Our Place
Hillmoor and what’s going on there.
Laurence Freed, the guy who’s been convicted of financial misdealing’s and is apparently headed for a long term in Federal prison, has stepped aside, following his purchase of the old defunct Hillmoor Golf Course located up on Catholic Hill in the northern portion of Lake Geneva.
It’s kind of strangely instructive that the guy who ran Hillmoor for years, and finally bailed it out, leaving it to return to its natural state (and Lake Geneva’s northern eyesore) was also accused of massive financial misdealing’s before he fled. Three men, friends of friends in business, have come forward to take the reins and attempt to make something out of the strategically located golf course. Paul Fitzpatrick is the main player, wheeling and dealing to turn this three point four-million-dollar property into something that has an R.O.I. For those of you who don’t know, those letters stand for the most important words any person investing in business property will ever hear. They stand for “return of investment.”
The Hillmoor questions remain the same ones asked over and over again as one potential builder and developer after another has purchased the land, and then tried to figure out how to make the property pay. A lake, a working artist’s colony, a slew of apartment buildings or now maybe the YMCA? That’s right, the YMCA is rumored to be very quietly looking for a new home. The Lake Geneva Family Lakes YMCA is one of the most successful youth and adult recreational organization within one hundred miles, and that includes Chicago. The five thousand plus members, from all the communities around the lake and beyond, and the high usage of their memberships have made it necessary for the “Y” to move to a larger property. The facility they have near Culvers and McDonalds on Wells Street is too small, and has no capability to expand farther because of how it is bordered. The traffic plan on North Wells Street has become downright dangerous when entering or leaving the YMCA property, so it is time.
But where can they go, and with what kind of a budget?
The Hillmoor trio are not talking, and neither are the board members of the YMCA. Right now where the “Y” is going is anybody’s guess, although the “Hillmoor South” property that sits down a block across the road from the Hillmoor Golf Course proper might be perfect. The new controlling members of the Hillmoor real estate trust have also consulted with Brian Pollard to see if his most excellent development company might have any interest in building something that might actually make some money on the land.
Dog Training and Fun in Our Place
If you haven’t seen Missi and her dogs, Glitch and Syphon in action, then you should. They are at library park often and enjoy having a crowd to entertain. Missi has great skill at training dogs and Glitch and Syphon prove it. She is the owner and trainer of ThrillSeekers Dog Sports and Services, which is a complete dog service. Any dog will be lucky to exercise or train with her and her crew.
If the Y moves, it would be a great parking lot location.
Interesting idea Dorothy.
The question is, could the YMCA put the deal together?
Would they need local fund raising?
The only way something will get done with the Hillmoor property is for certain people to remove their heads from that dark place and realize that NO ONE will purchase it unless they’re allowed to do something with it. People aren’t going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy property that can’t be developed. That being said, let’s address a couple issues.
1) Open Space concerns. I call BS. There’s a STATE PARK in the city and a nature preserve between Geneva and Como, not to mention the numerous trails and paths. If that’s not enough, drive 5 minutes in any direction and there’s open space galore.
2) Public golf course. There’s absolutely no need for a public golf course. There’s literally a dozen courses within 20 minutes of Lake Geneva and if there was REALLY a need for another, a private developer would be all over it. Seems to me the people pushing this are tightwads who don’t want to pay course fees at one of the local courses and think this would be a great way to get the taxpayer to subsidize their cheap golf.
I’m not saying that we need to rubber stamp a Hummel like plan, but if someone is willing to purchase the land and invest millions in our community, we should do it.