety fourth annual homecoming. The free event will run Thursday through Saturday and feature a parade, vendors, and community dinner.
Lillian:This week is pollinator week, and First Magnitude Brewing Company is celebrating with Pollinator Palooza on Saturday. From noon to 4PM, you can pick up a free plant and learn about conservation work with at risk butterfly species. First Mag will brew up special beers highlighting local pollinators and proceeds will support butterfly recovery efforts in Florida.
Lillian:100 Black Men of Gainesville is hosting its annual aviation academy this Friday and Saturday to introduce students to the sky above them.
Lillian:You can find a sign up for the free event online at the events tab on MainstreetDailyNews.com.
Seth:And something else is gonna be taking off into the sky above us before too long with fourth of July getting here. We're gonna be seeing a lot of fireworks.
Lillian:Yeah. We're twelve days away from the semiquincentennial birthday of The United States Of America. And Mainstreet is still looking for more shout outs with our Star, Stripes, and Shoutouts program.
Seth:You can find a link in the show notes below and just take a quick minute to nominate someone who you think makes North Central Florida a great place to live, work, and play.
Lillian:That can be a veteran, a teacher, a neighbor, anybody you think of that fits that description.
Seth:We've been getting together our special section for that July 1 edition, which is that Wednesday, and ran into some interesting history. We were talking about golf today. Did you know that US first national championship was in men's golf?
Lillian:I did not know that, Seth. All the more reason to be on the golf beat.
Seth:But can you guess the year that they won it?
Lillian:Oh, goodness.
Seth:I can give you a hint.
Lillian:Okay. Yeah. That'd help.
Seth:It was three years after Dr. Cade invented Gatorade.
Lillian:Woah. So what we're saying is they won because of Gatorade.
Seth:I mean
Lillian:Okay. I'm gonna guess I don't know. 1970?
Seth:Close. 1968, US men's golf team wins a national championship. The first for any sport, at least according to the Gator page I was on.
Lillian:And that's all we've got for this week's StreetSmart podcast brought to you by Mainstreet Daily News and made possible by our generous members.
Lillian:Another special thanks to Forrest Meadows for believing in local news and sponsoring us. You can access more free news at MainstreetDailyNews.com. We'll be back next week with more stories that matter to you because they take place right here in Alachua County. Take a minute to share StreetSmart and help us continue the work.
Lillian:Our theme music is Sunset Sonata by Gainesville's ska band, Now Leaving Space. This episode is a production of MARC Media.
