As Broadmoor golf course's new owners plan 35 homes, neighbors speak out to save woodlands

As Broadmoor golf course’s new owners plan 35 homes, neighbors speak out to save woodlands

Posted by author March 4, 2025 Golf

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The owners of Broadmoor Country Club in Indianapolis are proposing building 35 homes near the property to attract new members.
Neighbors oppose the development, citing concerns about razed trees, increased density and a disruption of the area’s character.

When Steven Napier and three business partners bought the historic Broadmoor golf course on Indianapolis’ northwest side in 2020, they planned to build dozens of high-end homes in the adjacent woods to entice new members and recoup on their investment in the struggling country club.

But that proposal has sparked outcry from neighbors who say the development would raze mature trees and add density that’s out of character with the area, where spacious homes with large lawns are the rule.

While the development also lacks the support of Indianapolis city planners, Napier’s firm is pushing forward toward a key city vote Wednesday.

Founded in 1922, Broadmoor Country Club periodically lost money throughout the 2010s and faced possible foreclosure by the time Broadmoor Investments LLC, a real estate firm led by longtime club member Napier, bought the property for about $2.5 million in 2020.

The nonprofit country club rents the land and onsite buildings from Napier’s investment company, which has paid $1.5 million to overhaul the clubhouse and restore the course.

To profit off that investment and boost the club’s membership, Napier’s firm plans to build homes priced between $800,000 and $1.5 million on nearly 14 acres near the course’s driving range, at the southwest corner of Knollton Road and Kessler Boulevard. The latest plans call for 35 houses whose owners would have to become Broadmoor members.

Why neighbors oppose new homes near Broadmoor golf course

Where Napier sees an opportunity to entice wealthy residents who might otherwise flee to suburban counties, many neighbors see acres of trees that would be felled to make way for tightly packed homes.

Neighbors knew that more homes might someday pop up in the nearby woods, said Jason Mackey, who lives in High Knoll Estates just south of the proposed development, during a Jan. 23 public hearing. The developer’s “total disregard for the neighborhood’s feel and collective will,” however, has shocked residents, Mackey said.

“We are opposed to development that destroys a substantial amount of urban forest,” Mackey said, “and we are opposed to a development that seeks to exploit every scrap of terrain and build on the backs of its neighbors.”

Mackey is one of more than 50 neighbors who signed a petition asking the city to block the new development. They worry nearly three dozen homes would erode the sparse, forested feel that attracted them to the area.

The developer Napier, who also lives in High Knoll Estates, says his neighbors’ fears of clear-cutting and habitat loss are overblown.

Workers would fell about 80 trees over three of the 14 acres to make way for the development, according to a tree study Broadmoor Investments commissioned. The city would require developers to plant more than 400 new trees on the site, Napier said. Wooded buffer areas would remain along Knollton Road to the east and between the new development and High Knoll Estates to the south.

The new homes are more likely to boost local property values than tarnish the neighborhood, Napier said. The development is key to maintaining the golf course following the 2020 takeover.

“I think (neighbors) kind of take for granted that this would always be a beautiful golf course … and we’ve done a lot of work to get to this point,” Napier said. “I think that this would just be a home run, not only for the club but for the area.”

City planners recommend denial

In a bid for city planners’ support, Napier’s firm has offered to build eight fewer homes than the 43 initially planned and to forgo building a new main entrance to the country club off Knollton Road.

Still, Broadmoor Investments heads into Wednesday’s Metropolitan Development Commission meeting with city planners recommending against the plan. Napier’s firm is proposing too many homes in an area zoned for low-density development, planners say.

“Staff believes this would encourage a disjointed pattern of residential development that would not be compatible with the existing residential uses that have been in that neighborhood for many, many years,” Senior Planner Kathleen Blackham said during the January public hearing.

If the vote fails, Broadmoor Investments plans to rework its proposal, Napier said.

Longtime Broadmoor member Phillip Genetos, a country club board member who has golfed at Broadmoor for more than 30 years, says a residential development is a much-needed boost of new life to ensure one of Indianapolis’ oldest clubs perseveres.

“Thirty additional members is more money for us to invest in the club…,” Genetos told IndyStar, noting that the nonprofit management reinvests any profits into the Broadmoor course and facilities. “Because we had years where we weren’t making enough money and people weren’t investing in deferred maintenance, we have plenty of things we need to continue to work on.”

Email IndyStar Reporter Jordan Smith at JTsmith@gannett.com. Follow him on X: @jordantsmith09