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Bel-Aire sold to
airport, but golf course will remain open
By STEVE HUFFMAN
GREENSBORO – Jay Brame said a lot of people apparently
believe that Bel-Aire Golf Course will be closing now that the 133-acre facility
has been sold to the Piedmont Triad International Airport Authority.
The authority purchased the property for slightly more
than $6 million last fall, buying the property from Brame and his brothers, Don
and Lee.
But Jay Brame said he expects Bel-Aire, located adjacent
to the airport on Pleasant Ridge Road, to remain operational for years to come.
"We've got it through Aug. 31," Brame said, speaking of
a lease family members signed for the course. "And I imagine it'll remain a golf
course for a long time after that."
Bel-Aire was opened in September 1970 and was for years
operated by Brame's parents, A.A. "Red" Brame and Helen Brame.
"Back then, it was really out in the country," Jay Brame
said of the
course's early years. "People wondered what my father was
doing building a course so far out in the woods."
But the city grew toward the golf course and when the
airport expanded in the 1980s, the land that Bel-Aire occupied became
considerably more valuable. That was a factor that played into the family's
decision to sell the course.
"Now, the land is really just too valuable for a golf
course," Brame said.
A driving range that occupied about 29 acres on the far
side of Pleasant Ridge Road from the golf course was sold five years ago. An
apartment complex was built on that property.
Brame said he expects someone else to take over
management of the course after his family's lease on the property expires on
Aug. 31.
He said members of the airport authority have given no
firm date on when the land will be converted for use as anything other than a
golf course, but said he expects it to be years away.
Brame admitted that he was in many ways sad to have sold
the course.
"It's provided a good income for the family for the last
33 years," he
said. "But it's time we moved onto something else."
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