This planned Nicklaus golf facility has been painted as a potential party hub, ‘like Topgolf’

Representatives of Cheekwood Golf Club in the Nashville, Tennessee, suburb of Franklin defended their planned development from claims it would devolve into a party hub during a tense public exchange Tuesday night at the city’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen work session meeting.

Cheekwood Golf Club, based in Franklin, has been in talks the past four years about leasing 54 acres of vacant land owned by the city along Mack Hatcher Parkway near Spencer Creek Drive. During that time, the City of Franklin was granted approval by the state to amend its charter to allow it to enter 50-year leases, which is the lease time the golf club is seeking.

But now after months of back and forth and eight proposed leases between Cheekwood Golf Club and the city, they are at a standstill on several issues, the golf club’s attorney Doug Hale said during the meeting.

Hale described the problems as the following: a disagreement on the height of the building Cheekwood plans to construct; the city wanting the club to close at dusk; the city wanting to ban the sale of alcohol at the club; and the city wanting the “unilateral right to termination for this lease at any time during the 50 years.”

The attorney described the standstill as “somewhat frustrating for both sides.”

Clearing up misconceptions

Cheekwood Golf Club has described its planned development as a luxurious, world-class golf facility that will be the pride of the city for the coming decades, and they’ve tapped Nicklaus Design, a Florida-based golf club design company that has built 400 ranges across 40 countries.

But city officials repeatedly voiced their concerns that the club, which would be in a residential area, could deteriorate into party central and likened it to Topgolf, a party venue in Nashville that has golf — a comparison that offended project investor Paul Pratt Jr.

“There’s about 4,000 questions and untruths that have been said about this project,” he said. “Everybody that I run into says it’s Topgolf. … It’s offensive to say this is a Topgolf. It’s offensive to the Nicklaus Design Group, and it’s offensive to the people involved in this.”

The clubhouse will take up less than 3% of the property, Pratt said, and be highly different from an entertainment facility.

Alderman Dana McLendon expressed concerns that unless the lease prohibits subleasing, Cheekwood could grow tired of its facility and turn it over to Topgolf, bringing city leaders’ fears to fruition.

“I’m fine with a top-notch, world-class golf instruction facility,” McLendon said. “I think people drinking beer while playing golf is American. I’m for it. I think it would be great to have that somehow cobbled together with a family-friendly atmosphere. … But I’m not going to sit here and get hokey doked.”

“We’re not going to have flashy neon light,” he said. “We’re a golf-centric program. We’re not a party-centric program. We’re not going to be playing loud music. … We’re not going to have, I think they’re called, ‘woo woo’ girls.”

Project has evolved

City Administrator Eric Stuckey acknowledged the tensions surrounding the project and pointed to changes made to plans over the last few years that has made the city hesitant. He said that Tuesday’s meeting was the most the city had heard in months about the project’s specific plans regarding the facility and called the slow trickle of information a “red flag.”

“If we can’t get past that, I can’t in good faith recommend an agreement unless it locks in what this will be and won’t be,” he said.

Alderman Clyde Barnhill described the latest proposal as “enormous” compared to what was initially presented in early talks.

“This has nothing to do with what we approved on the front end,” Alderman Margaret Martin said. “This is a huge business full of technology in a residential area. … But do you see where we are? We are here having approved a golf course that was the least invasive and least obtrusive thing we could have in this area to save the land, and here we are with this huge business like in Palm Springs. We’re just a little town wanting a golf course.”

Pratt explained that things have changed in golf over the last several years, even as recently as the coronavirus pandemic. While the project will be larger, the basis of the plan has stayed the same: a golf facility that will allow people of all skills and time constraints to play the game.

He hopes if approved, the club can offer the facility for local high schools to use to practice. The club is in talks with a local group that has a youth golf program, but he didn’t elaborate further.

If approved, the facility would have a nine-hole course, a practice area for junior golfers, indoor virtual courses, a three-story covered hitting stall and a driving range. Additionally, six custom homes would be built on the property along with a Southern restaurant and a public trailhead.

Reach Brinley Hineman at bhineman@tennessean.com and on Twitter @brinleyhineman.