The company that operates the Park Hill Golf Course filed a lawsuit this week against the private trust that owns it, throwing another wrench into discussions about the future of the 155-acre property in northeast Denver.
Dallas-based operator Arcis Golf contends that a scuttled plan by the city of Denver to buy the land should have triggered Arcis’ contractual right of first refusal to purchase the course itself, according to a statement issued Friday by Clayton Early Learning. The education nonprofit manages the George W. Clayton Trust, which owns the land.
The city suspended its plan in November after Arcis notified Clayton that it was still considering whether to renew its lease, which expires at the end of 2018. Arcis has until July to do so, but Clayton has portrayed it as a money-losing venture for the operator.
Arcis’ lawsuit, filed Tuesday in Denver District Court, suggests the company may have another goal, potentially including purchasing the land. A copy of the suit was not immediately available.
“We do not understand the motives of Arcis Golf in filing the suit,” Charlotte Brantley, Clayton Early Learning’s president and CEO, wrote in an email Friday to members of a community advisory committee. “If they were interested in continuing to operate the golf course they could simply choose to renew the lease.”
Attempts to reach Arcis and its local attorney, Frank W. Visciano, were not immediately successful.
In September, Clayton and Denver city officials proposed a $20.5 million plan that called for the city to buy the land. It came amid an ongoing public conversation that has explored both the land’s open-space potential and its development prospects, with vocal advocates on each side.
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Brantley said Friday that the organization disagrees with Arcis’ contention that the city’s proposal triggered the operator’s contractual right of refusal.
“We have long acknowledged that Arcis Golf has a right of refusal to purchase Park Hill Golf Course, which we intend to honor, but that right is dependent on Clayton receiving a binding written offer from a third party,” Brantley wrote in the email. She added that the city’s proposal “was never approved by City Council nor signed in any form by the city, and thus did not meet the requirements in the lease of a binding offer.”
Denver Public Works received council approval in January to acquire easements on the golf course for a stormwater detention project.
