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Newlands to PGA

1916 · 2009-05-23 08:24:51

As reported in todays Indo. A suprising article in current/medium term environment, maybe if the year was 2004, but now?

23-05-2009 8:24am

#1

1916

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As reported in todays Indo. A suprising article in current/medium term environment, maybe if the year was 2004, but now?

Mansfield tries to tee up huge land swap for top golf club

Saturday May 23 2009

NEWLANDS golf club is the target of a massive swap deal by multi-millionaire Jim Mansfield.

Mr Mansfield, the owner of the Citywest Hotel and golf course, has suggested that Newlands, between the Naas Road and Belgard Road in Dublin, take over his Palmerstown House golf club facility at Johnstown near Naas.

He recently met club officers briefly with an outline proposal of the move for the two clubs.

Newlands honorary secretary Jim Whelan confirmed that the meeting had taken place but said there had been no discussion about money as part of any proposed move.

"All we have is an expression of interest, nothing more, and we have informed the members about this expression of interest," said Whelan.

Valuable

Jim Mansfield, who also owns Weston Aerodrome, was not contactable yesterday. But speculation was growing last night that Mr Mansfield was looking at the land as a prime development site which could be valuable when property improves.

It was also suggested that he could be looking to offload Palmerstown House, which has a tiny membership at the moment.

His approach will intrigue the Newlands members, but they would need serious persuasion and big money to leave their present site at the junction of the Belgard Road and the Naas Road.

The club has had problems with space in terms of its proximity to Cement Roadstone and the development of the M50, but it received €5m from the National Roads Authority for loss of some acreage.

Newlands has invested heavily in developing its course and clubhouse over the last decade, and with an ageing membership profile, Mr Mansfield would need to make a spectacular offer to persuade them to move. Palmerstown House is an 800-acre estate on which Mr Mansfield established a highly acclaimed golf course designed by Christy O'Connor Jr.

The clubhouse is luxurious and a 200-room hotel and conference centre are also part of the facilities.

Championship

Mr Mansfield's golf course opened in 2005 and hosted the Irish PGA championship, which was won by Padraig Harrington.

The original intention was to make it a high-priced exclusive membership club which would help attract buyers of expensive properties on the estate.

However the membership is small and the recession has caused demand for top-tier property to bottom out.

There would be surprise within the golf fraternity that anyone is interested in land-swap arrangements given the state of the economy.

The high profile €180m package for Clontarf Golf Club to move to Portmarnock collapsed last year after the members had voted in favour.

Capel Developments, who instigated the deal, withdrew when the property market took a dive.

The Newlands club would need definite proposals from Mansfield before calling a meeting of members.

- Liam Kelly

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