Developer takes possession of Owasco golf course, plans unclear

A developer has taken possession of the former Lakeview Golf & Country Club in the town of Owasco, a little more than a year after its purchase by a Skaneateles nonprofit and subsequent closure.

But the developer’s plans for the property — and whether they align with a previous plan to sell the majority of the course to the town of Owasco for use as a park and nature preserve — are unknown.

According to Cayuga County property records, the 250-acre course at 6642 E. Lake Road was transferred in October for $0 from the nonprofit, West Lake Art Conservation Center, to Owasco Development LLC. The property’s assessed value is $1,361,400. West Lake purchased it for $1.45 million last August from operators John and Cindilee Mendillo, and the course closed at the end of the year.

Holland Gregg, chair of West Lake’s board of directors, told The Citizen the plan for the course’s 13,500-square-foot clubhouse is still to renovate it into the center’s new headquarters.

Beyond that, however, Gregg declined to provide more specifics on the plan for the rest of the course. He referred to the developer as a “white knight” who is “local and community-involved.”

According to the New York State Department of State Division of Corporations’ online database, Owasco Development LLC was created in July in Onondaga County. Its listed agent is Syracuse attorney William Gilberti, of Barclay Damon, who did not respond to a request for comment by The Citizen last week. No other information about the LLC is listed.

The former Lakeview Golf & Country Club in Owasco.

Kevin Rivoli, The Citizen

Gregg said the developer is on board with the previous plan of turning the 242 acres of the course outside the clubhouse into a park and nature preserve. West Lake, whose purchase of the course was supported by a gift of more than $1 million from the Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, planned to sell that land to the town for $900,000. The town would have applied for a grant from the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to cover about half of that amount, with assistance from the Finger Lakes Land Trust and The Nature Conservancy.

However, Owasco Town Supervisor Ed Wagner told The Citizen last week that has yet to hear about the developer’s plans.

“I didn’t hear much about it but I know (the land) sold,” he said. “I hope we can get some sales tax revenue from it.”