Framingham exploring purchasing $5.5M golf course
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Millwood Farms Golf Course is located in a rural part of Framingham.
The town of Framingham is exploring the feasibility of buying the Millwood Farms Golf Course that currently has a purchase and sale agreement on it for $5.5 million from Southborough’s Capital Group Properties.
The owners of the golf course that has been in operation for 48 years on former farmland in a rural part of town informed town officials in May that they had a purchase and sale agreement with the developer. That developer agreed to purchase the property with the intent of building age-restricted housing on the property, according to town officials.
As part of Millwood Golf Course’s long-time use of the Chapter 61B tax break for property owners of open space, this bona-fide offer kicked in a 120-day right of first refusal for the town of Framingham. Now town officials are seriously considering whether or not to purchase the 14-hole golf course and maintain it as a public facility, Town Manager Bob Halpin said. There is interest in maintaining the open space, he said, now it is just a matter of crunching the numbers.
“We do have some interest in exploring our right and as part of that we will conduct a market analysis and feasibility study as to how it would fare as a municipal golf course,” he said, explaining that a focus would be paid to the conditions of the greens and the irrigation at the course.
From there, it is up to selectmen to determine whether or not to purchase the property, Halpin said. A number of variations could play out, with the town purchasing some or all of the land through different funding mechanisms. Or the town could pass on the purchase and it would be bought by Capital Group.
Jim Drake, one of the golf course’s three owners, said that when the family signed the agreement, they knew it would initiate the right of first refusal from the town. The Capital Group stepped up with their offer for the property, he said, and it is a real deal that he assumes will go through. However, that does not stop the owners, who are selling because they are getting older and it is time to move on, from also seeing the merits of the property remaining a golf course, he said.
“The family built and has had the course for 48 years so of course we would love to see the land as open space and if the town picked it up that would be a wonderful solution,” Halpin said.
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