Falcon Heights eyes future development possibilities on U of M golf course land

For golfers, runners and cross-country skiers who use University of Minnesota’s Les Bolstad Golf Course, the news that the school will sell off the 18-hole course, situated northwest of the St. Paul campus for a century, marks the end of an era.

For tiny Falcon Heights, where the course is located along the city’s long Larpenteur Avenue thoroughfare, it’s the start of a new era — likely with housing and other development.

The city has already been planning for reuse of the land, but Falcon Heights Mayor Randy Gustafson said, “It’s still very early.”

The city’s big development opportunity comes amid challenges for others. The U cited budget constraints as its main reason for the course’s closure. Plus, fewer people are taking up golf, spurring a larger trend of courses around the metro being shut down and turned into housing or other developments in more urban areas where large swaths of land are rare.

In Falcon Heights, the golf course covers 141 acres, about 10% of the city’s land. But that’s not the only reason a potential golf course redevelopment is a big deal: With the university campus and its agricultural fields, golf course, Bell Museum and soccer stadium — as well as Ramsey County’s Gibbs Farm — much of Falcon Heights’ land does not generate property tax dollars for the city budget. (The State Fair is not technically in Falcon Heights and doesn’t pay city property taxes.)

If redeveloped, the land occupied by the golf course could be added to the tax rolls.

“The full impact we don’t know it yet, but essentially it could be very beneficial for existing residents in the area,” Falcon Heights City Administrator Jack Linehan said.

At least 30 golf courses in the Twin Cities were fully or partially redeveloped between 2000 and 2020, according to estimates from the Metropolitan Council.

Some examples include Hillcrest on St. Paul’s East Side, Mississippi Dunes in Cottage Grove, Thompson Oaks in West St. Paul, and Carriage Hills and Parkview in Eagan.

More recently, Ramsey County announced it would seek development at the Ponds at Battle Creek, a former Maplewood course where housing is in planning stages. In Minneapolis, the historic Hiawatha golf course is being reduced to nine holes as the city’s park board adds other natural and recreational amenities.

Net golf course land use in the seven-county metro dropped by roughly 300 acres between 2000 and 2020.

Housing is the most common specific redevelopment use, covering more than 850 acres.

The university revealed that it was considering a sale of the golf course land in a 2021 routine update to its master plan.

Even if such a sale was still years away, Falcon Heights began envisioning what the land might become.

Using funds provided by Ramsey County, the city hired WSB, a local engineering firm, to study the golf course and other redevelopment opportunities along Larpenteur and Snelling avenue corridors. The study envisioned a blend of housing and businesses for the site, seeing the possibility of 1,100 housing units.

But the study was limited to the golf course north of Larpenteur and didn’t include the driving range or the two holes south of Larpenteur — areas that the U recently identified as part of its intent to sell.

Linehan said adding those areas to the mix could boost the number of housing units closer to 1,500, or enough for about 3,000 more residents.

The city also reached out to the public via a survey and an interactive mapping tool where residents could map what they’d like to see.

A majority of locals said they would prefer parks, trails and open space. If the site adds housing, people said they preferred townhouses, single-family homes or small multi-family properties with two to four units.

More than 60% of the respondents wanted to see bike lanes and pedestrian-friendly infrastructure.

Linehan said the golf course is zoned as public land, but a sale would convert the zoning to allow single-family housing, and further city actions could add more types of zoning. The planning study showed two options for future uses that would blend single-family residences with commercial and multi-family uses.

It’s not known yet what the asking price is for the land, and Linehan said the sale could take years to close.

A recent purchase by the city shows how valuable land can be in the built-out urban area.

After many years of leasing a 15-acre parcel from the University of Minnesota for the Falcon Heights Community Park, the city paid $1.1 million for the land in 2023. The park sits on the southeast corner of Cleveland and Roselawn avenues. That price was for parkland, not a housing site, and Linehan said he anticipates a much higher per-acre price for the golf course land if it is sold to a housing developer.

Vacant lots in the area, for example, are currently listed at prices equivalent to $600,000 to more than $1 million per acre.

Asked if the city would buy the golf course, Linehan said it’s too early to know.

“We haven’t had that discussion as a city yet,” he said.