HAVERHILL — At the start of this year, local contractor Michael Maroney laid out his plans to improve the aging Crystal Springs Golf Course and build 50 houses there.
One thing remained before the project could begin: For Maroney to complete his negotiations with the owners and buy the property.
That has happened. Maroney has purchased the 137-acre property for $3.75 million. The sale was announced last week by Merit McIntyre and Gene O'Neill of NorthWay Commercial Brokerage in Haverhill.
Maroney said he expects to break ground for the first homes in May. He said his workers have taken down 400 trees and done a large amount of landscaping on the course and in preparation for the homes. The course, which is open to the public, will be ready for golf April 1, he said.
The Gelt family had owned and operated the course since it opened in 1961 near the Atkinson line.
Maroney, who has operated Maroney Construction Co. Inc. in Haverhill for 33 years, said he plans to enhance the public 18-hole course, erect a new clubhouse and build 50 homes on 13 acres, while maintaining the bulk of the property as open space.
His plans are to build 12 homes a year beginning this year. The homes are intended to attract buyers looking to downsize and have their lawns and snow removal taken care of.
City officials said the project is an encouraging sign that the housing market is improving.
"What this project says it there is life in the local economy," said William Pillsbury, the city's economic development and planning director. "It comes with the benefit of new tax dollars to the city in the form of new growth,
Earlier this year, Sylvia Bonaccorso of Atkinson, the president of Crystal Springs Golf Inc., said she felt it was time to sell the property that her late father, George Gelt, originally owned.
Maroney's project was approved by the City Council under a zoning rule that allows the houses to be built closer together and on less land than normally allowed, so open space can be preserved.
O'Neill, a former economic development director for the city, called the course a "jewel" that has drawn golfers to its public greens and fairways since the 1960s. It was designed in 1960 by renowned golf course architect Geoffrey Cornish.
O'Neill said members of the Gelt family are happy to see the property maintained as a golf course and have been working closely with Maroney on the project.
"He's upgrading the course, making him a perfect buyer," O'Neill said about Maroney. "And the city was very helpful as it recognized the value of keeping that resource."
Last year, the City Council approved Maroney's project over the objection of several neighbors who expressed concerns about flooding on a portion of nearby Lake Street, poor water pressure in that part of the city and the potential impact of the project to traffic and the rural nature of the neighborhood.
Pillsbury said Maroney's project addresses some of those concerns. Maroney will install about a mile of sewer line from Broadway and up Lake Street to the golf course, which will enable homes along a section of North Broadway, homes on Parsonage Hill Road and around 15 homes on Lake Street to connect to the city sewer system. The homes are served by septic systems.
Maroney's plans include putting in a new water booster station that will increase water pressure in all of Parsonage Hill Road and the upper portion of North Broadway. He will be making drainage improvements along a section of North Broadway and Lake Street where neighbors have complained about flooding from an irrigation pond, and is giving the city two acres along Crystal Lake, as well as the right to use a walking trail that connects the 2-acre property to another city-owned piece of land that is part of Tattersall Farm.
The city also will receive about $12,000 in back property taxes after the sale is finalized, city officials have said.
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