Source: The Patriot Ledger (Quincy, Mass.)
Standing in front of a bank of microphones two years ago, Stan Abrams boldly proclaimed that a 27-hole golf course being built atop a landfill would one day put Quincy on a par with the most famous golf town in America.
Mentioning Quincy in the same breath as Augusta, Ga., is still something of a stretch, but not as big as it was when the Quarry Hills project was dogged by delays, neighborhood complaints, political battles and an uncertain future.
"We're getting closer to it," laughed Abrams, who first made the brow-raising comparison when he was hired in 2002 to manage Granite Links Golf Course at Quarry Hills. Since then, the $135 million project first envisioned a decade ago has become something it hasn't been before: a smooth-running operation typified by an announcement this month that the course will play host to its first professional tournament in August.
The Senior Woman's Golf Tour is coming to Quincy and Milton on the heels of Golf Digest magazine naming Granite Links one of the 10 best new courses in the country. There are also expectations that the final nine holes and a giant clubhouse will be finished this year. Instead of piles of dirt, truck traffic and investigations, developers are now talking television deals, tee times, and cash for Milton and Quincy.
"The end is in sight - this is going to be the last year of construction," said William O'Connell, one of the principals of Quarry Hills Associates. "We'd like to think that ... the people in Quincy and Milton are going to be pleased with the results."
Money rolling in
After years of environmental problems, delays and a series of other project-related distractions, the two communities are also finally beginning to reap the financial benefits. In separate deals, Quincy has received more than $500,000 during the past two years from Quarry Hills and Milton $50,000.
"I always said that eventually this project would have many fathers, and you're seeing that now," said Milton Town Administrator David Colton, who helped oversee the earliest stages of the Quarry Hills project as Quincy's public works commissioner. "It was criticized, people said it couldn't be done and almost walked away from it, but it has been done, and done successfully."
In some ways both good and bad, the Quarry Hills project has reflected that of its benefactor: the Central Artery/Third Harbor Tunnel Project in Boston.
The oft-troubled Big Dig spent $100 million to send 13 million tons of dirt to cover the landfill and set the foundation for the course and other developments on about 400 acres of publicly owned land at the Quincy-Milton border. The caravan of dump trucks stopped along with the flow of money in 2002, when Quarry Hills was supposed to be completed. Price tag grows
Like the Big Dig, the price grew along with the timeline, and now includes roughly a $35 million investment from the team of developers that includes O'Connell, his brother, Peter, former Quincy Mayor Walter Hannon, his son, Walter Hannon, III, and Charles Geilich.
As the project extended, so did skepticism and scrutiny. During his first campaign for mayor in 2001, Quincy Mayor William Phelan was sharply critical of the original deal reached between the city and the developers, suggesting repeatedly that the public was being shortchanged. A year later, Phelan inked a new lease and the mayor is clearly now a fan.
A plaque marking the Golf Digest recognition now hangs in the lobby of Phelan's office at city hall.
"What has happened recently is indication of the quality of the project and how far it has come to over the last several years," Phelan said. "They are always going to be issues, but we address them as they come up. We've always managed to come to resolutions, and that's good for the city and Quarry Hills." Clubhouse key
As part of its 50-year lease, Quarry Hills agreed to pay the city a 10 percent portion of profits generated by the golf course and the function facilities, the latter tacked on in the deal brokered by Phelan. The deal has generated more than $500,000 since the first nine golf holes opened in 2003.
About two-thirds of the money was generated between July and December of last year.
The cash flow to both the city and Quarry Hills is expected to grow markedly with the completion of a 43,000-square-foot clubhouse. O'Connell said he expects functions in the lavish facility, featuring glass walls and panoramic view of Quincy Bay and the Boston skyline, to account for as much as 25 percent of golf course revenue when it opens.
In a separate agreement Milton receives a 2 percent share of profits at the course, totaling slightly more than $50,000 during the past two years. The larger carrot for the town, however, was the $13 million the developers paid to cap Milton's landfill.
Still, sailing is not entirely clear. The developers are currently suing Quincy over a $40,000 bill for a fire that destroyed a storage shed a few years ago, and a deal has not yet been struck to allow golfers to drink alcohol on the Milton side of the course.
Last hurdle
The last major financing and regulatory hurdle looms in a deal not yet finalized to sell a piece of land to developers of the proposed Marian Manor nursing home.
The nursing home project also still must win Quincy City Council approval.
A series of four baseball fields and a soccer field at Quarry Hills were used by Quincy youth leagues last year, but Quincy officials have yet to formally take ownership of them because of problems with drainage and conditions of the playing surfaces. The completion of the fields was tied to the golf course's opening, leading developers to rush into finishing the fields, said Quincy Park Commissioner Thomas Koch. Field upgrades
The developers have promised improvements this year, including building a concession stand and restroom. But Koch said the city won't take full control of the fields until they are completely satisfied with their condition.
"The turf at the playing fields should be the same as the golf course," Koch said.
While neighbors' complaints have largely subsided, there are still grumblings about wetland damage, runoff and other previous environmental missteps of the project. Robert Mason, a resident of Quarry Lane in Milton, said developers "have done nothing" about piles of rock and felled trees in his neighborhood. Flooding problems
Mason's street, which borders the course, will likely always have flooding problems because of the course, he said.
"Is it better than the dump? Absolutely. But they continue to encroach on our land," Mason said, "We're still waiting for them to do something about the pile of rocks."
