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Two years after the closure of the golf course and curling club, the former Bally Haly property in St. John’s is back in the spotlight.
A process is underway to transform this massive east end green space into a community the size of Spaniard’s Bay.
“It is our goal to cater to the broadest possible market. We want something here for everybody,” Justin Lahda told CBC News this week.
Lahda is CEO with KMK Capital Inc., one of the largest property developers in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The company has been hired by Clovelly Golf Course Inc. — a St. John’s based company owned by four directors with the last name Dobbin — to manage a project that could involve an investment over the next five to 10 years of several hundred million dollars and result in the construction of more than 1,200 housing units.
Right now the land is an untamed expanse of wild grass, mature trees, rolling fields and wetlands. It’s within sight of Confederation Building, St. John’s Harbour and Signal Hill.
For more than a century, it was a popular golf course, and the sport of curling was also played here. But two years ago, it was at the centre of a massive land swap when the semi-private club that owned the historic property moved just up the road to the former Clovelly golf course, off Stavanger Drive.
For more than a century, the Bally Haly property in east end St. John’s was home to a golf course owned by a semi-private country club. The property changed hands two years ago in a big land swap. (Terry Roberts/CBC)
The Dobbins took ownership of the former Bally Haly, and the property has sat idle and unkept ever since.
But this week an ambitious draft development plan became public. It proposes everything from executive homes off Logy Bay Road and the Virginia River to fourplexes and large apartment buildings. There’s space for commercial and recreation developments, and multi use trails.
The vision is to create a new neighbourhood that’s home to about 3,000 people, said Lahda.
“We believe there is demand today and there will be into the future for more and more housing in the city, particularly in a location like this that is really very central,” he said.
It will be a year or more before any work starts here, but the process is underway. City council has agreed to rezone the property from open space to planned mixed development.
Justin Lahda is CEO of KMK Capital Inc., a well-known St. John’s-based property development company. (Terry Roberts/CBC)
KMK Capital has also been ordered to undertake a land use report to ensure the development can be tied in with existing infrastructure, and that environmental protections are in place.
And before any construction permits are issued, the city is promising that citizens will have their say through a series of public meetings.
“People are going to have issues and we respect that. I’ll meet with as many of them as I possibly can,” said Lahda.
Right now, this is a draft plan, and will likely change as the approval process unfolds, said Lahda.
Veteran city Coun. Sandy Hickman said he’s conditionally supportive.
“This beautiful land is ripe for residential development,” he said.
It took nearly 18 months to put the plan together, said Lahda, and right now it’s only on paper.
Whether it becomes a reality will depend on whether or not the city gives the green light, and ultimately whether the market is strong enough.
But Lahda has high hopes.
“I think we’ll bring people down to look around and I think that might do it,” he said when asked about his sales pitch.
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