Golf Course On Tap In TC

TRAVERSE CITY — The Acme Township Board of Trustees has granted approval for developers to initiate work on a new private residential and golf community at the LochenHeath Golf Club. The development will feature construction of up to 375 homes and a 25,000-square-foot clubhouse that will serve as the centerpiece for the exclusive private club.

The township board’s vote follows the unanimous approval given to the project last month by the Acme Township Planning Commission.

Developers of the project said they expect to initiate work “within the next 60 to 90 days” on several important components of the development, including an entry monument and a 5,000-square-foot sales center.

John Lang, president of Pinnacle Development Group, one of the participating partners in LochenHeath Land Company LLC, said the board’s final approval “paves the way for us to begin the development of one of the Upper Midwest’s finest private residential and golf communities that will have a positive and lasting impact on Traverse City‘s economic climate.”

Lang’s company, which is partnering with Michigan-based Deepwater LLC in the development of the 644-acre project on the shores of Grand Traverse Bay, has received wide acclaim for two Arizona-based private residential and golf communities — Scottsdale’s Estancia, which was named Golf Digest’s Best New Private Golf Course in America in 1996, and The Club at Seven Canyons in Sedona, recognized as the seventh Best New Private Club in America by Golf Digest in 2003.

Lang said the new LochenHeath project will be “intended to provide discriminating buyers with an opportunity of a lifetime to become a member of one of the Midwest‘s most unique private communities offering a natural and serene setting, comfortable and casual ambiance, and one of the nation’s outstanding new private golf courses.”

He said the LochenHealth property “is ideal for this type of upscale development” centered around the championship golf course, which measures 7,049 yards from the back tees.

Future plans call for the construction of approximately 375 residential units, many offering views of Grand Traverse Bay. The residential mix will include an attached condominium product, as well as single-family lakeside villas and custom home sites ranging from three quarters of an acre to more than an acre. A limited number of lakefront estate lots of up to more than one acre in size will also be available. Several new homes are already completed or under construction on the site.

Memberships to LochenHeath Golf Club will be restricted to property owners, Lang said. Plans call for the construction of a 25,000-square-foot clubhouse that will house a golf shop, men’s and women’s locker rooms, fitness center, casual and formal dining rooms and banquet and special event facilities.

All of the homes, Lang said, will be custom designed and built to strict design guidelines and architectural controls that will maintain the development’s commitment to high quality and long-term sustainable value. Lot prices are expected to range from $175,000 to $300,000.

Lake views will be protected through meticulous site planning and careful positioning of building pads, Lang said.

Construction on the 5,000-square-foot sales center is expected to begin late this year, with infrastructure improvements — including roads and the new entry monument — scheduled to be completed early in 2005.