Local Businessman Planning Purchase of Waubeeka

By Tammy DanielsiBerkshires Staff
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A purchase and sale agreement has been signed for Waubeeka Golf Links.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Waubeeka Golf Links should have a new owner Friday.

Michael Deep of North Adams confirmed on Tuesday that he has signed a purchase-and-sales agreement for the 18-hole golf course.

"I'm excited," he said. "I'm very, very excited and happy. Now I'm just waiting for Friday."

Several local names had surfaced as interested buyers in the last few weeks as the deadline loomed for whether the course would open this spring. Deep said he had been interested but backed off when another potential buyer began serious talks with owners James and Jody Goff so as not to get in the way.

"When it didn't happen, Jim called me," Deep said.

James Goff had confirmed earlier in the week that a "verbal agreement" had been made. The Goffs bought the 200-acre course in 2008 and made major upgrades.

The price on the course was dropped last fall from $5 million to $3.5 million; Alton & Westall Real Estate had been marketing the property since the Goffs, who live Colorado, decided to sell it nearly two years ago.

Goff, a former Williamstown high school golf champ, had said he hoped to sell to someone would keep the operation intact, but if not, there was the potential of the three parcels being sold for other uses.



Deep, a local developer and owner of Deep Associates Insurance Agency, said he had no intention of buying a golf course — 45 days ago. Now he's eager to close the deal and prepare the course for an April 15 opening.

"I am planning no changes whatsoever," he said. "The golf superintendent (Greg Tudor) is coming back and the rates are the same as last year."

Deep said he would be able to speak more on Friday; club members are being informed by letter.

Membership rates for 2014 will range from $800 to $2,100, paid by April 1, with juniors at $250 and college students at $350.

There are still things to get in place, Deep said, pending Friday's closing.

"We're going to have a first class operation," he said.  "We're certainly on the right road right now."


Tags: golf,   golf course,   waubeeka,   

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Williamstown Affordable Housing Trust Hears Objections to Summer Street Proposal

By Stephen DravisiBerkshires Staff
WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Neighbors concerned about a proposed subdivision off Summer Street last week raised the specter of a lawsuit against the town and/or Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity.
 
"If I'm not mistaken, I think this is kind of a new thing for Williamstown, an affordable housing subdivision of this size that's plunked down in the middle, or the midst of houses in a mature neighborhood," Summer Street resident Christopher Bolton told the Affordable Housing Trust board, reading from a prepared statement, last Wednesday. "I think all of us, the Trust, Habitat, the community, have a vested interest in giving this project the best chance of success that it can have. We all remember subdivisions that have been blocked by neighbors who have become frustrated with the developers and resorted to adversarial legal processes.
 
"But most of us in the neighborhood would welcome this at the right scale if the Trust and Northern Berkshire Habitat would communicate with us and compromise with us and try to address some of our concerns."
 
Bolton and other residents of the neighborhood were invited to speak to the board of the trust, which in 2015 purchased the Summer Street lot along with a parcel at the corner of Cole Avenue and Maple Street with the intent of developing new affordable housing on the vacant lots.
 
Currently, Northern Berkshire Habitat for Humanity, which built two homes at the Cole/Maple property, is developing plans to build up to five single-family homes on the 1.75-acre Summer Street lot. Earlier this month, many of the same would-be neighbors raised objections to the scale of the proposed subdivision and its impact on the neighborhood in front of the Planning Board.
 
The Affordable Housing Trust board heard many of the same arguments at its meeting. It also heard from some voices not heard at the Planning Board session.
 
And the trustees agreed that the developer needs to engage in a three-way conversation with the abutters and the trust, which still owns the land, to develop a plan that is more acceptable to all parties.
 
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