A DUBLIN-based property group is preparing a fresh bid to acquire the lands in south Belfast used by the Balmoral Golf Club, the Irish News has learned.
The Merrion Property Group, which owns the Down Royal Racecourse and Down Royal Park Golf Course, next to the former Maze prison site, has submitted a new proposal to the Lisburn Road club.
Details of the bid, which proposes relocating Balmoral Golf Club, is to put before members in a meeting at the Wellington Park Hotel on Thursday evening.
The 75-acre course lies in the centre of one of the most affluent areas of Belfast.
Members of the club have voted down multi-million pound bids in the past to relocate it to Co Down to make way for residential development.
Dunloe-Ewart unsuccessfully put a £37.5 million bid to the club in 2000 that could have seen each member pocket £50,000. An alternative offer of £22.5m and a new 18-hole course and clubhouse near Hillsborough was also turned down.
The club also rejected a 1999 bid that involved an offer to build a luxury golf and country club with two 18-hole championship courses, £5 million cash and an annual retainer of £125,000 for three years until a new ground was found.
Members also rejected a £28m offer to sell the course to a property developer in 2004.
The latest bid from the Merrion Group could include an offer to relocate the club to Down Royal along with a significant upgrade to the Co Down course.
The company, which is owned by Irish property millionaire Michael Roden, made its name selling a 24-scre site in Dublin’s Mount Merrion for €50m. The Group went on to buy the Down Royal Racecourse in 2005.
Balmoral Golf Club could not be reached for comment.
