March 10 Community Forum: The Future of Park Hill Golf Course
By Georgia Garsey, Your Hub, March 5 2017
Park Hill Golf Course is a beautiful and historic piece of open space located about five miles from Downtown Denver. Not only do golfers report a great golfing experience at the 155 acre course, but the appearance of foxes, hawks and other creatures in the heart of the city lend to the feeling of getting away for awhile in a green and tree-filled landscape. Bob Hope golfed here and it was the home course of Bebe Zaharias who won three U.S. Women’s Opens and is often cited as the top woman athlete of the 20th Century.
All these folks, famous or not, have been treated to copious amounts of – let’s just say it – FRESH AIR! And this is a good news story in a city that has received an F rating from the American Lung Association for ozone emissions.
The Park Hill Golf Course is now facing an uncertain future. The land is owned by the Clayton Trust, a non-profit that provides high quality education for birth to five year olds, especially those of limited opportunities. Clayton claims it requires $1,000,000 in yearly lease revenue from the golf course or $24 million from land sales to continue its mission. The revenues received from the PHGC lease represent 7% of Clayton’s revenues. The course is currently operated by Arcis Equity Partners. Its lease expires at the end of 2018, and it has until June 30 to decide whether to exercise its option of renewing the first of its two 5-year options to renew. It also has a right of first refusal to acquire the PHGC land during the term of the lease.