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Wednesday, January 15, 2020
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Club West home values could suffer, study says BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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ith Club West homeowners slated to hear tomorrow, Jan. 16, a plan to radically change the golf course, a new study indicates they stand to lose an average $60,000 in home value if the site remains closed for the next five years. “There could be an ‘opportunity cost’ to Club West homeowners of about 15 percent over the next five years following the closure of the golf course,” says a study by Kevin Curran, a Club West resident since 2012 and a retired CEO of Fisher Price, a manufacturer of educational toys. “On an average home in Club
West – $410,000 value per Zillow – this ‘opportunity cost’ to each homeowner could be about $60,000 over the next five years.” An opportunity cost in Club West’s case is the loss of increased home value that would be incurred if the 18-hole course was up and running. “While prices are likely to continue to appreciate in Club West, they will likely NOT appreciate as much as they would if the golf course reopens or the property is repurposed as an asset that reflects favorably of the lifestyle of the community (i.e. parkland, walking and biking paths,” Curran concludes. That $60,000 opportunity cost to homeowners also would likely follow any plan to
shrink the size of the golf course from 18 holes to make way for residences, he said. Curran has asked the Club West Community Association board for a chance to discuss the study before it completes its consideration of a plan by four investors to reduce the course to nine holes and build an unknown number of residences in an area that includes four holes, the clubhouse, pond and the parking lot used by golfers. The four investors have tentatively agreed to buy the course from owner Wilson Gee, who last year put it on the market for $800,000. Those same four men walked away from
see CLUB WEST page 11
Local Girl Scout troop a mighty cookie force
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BISCUITS BOUNCES BACK
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PRIDE HUNTRESS
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BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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ome next Monday, as Gloria Lazard will tell you, a lot of girls will knocking on doors across Ahwatukee and Arizona for what has become perhaps one of the state’s tastier annual rituals – Girl Scout Cookie Sales. “Everybody will be taking to the streets that Monday,” the Ahwatukee woman said. She ought to know. Lazard is a co-leader of Girl Scout Troop 3876. And with only three seventh graders comprising the troop, her Scouts – daughter Jillian, Hallie Salas and Mahaley Sharmon – have become kind of the junior Wonder Women of Girl Scout Cookie sellers. The three girls have sold 7,000 boxes of Dosi-dos, Trefoils, Samoas and the other popular flavors in the two years they’ve been together. This year, their goal is to add 4,000 more boxes to their legacy by the time the sale ends on March 1. “Four thousand was pretty hard last year,” Lazard said, “but we set that as our goal again.” The Girls Scouts are changing the lineup a
Hallie Salas, left, and Jillian Lazard are two of the three members of Ahwatukee Girl Scout Troop 3876 who will be joining thousands of girls selling cookies starting Monday. (Pablo Robles/AFN Staff Photographer)
bit, replacing the Savannah Smile cookie with one called Lemon-Ups as an estimated 10,000 members in central and northern Arizona sharpen their entrepreneurial skills to raise
money for their own troops as well as their respective state councils.
see COOKIES page 9