The Pine View team has been contracted by the NCC to operate Capital Golf this season. We will be making some significant improvements in the next couple of weeks and hope to open for June 1st.
Stay tuned for more updates.
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The Pine View team has been contracted by the NCC to operate Capital Golf this season. We will be making some significant improvements in the next couple of weeks and hope to open for June 1st.
Stay tuned for more updates.
I was wondering if it was closed for good. Hopefully you'll get some new balls for the driving range...
Some decent mats would be nice.
Is there any update on this? Is the course open?
We will be opening sometime next week. Still waiting on our new mats to come in :-)
Is this range opened now?
Opening Thursday.
Seems Capital is to be closed for good and naturalized as part of the deal to set up this new sound studio. This is sad as Capital is the only 18 hole par 3 course in the Ottawa area I know of and it was great place for begginers to learn and to play their first round, plus a good course to work on your short game. Why did Pineview take over the lease only to close it down?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...farm-1.4800913
Brian, I thought Capital Golf was on Bank Street South, and the new studio is to be built on Woodroofe Ave across from the Sportsplex...??
There is always Dunderosa in Chelsea, which has 18 Par 3 holes, and an awesome 18 hole mini-putt course as well.
http://ottawafamilygolf.com/
Capital Golf / Ottawa Family Golf Centre will not be opening for the 2018 season.
It is indeed in a different location - it is a land swap, in exchange for the NCC land where the studio will be build the City is giving back the NCC Capital Golf Course land to be "naturalized". Sounds very suspicious to me, the land where the studio is being built is not forested so no forest area is being lost so why did the NCC need the Capital land back? Why did the Pineview owners buy the Capital Golf Course lease only to shut it down? This raises suspicions of secret payments or favours being exchanged between the City, NCC, Studio owners and owners of Pineview to grease the wheels. Those involved need to be transparent about what is going on to clear the air. Having public consultations late on a Friday afternoon is a sham to try to sweep this under the rug.
Chelsea is too far away for me, I will use Marchwood even though it is only 9 holes.
It is not a land swap as the NCC owns both properties and always has. It is a planning issue to change the accepted uses of the land in each location. There is no relation between the two other than the City of Ottawa has to approve the change in land use for both.
I don't know why Pineview walked away from the lease but I suspect it was not profitable for them and nobody else has stepped up.The Capital Golf Centre is in the Airport Operating Influence Zone so the accepted uses of that land are very limited anyway. It does have a parking lot, which is open in the winter for cross-country skiing on the nearby Greenbelt Pathway East trail. I imagine that they want to use the parking lot in the summer as well for hikers to access the same trail.
I would call it a swap, the sound studio gets the NCC farm research land to build on in exchange for the return of the golf course land where the Capital Golf course was. To quote the press story from the CBC:
"Because the land [where the studio is to be built] is part of the Greenbelt, the city and the NCC are arranging for the "naturalization" of a former golf course in the Lester Wetlands [Capital Golf Centre] to offset the studio's impact.
"The golf course is now out of business," said Watson. "That will be twice the amount of green space as what we're taking from the Greenbelt for the film studio."
Pineview must have known that Capital was struggling and needed upgrades / investment in infrastructure to be profitable. So why take over the lease only open it for a short time, do little if anything to improve it, and then close it? Perhaps they gain some sort of compensation from the NCC or the City for shutting the golf course and paving the way for the "naturalization" that allows the studio to be built?
Also why no formal announcement about the closure, almost as if they wanted to avoid publicity? Most good corporate citizens in such cases would post a notice something like: "We regret that the Capital Golf Centre is closing [insert reason] and would like to thank the many golfers who have patronized this facility for the last 48 years."
Was it even open in 2017, every time I drove past it looked shut?
As for other uses for the land in the future, if they are "naturalizing" it then the parking lot may also be removed.
Let us set the record straight. Pine View was HIRED to run the course last year and make some improvements in the hopes of finding a long term tenant. It was never going to be a permanent arrangement. For the record we had recommended closing the course in 2017. It was not a financially viable operation. At the time the NCC wanted to see if anyone would lease it going forward so it needed to be maintained. When no tenant stepped forward the NCC explored other options. Pine View was not involved in anyway with the discussions for the sound stage studio.
Thanks for clarifying that. In a vacuum, people tend to jump to conclusions.
Thanks Pineview. I live 5 minutes from the course, and although it was never really my cup of tea I did visit the driving range a couple of times last year and I did appreciate that new mats had been installed. But there was so much more that needed to be done and I was very doubtful that anyone could invest the money that was necessary to do that and make it profitable.
I'm not just an avid golfer but I'm also an avid hiker in the summer and cross-country skier in the winter (along with an even more avid skijorer in the winter, but most people don't even know what that is). So I really have no problem with the NCC's "naturalization plan", because what that means to me is more opportunities to enjoy the Greenbelt, which IMHO is one of the jewels of living in this city. I'll take "naturalization" over another (Mattamy Homes) subdivision any day!
So.....is there going to be a golf facility of some sort across from the Nepean Sportsplex or some sort of "sound studio"? This story has taken a few turns and I'm in confused (moreso than usual).
The new facility will be a soundstage. Capital Golf Centre, which is out of business, will be allowed to naturalize and become parkland overseen by the NCC. It's a weird connection/relationship but that's it
What sort of "soundstage"...like an amphitheatre for concerts etc? I'm not sure how this will improve my golf game...lol
Movie studio. They will build sets inside it and produce movies and TV here in Ottawa. It could actually be a pretty big deal for the city. Certainly bigger than a rundown par 3 golf course, so if the NCC sees this as a win / win - giving up an unnaturalized piece of the greenbelt in exchange for naturalizing the old gal Capital GC then I think it's a great deal all around.
Ah, but wasn't that little 75 to 85 yard curvilinear pitching area on the right side of Capital to those two pins a dream to play from, there was never anyone over there.... Where does that exist at all now... Hylands has two such pitching areas. And, you may not believe this, but on Monday afternoon I drove by Capital and I saw a guy hitting balls from the mats at Capital, I kid you not... he was probably the last person to do so, ever...
" there was never anyone over there..."
Not the best business model
...rundown par 3 golf course...
Sad.