Developer Hemisphere is turning a brownfield site on the Lake Erie shore into a resort development that features a links-style golf course.
Fairport Harbor, Ohio – In a few years, people in Northeast Ohio will be able to enjoy the Lake Erie shore a lot more. That’s because Beachwood, Ohio-based Hemisphere is building a resort community that will feature a Brit Stenson-designed, links-style golf course.
The entire development, named Lakeview Bluffs Resort, will include a four-star hotel, an IMG sports academy (which includes golf, soccer, tennis and baseball), condominiums, townhouses and other housing options. Each part of the development will have its own name. Currently, a name for the golf course hasn’t been chosen.
|
|
A bad base
The entire project involves 1,100 acres of land, 450 of which is north of the Grand River, which runs through the middle of the development, and is the primarily focus of development right now. The land on which the golf course and the rest of the development will be built is a brownfield site and former worksite of the Diamond Shamrock Corp., which started its soda ash manufacturing operation in Fairport Harbor in 1912. It peaked in the mid-1950s and closed in the late 1970s. The byproduct of the manufacturing process is calcium salt, also called solvay. However, because it’s not hazardous, there’s no overriding environmental concern, according to Matt Montecalvo, project manager with Hull & Associates, the environmental consultant working with Hemisphere on the project.
Because there’s millions of yards of solvay, it’s not realistic to remove it from the site, so the golf course will be built on top of the byproduct, on which it’s difficult to grow grass. Montecalvo says it’s up to Hemisphere to use the material or cover it.
Terry Buchen, CGCS, MG, a consulting agronomist working on the project, is taking soil samples and will help determine which type of turfgrass to use for the golf course. At this point, Buchen says he doesn’t know if the solvay is shapeable or gradable.
“I don’t know what the cap will be between the sand cap and the solvay,” he says. “We have to make sure the solvay doesn’t come up through the sand cap and the turfgrass roots don’t grow down into the solvay.”
Another area of the site is a closed landfill. The challenge there is to prevent water that will irrigate the golf course from coming into contact with the landfill material. Right now, there’s a clay cap on the landfill that’s between 2-feet and 9-feet deep. Two feet is the minimum requirement by the Environmental Protection Agency, according to Montecalvo. There’s no methane gas coming up out of the landfill because of its industrial nature.
Despite any problems, the project will get built regardless, Montecalvo says.
Of all aspects of the development – which is the largest brownfield redevelopment project in the state, according to Montecalvo – the golf course is planned to be built first, even though all facets of the development are progressing. The plan is to build the other parts of the development while the turfgrass on the golf course grows in. Actual construction of the course will start this summer, according to Montecalvo.
“As far as the golf course construction is concerned, there’s nothing from the EPA that would slow that down,” he says.
Currently, Hull & Associates and Hemisphere are going through various closures with the EPA.
Course design
The links-style course will be a par 72, longer than 7,000 yards from the tips and feature some type of bentgrass, side-stacked bunkers and out-of-play areas with tall grass because the site begs for it, according to Terry Baller, design associate with IMG, a Cleveland-based sports, entertainment and media company. Four holes of the course will be right next the lake.
“We’re fitting the golf course into the site, not fitting the site into a type of golf course,” says Baller, who is working on the project with Stenson. “It will be one of a kind when it’s done. There’s nothing like this around here. Generally, it will be a flat course and any shaping will be done above ground with the capping. We won’t dig.”
“Maintaining the environmental integrity will be paramount,” Montecalvo says.
Baller says that by the fall of 2007 the course, which will be irrigated with water from Lake Erie, should be grassed and by the spring of 2008 it should be open for play. GCN