The City of Hollywood is preparing to ask developers for proposals to redevelop the city’s money-losing Orangebrook Golf & Country Club.
Orangebrook is the largest of three municipal golf courses in Hollywood with 36 holes and spans 240 acres.
But it has become a financial burden for the city. Orangebrook’s costs exceeded revenue by more than $2 million from 2011 to 2014, including a deficit of $419,530 last year alone.
One possible approach to redevelopment is transferring one of the two 18-hole courses to a developer in exchange for an upgrade for the other course.
Voter approval would be required for a redevelopment of Orangebrook to proceed because deed restrictions require that the land remain open space.
The redevelopment proposal could appear on the ballot as soon as November of next year, Raelin Storey, a city spokeswoman, told the Sun-Sentinel.
Hollywood Commissioner Dick Blattner said the city should determine the best use of the land at Orangebrook, located west of Interstate 95 between Hollywood Boulevard and Pembroke Road.
Blattner told the Sun-Sentinel that golf courses “are closing all over. It has to do with the fact that the property is too valuable to be used as a golf course.”
Blattner also said it makes sense to determine “if we can get someone else to take that over an make it a good course and make it residential mixed-use.” [Sun-Sentinel] — Mike Seemuth