Golf site, plan on the market

By Geelong Story Updates
The site of the former Geelong Golf Club is for sale with redevelopment plans.
Owner Links Living has put it on the market as part of plans to sell the company’s portfolio of residential golf estates to property developers.
Links bought the club after it hit financial trouble but then spent years seeking approval to redevelop the site amid a bitter battle with objectors.
The company eventually won approval for a ninehole golf estate with 200 dwellings on the 45hectare site at North Geelong.
Links Living’s Ron Smith said a buyer would have to redevelop the site according to the approved plans.
The company would ensure the buyer had no opportunity to avoid the project or develop new plans, he said.
“Any future sales contract or arrangement with a thirdparty developer in respect to our Geelong site will require that the site be developed in accordance with the councilapproved plans, including the construction of a new ninehole golf course, and that our contractual commitments in respect of the former Geelong Golf Club will be delivered,” Mr Smith said.
He expected the sale to take six to 12 months in a “very orderly process”.
Mr Smith said his company’s management division, PGA Links, expected to run the Geelong development on behalf of a new owner.
Mr Smith said “several major players” in residential development had asked about buying Links Livings’ property portfolio over the past two to three years.