After more than a decade of negotiation, disagreements, twists and turns, the former Westwood Country Club property in Amherst is finally in the hands of the town in preparation for its conversion into a public park.
The Town of Amherst completed its purchase of the 171-acre golf course on Wednesday, paying $7.75 million to Mensch Capital Partners.
The development group has owned the land at the corner of Sheridan Drive and North Forest Road since 2012 and at one point had planned to redevelop the site into apartments, retail space and other commercial projects.
The closing paves the way for creation of a long-touted Amherst Central Park on the site, with a new arts and cultural center for MusicalFare Theatre, a renovated clubhouse, recreational spaces and walking and bike paths.
It also completes a transaction approved in early November, after the Town Board and Supervisor Brian Kulpa dropped a previous plan to let Mensch clean up any toxins and develop the park first. Instead, the town bought the property “as is” in a straightforward deal, and will now lead the cleanup, park development and construction of recreational and cultural amenities.
For Amherst, the closing is a milestone that lets the town move forward with engineering and design work this year and construction on the park’s first elements in 2024, Kulpa said Thursday.
“Now we’ve got a lot of work in front of us,” he said.
For Mensch, meanwhile, the sale lifts a significant burden. “This is a huge deal for Mensch,” said Daniel M. Hamister, managing partner of Mensch and CEO of Hamister Group. “This has been a decade-long endeavor for us and it was time to make…
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