Councillors voted unanimously to extend the Royal Mayfair Golf Club’s lease until 2069.
The lease was set to expire in 2051, and the club prepaid $870,000 to extend it for 18 years.
As part of the new lease, councillors secured more public access to the club, including non-member golf, junior golf and cross-country skiing between December and March.
“The club’s been quite flexible with those additional requests that council had from a few months back,” Mayor Don Iveson said.
Iveson said the Royal Mayfair Golf Club wants to spend $20 million to improve its facility. A longer lease gives the club's lenders the assurance the golf club will pay them back in full.
“The city gets extra money; the club gets extra certainty,” the mayor said. “It’s a very, very good deal for the city.”
Michael Janz, a member of Friends of our Park, called council’s decision “extremely disappointing.”
“This is a massive piece of public land that we should be shepherding for the future interest.
“This is still a sweetheart deal for a very wealthy, very small group of Edmontonians for a very, very long time.”
