Lake Spivey Golf Club redevelopment plans begin this summer

Staring this summer, the Lake Spivey Golf Club, and the neighborhoods surrounding it, will begin a 35 million dollar renovation, which will include major changes to the existing golf course, additional roads and golf cart paths, and the addition of 128 new homes, according to Jay Byce, president of Spivey Club, LLC, the company overseeing the rennovation. The current, 27-hole Lake Spivey golf course will be remodeled into an 18-hole course, with each of the holes being improved and lengthened to comply with contemporary lengths and skill levels. Using 21 percent of the existing space of the course, 128 new homes will be added over the next four years, with new home sales expected to begin next spring. The homes, Byce said, will be priced beginning in the $300,000 range, and 50 percent of them will have a view of the golf course. The custom homes will be a minimum of 2,700 square feet, with masonry exteriors and two-car garages. About $700,000 will be spent on renovations to the clubhouse and golf course alone, said Lake Spivey Golf Club owner and operator, Joe Hamilton. This will include redoing the interior of the clubhouse and replacing the stucco exterior with stone and cement-board finishes. An additional banquet center will be added in 2008, which will increase the clubhouse dining room seating capacity from 100 to 180 people. The renovations will include upgrades to the pool and to the entry ways into the clubhouse. It will also include a refinishing of the tennis courts and parking lots. Access to the clubhouse and the golf course will be provided by a new cart path system, similar to the Crystal Lake Golf and Country Club in Hampton. As a balance, 148 acres of land surrounding the clubhouse will be committed as a conservation easement, which will ensure that the area remains a greenbelt in perpetuity. The current design plan is the result of over a year of compromise between the home owners of the Lake Spivey area, Spivey Club, LLC and Joe Hamilton, the golf course's owner/operator. Spivey Club, LLC had originally planned to scrap the entire golf course and build over 300 single-family homes. Hamilton, who has owned and operated the clubhouse and the golf course for almost 27 years, said he couldn't let that happen. "I'm 68 years old," he said. "The easiest thing for me to do would have been to sell the land and let someone else deal with it. I couldn't do that. I live here, I work here, and I recreate here. I'm too vested into this community. "We said, hey, there has to be a better way," he continued. "The community needs a golf course. If this thing goes through, we'll still have 18 championship golf holes, and 128 new luxury homes." Eventually, Hamilton and the homeowners won over the builders. "Working with Mr. Hamilton, we've achieved a good balance," said Byce. "We've been able to save the golf course and make this a much more exclusive neighborhood." "Clayton County is inundated with homes that are $150,000, and without the golf course, these homes would probably have to be $150,000," he continued. "Now, because we are saving the golf course, we feel that these can start in the $300,000 [range]. "It will be the nicest new development in Clayton County," said Byce. "Really, the credit for this idea goes to Joe Hamilton and the local communities ... " "We're trying to improve the image of Clayton County and drive up real estate value," Hamilton said. "In a failing market, that's hard to do. In my experience, living here for 30 years, having the community pull together like this is extremely rewarding."