New owner is Charles R. Van Eekeren, a golf enthusiast who says he plans to renovate 18-hole course to fit how celebrated golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast designed it in 1921.
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A Chicago-area businessman purchased the Erie Golf Club for $1,311,000 with plans to restore it to its 1921 designThe sale required court approval because the golf course was public property previously owned by Millcreek Township, which had bought it from the city of ErieProceeds from sale must fund parks and recreation programs in Millcreek, according to judge’s order, which adopted township’s suggestion for spending
A Chicago-area businessman with a passion for golf has received court approval to purchase the Erie Golf Club from Millcreek Township for $1,311,000.
Charles R. Van Eekeren, whose purchase got the OK at a hearing in Erie County Orphans’ Court on Wednesday, said he has never owned a golf course, but has played the top 100 courses in the United States and another 68 courses worldwide.
“I’ve always had a dream of owning a golf course,” Van Eekeren said after the hearing, before Judge Marshall Piccinini.
Van Eekeren lives in Elmhurst, Illinois, west of Chicago, but the 59-year-old said he plans to retire to Erie to be near the 175-acre, 18-hole Erie Golf Club, at 6050 Old Zuck Road.
He said he intends to have nine holes of the course open in the spring, and wants to restore the Erie Golf Club to the way it was in 1921, when celebrated golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast designed it.
“It is a great piece of property,” Van Eekeren said.
Millcreek must use sale proceeds for parks and recreation
The Erie Golf Club property includes a 5,532-square-foot clubhouse with kitchen, dining room, pro shop and outdoor patio. Also included in the sale are maintenance and golf cart buildings, a pump house, parking lot and creek-fed irrigation system.
Millcreek needed court approval to sell the course because it was a public property. The Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office also signed off on the deal, as required.
Piccinini’s approval of the sale on Wednesday capped a yearlong public process in which Millcreek first had to obtain court approval to get bids to sell the course. Millcreek cited a lack of financial resources, equipment and expertise in its petition to get permission to sell the club to a private business. The township had leased the property to a private manager.
The township advertised the sale in local and national publications, including Golf Digest. That’s where Van Eekeren said he saw an ad. Millcreek awarded him the bid, pending court approval, in June. Wednesday’s hearing for final approval was originally scheduled for Monday.
In approving the sale, Piccinini ordered that the township use the $1,311,000 in proceeds to fund its parks and recreation programs, as the township suggested. As the township also suggested, Piccinini prohibited the money from going into the township’s general fund.
City of Erie once owned the golf course
The city of Erie previously owned the Erie Golf Club, though it is located in Millcreek. City officials closed the course in 2007, saying it was too expensive to operate.
Millcreek Township acquired the property in 2009 as part of a complicated deal to enable the $83 million runway extension that was completed in 2012 at Erie International Airport, in Millcreek.
Piccinini’s ruling on Wednesday authorizes the township to draw up the deed to sell the property to the Charles R. Van Eekeren Revocable Trust, whose two assignees will own the course and its equipment. They are 6050 Golf Club Road LLC and 6050 Golf Club Equipment LLC, according to information Millcreek Township Solicitor Mark Shaw presented in court.
Charles R. Van Eekeren is an executive employee and shareholder of the family-owned Vanee Foods Co., in Berkeley, Illinois, west of Chicago, according to court records related to the sale of Erie Golf Club. The records show he has liquid assets of more than $4 million and he personally has liquid assets of almost $2 million.
Van Eekeren attended Wednesday’s hearing along with Kim Clear, who chairs the three-member Millcreek Board of Supervisors, and Dan Ouellet, the vice chairman of the board.
Clear and Ouellet said after the hearing that they are relieved that the property has been sold. They said the supervisors plan to hold public sessions to get more input on how to use the sale proceeds to improve the township’s parks and recreation programs. The township has already started asking for ideas.
Clear said the township is looking forward to seeing how the Erie Golf Club takes shape under the new ownership.
“This is going to be a destination,” Clear said.
Contact epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.
