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Olathea Golf Course will close and be redeveloped for housing

Susan Leander has closed Olathea Golf Course near LeClaire and is putting the nearly 100 acres on the market.
olathea

LECLAIRE, Iowa (AP) — Housing will replace golfing on scenic land in eastern Iowa as a family sells property they have owned for generations.

Susan Leander has closed Olathea Golf Course near LeClaire and is putting the nearly 100 acres on the market, the Quad-City Times reported.

“It’s lonely now,” Leander said. “I used to have people in the clubhouse, on the course, walking around. We had a lot of fun, met a lot of nice people and our employees were fantastic.”

The goal is to sell the property to someone who would redevelop it, said realtor Dennis Stolk of Ruhl & Ruhl Realtors’ Farm. The Scott County Board recently approved rezoning the area for residential use.

Tom and Brock Faulhaber of Faulhaber Builders plan to purchase about 27.5 acres to build homes for their families, Stolk said.

Leander is keeping about 16 acres that includes her current home, a clubhouse and farm buildings.

The remaining land will likely be sold in two large parcels that could be broken up further, Stolk said.

“We anticipate it will be larger lots,” he said. He said he also expects that high-end homes will be built in the area.

The land had previously been on sale for a few years as one large unit, Stolk said.

An earlier sale of the golf course’s former driving range was the beginning of the end for the facility that’s been operating for more than 30 years, said Jami Morash, Leander’s daughter.

The course continued to operate, but the Faulhabers deal will end operations.

“We couldn’t continue it as a course because they bought some of the holes,” Morash said.

The sale is bittersweet but will allow her mother to enjoy retirement, she said.

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