TEMPE, Ariz. — A neighborhood golf course is closing next year and is slated to be redeveloped into housing, but residents are frustrated at the prospect of losing the course and adding density to their area.
Shalimar Golf Club, a nine-hole course that first opened in 1961, is under contract to be sold to BB Living, a Scottsdale-based rental home developer.
Branden Lombardi, president of BB Living, said the course had been for sale for years, with the hopes that another golf operator would purchase it. But when no one did, the course’s owners, Jane and Dick Neuheisel, who bought the course in 1984, approached his company to buy and redevelop it. The Neuheisel’s son, Rick, played at nearby McClintock High School and later led the UCLA Bruins to the 1984 Rose Bowl title.
“If no one else is ready to step in and operate it as a golf course, there is a reason for that,” Lombardi said.
The course has a restriction on it requiring it to operate as a golf course that expires in January 2025. After that, Lombardi said the owners plan to operate it through the remainder of golfing season and close it before summer.
Neighbors seek to preserve course, community gathering space
But neighbors said they want to do everything they can to prevent redevelopment of the course, which has also served as a community gathering space for years.
“I’m a frequenter of the golf course and participated in many events there, celebrations, birthday parties,” Carl Streiff, president of the Shalimar Association, said.
Streiff said the golf course was a draw for people who bought homes in the nearby community and is an amenity to all of Tempe. The course is open to the public to play.
“What we don’t want to see is higher density development that will wipe out our uniqueness, any special trace of the neighborhood,” he said.
Ideally, he said, the community would like some kind of solution that could involve the city partnering with a private business to keep the course open.
“We would like to come up with a way to keep the course,” he said. “What I don’t want to see is things getting nasty, people making accusations. We have a lot of smart people, if we can truly explore what are the options, I’d rather spend time finding a solution than fighting a rezoning.”
Streiff and many of his neighbors have written to the city and spoken during public comment periods at council meetings opposing the rezoning. Neighbors cited the loss of green space, the opportunity for community gatherings, and the outdoor activities that the course provides as reasons they are passionate about its preservation.
“Rezoning and losing the golf course would have a dramatic and negative impact on the neighborhood, adjacent neighborhoods, businesses, the city of Tempe, and the lifestyle that so many enjoy in this historic gem of north Tempe,” Helena Tselos, a resident of the area, wrote in an email to city leaders. “Destroying an iconic piece of Tempe green space in favor of a housing development is not in the best interest of the greater community.”
However, the proposal has not yet been before the City Council for any action.
Developer added for-sale homes to plans
BB Living has not made a formal submittal to the city for rezoning the property yet but has conducted meetings with the neighbors to discuss the project, Lombardi said.
The first proposed plan included almost 400 rental homes and no for-sale product. After hearing concerns from the neighbors about density and no for-sale homes included, BB Living adjusted the plans and partnered with Cachet Homes, a Scottsdale-based luxury homebuilder, to create some for-sale housing in the development.
Now, BB Living is preparing to submit plans for a development that will be about 200 rental homes and about 70 for-sale homes. BB Living’s products are for rent, but most in the development look like detached single-family homes. Each has three or four bedrooms and has an attached garage. Some of the rentals proposed at the development will be attached rental townhomes.
“In Tempe, in particular, there aren’t large land parcels available for development,” Lombardi said. “In central Tempe, there really has been no new residential development in the last 20 years.”
The plan also will include a two-mile public trail system, with some passive amenities like picnic areas and benches that the surrounding neighbors can also use, he said.
Public hearings still to come
Lombardi said regardless of the rezoning, the course will close and already has zoning to be developed into very low-density housing without any need for public hearings.
Tempe officials said it is too early for any recommendations on the site because the formal application has not been submitted.
Lombardi said a formal submittal should be coming in the next couple of weeks, and the group will hold a neighborhood meeting before the end of the year. If granted the rezoning, land development would begin late next year with the expectation to open the new development in 2027.
“We are still very early in the process,” he said. “Everyone will still have a chance to have their voice heard.”
