Lansing closes on $2.2 million sale of former Waverly Golf Course
Haley Hansen
LANSING TWP. — The former Waverly Golf Course has been sold to a Grand Rapids developer for $2.2 million.
The 121-acre site between Michigan Avenue and West Saginaw Highway is in Lansing Township, but is owned by the city of Lansing. Lansing Mayor Andy Schor announced Wednesday that the developer and city had closed on the sale.
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The profit from the sale will go toward the City of Lansing Parks and Recreation Department.
“For us this was a property sale for a piece of property," Schor said. "And now the folks who purchased it will take it from there.”
CBRE|Martin managed the sale and marketing of the property on behalf of the City of Lansing, Schor said.
The proposed redevelopment
The Waverly Golf Course closed in 2007, and city residents voted to authorize its sale along with the adjacent Michigan Avenue Park in 2012.
In 2014, city officials said an appraisal of the property came in at $2.74 million. An appraisal from 2016 has the property listed at about $3.16 million.
Under a purchase agreement from October, Northern Capital Investments LLC proposed buying the nine-hole golf course and the adjacent park for $2.2 million. In June, Lansing Township's Board of Trustees unanimously approved the rezoning of the golf course.
The proposed development would consist of 204 apartments, 52 multi-family duplexes, 76 townhomes and 101 single-family homes. Plans for the site also include 120 units of senior housing and 145,000 square-feet of commercial and office space. Site plans call for a 45,000 square-foot box retail building.
The project isn't the first to be pitched for the site. Livonia developer Schostak signed a purchase agreement with the city of Lansing in August 2014 for nearly $5.8 million, but Lansing Township leaders issued a rezoning moratorium shortly after, saying it would give the township time to update a zoning ordinance that had not been overhauled since the 1980s.
At the time, former Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and other city leaders accused township officials of blocking redevelopment on the site. Schostak ultimately walked away from the sale in August 2016.
Contact reporter Haley Hansen at (517) 267-1344 or hhansen@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @halehansen.