{"id":519760,"date":"2026-03-12T20:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/519760\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T20:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T20:15:09","slug":"ct-city-looks-to-buy-golf-course-rather-than-see-space-developed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/519760\/","title":{"rendered":"CT city looks to buy golf course rather than see space developed"},"content":{"rendered":"

Faced with the possibility that a builder will try to convert the 140-acre Chippanee Country Club<\/a> into a housing subdivision<\/a>, Bristol is looking into whether to buy the property itself.<\/p>\n

The 18-hole golf course went on the market in the fall with a listing price of $5 million, and real estate marketing websites now display two prospective plans for residential development showing 141 houses and duplexes.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday night, Mayor Ellen Zoppo-Sassu<\/a> announced that the city is considering acquiring the property itself. Although it is not binding, the city council authorized Zoppo-Sassu to sign a letter of intent stating it might buy Chippanee<\/a> as early as July 1 after seeing results of building inspections, soil exams and financial reviews.<\/p>\n

Bristol has already hired an appraiser to report by the end of the month about the property\u2019s value.<\/p>\n

Zoppo-Sassu said a purchase would go forward only if financial data and projections clearly showed there would be no operating loss. Instead, she\u2019s looking for future revenue from the golf course to pay back whatever the city would lay out for the acquisition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve looked at other (municipally owned) golf courses and seen several good models out there. We\u2019ve already made contact with them to talk about their operations and practices,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Numerous communities in central Connecticut own and operate relatively similar facilities, including the Hunter Golf Course in Meriden, the Rockledge Golf Club in West Hartford, New Britain\u2019s Stanley Golf Course, Hartford\u2019s Keney Park Golf Course and Berlin\u2019s Timberlin Golf Course.<\/p>\n

One possibility is that the city offers to buy the development rights but not the property itself, a strategy that Southington used in 2021<\/a> as a way to preserve open space without taking on responsibility for running a golf course. Voters approved a $4.5 million deal that kept the 100-acre Southington Country Club in private hands but barred future development.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is on the table right now,\u201d Zoppo-Sassu said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Bristol officials have been talking with Chippanee owner Fritz Blasius since the property went on the market in November. Blasius did not return a phone message this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had some very positive conversations, he\u2019s been wonderful to deal with,\u201d Zoppo-Sassu said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been speaking about the potential of the city purchasing development rights or purchasing it outright and running a municipal golf course like many other communities do successfully.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the city acquires the property, it would use engineering reports and a feasibility study to determine what to do with the various amenities. The club has a popular restaurant, a clubhouse that\u2019s often rented for banquets or group meetings, tennis courts and an Olympic-sized pool. Many communities lease the restaurants at their golf courses to private vendors, and Zoppo-Sassu said a good option might be to invite the current operator at Chippanee to continue on.<\/p>\n

Zoppo-Sassu said a completed sale isn\u2019t likely until the city gets to monitor operations at Chippanee over the summer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re initially thinking the parks department would have some involvement in operations, but we haven\u2019t gone through a full review. Do we contract with a private company? I don\u2019t know,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

If the sale goes forward, the city would use bonding capacity from the capital budget \u2014 not money from the annual operating budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis would not be from cash on hand or the general budget, it\u2019s not money we could be using for this year\u2019s budget,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The golf course in the city\u2019s northwestern corner celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2023.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Faced with the possibility that a builder will try to convert the 140-acre Chippanee Country Club into a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519761,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[30451,234725,2000,15861,4779,427,15226,8856,15862,2053,983,168221,234729,234728,140043,71646,234730,234727,99,234726,234731,128053],"class_list":["post-519760","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-bristol","tag-chippanee-country-club","tag-connecticut","tag-ct-news","tag-development","tag-golf","tag-golf-course","tag-hartford","tag-hartford-courant","tag-housing","tag-local-news","tag-max-image-preview","tag-mayor-ellen-zoppo-sassu","tag-meriden","tag-municipal-golf-course","tag-new-britain","tag-residential-housing","tag-rockledge-golf-club","tag-sports","tag-stanley-golf-course","tag-subdivision","tag-west-hartford"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519760","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519760"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519760\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519760"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519760"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519760"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}