PLAIN TWP. − More than a year after the Sanctuary Golf Club closed, its owners have held off plans to develop the property into residential neighborhoods due to higher interest rates.
“That’s why you don’t see much being built around now,” McKinley Development partner Bob Lemmon said. “There’s very little new apartments and senior housing or commercial properties being built in the area and one of the major reasons is the high interest rates.
“Instead of going down like everybody thought they would, they went up. … Getting the loans isn’t a problem. It’s affording them.”
The Sanctuary, an 18-hole public golf course, closed at the end of the 2023 season, to the chagrin of many local golfers. It was one of several closures in recent years in Stark County, joining Tam O’Shanter, Skyland Pines and Seven Hills. The Sanctuary owners said at the time that it wasn’t a financially sustainable business.
Since the closure, the roughly 140 acres north of Applegrove Street NW has sat in a state of limbo.
Higher costs put Sanctuary redevelopment on hold
Lemmon said that the rise of long-term interest rates from about 3% in 2021 to about 7% for much of 2024 have placed his development plans on hold.
For every percentage point the interest rate climbs, that increases McKinley Development’s costs to finance a loan to pay for the development by several tens of thousands of dollars per year.
Lemmon said he would like to see rates get much closer to 6% before he seeks financing, probably in the form of a three-year to four-year loan.
In the meantime, the overall cost of construction hasn’t come down, Lemmon said.
The cost of drywall may have gone down, but the rise in the cost of labor offset that, Lemmon said.
And President Donald Trump’s threat to impose 10% tariffs on Canada starting Feb. 1 would affect the local homebuilding industry because it gets much of the lumber from Canada.“If you put tariffs on lumber coming in from Canada, that’s going to increase the price of lumber,” Lemmon said.
Planning phase moving forward
While McKinley Development waits for market conditions to improve, he and his longtime development partner DeHoff Development plan to hire a planning firm within the next few months to design the plats for the site.
Lemmon hopes to have them ready to submit to Plain Township by next year. If the development and financing costs are reasonable, Lemmon said the first houses might be constructed sometime in 2026. But further development and construction could take place over a five- to 10-year period.
He indicated he might seek a zone change from Plain Township from single-family residential to a planned unit development to allow for a diversity of housing types.
“We’re not going to ask for something we don’t think is reasonable for the neighborhood,” Lemmon said.
Lemmon said they have no plans to sell the property. They have yet to settle on a name for the development, and the neighborhood south of Applegrove Street NW that they developed is already known as the Sanctuary. They want to develop the Sanctuary golf course site themselves just like they did nearby neighborhoods like the Sanctuary, the former Edgewood golf course and Washington Square.
They plan to construct single-family home lots to sell to developers, build multi-family residential on the west end near adjoining apartment complexes and an assisted living facility for seniors that does not provide care as extensive as a skilled nursing facility. DeHoff Development’s president and founder is longtime developer Bob DeHoff.
Lemmon said about half the property can’t be developed due to the presence of wetlands, creeks and soil conditions that are too soft to support the construction of homes. He said that part of the property might be transferred to a not-for-profit conservancy to be preserved as parkland connected to walking trails. The site has a large pond and small pond that Lemmon plans to someday upgrade as one of many water features.
That leaves about 60 to 70 acres that can be developed into residential allotments.
What are the housing market trends?
Lemmon expects most of the demand for lots in what was the Sanctuary golf course will come from the rising number of empty nesters over age 50. They’re a few years from retirement or have retired. And their kids have grown up.
He said they’re often selling their $250,000 home and buying a smaller, easier-to-maintain one-story home on a smaller lot with more amenities that costs $350,000, $400,000 or more.
“People don’t want the extra land,” said Lemmon. “They want the nice kitchen. They want the big walk-in showers.”
Lemmon suggested that how he and DeHoff developed Edgewood, east of Market Avenue and north of Easton and in the last phase of development, would be a model for what’s built at the Sanctuary golf course site.
He said buyers have been willing to pay $400,000 to $500,000 for homes on lots with 55 feet of frontage space at Edgewood. That’s a trend he expects to occur with the Sanctuary golf course site.
“We couldn’t get them developed fast enough,” Lemmon said.
Plain Township Trustees would have to approve any requested zone change.
“Until plans are put forward and officially come before the Board (of Trustees), I am going to abstain from any public comment,” Trustee Scott Haws said.
Reach Robert at robert.wang@cantonrep.com.
