Golf resort in Plum being demolished; use for property undecided

A pile of rubble is all that's left of the Golf Resort on the Plum side of Greensburg Road.

Demolition work on the property, which began last week, was ordered by the borough, which deemed the main building on the property unsafe.

For at least 50 years, the Golf Resort, also was known as Golf Oasis, provided a place for area residents to play par-3 golf, miniature golf or practice at its hillside driving range. The golf center closed in 2005 or 2006 and the property began to deteriorate, with weeds taking over the mini-golf course in subsequent years.

The main building housed a golf club rental space, a small pro shop and video arcade.

In July 1989, it became infamous for housing something else — an illegal sports betting operation.

That operation led federal officials to indict 21 people, most of them from the Alle-Kiski Valley, on gambling charges.

Borough Manager Mike Thomas said the property owner, Eco Industries, which also owned ECM Transport, was given the choice of demolishing the property or having the borough do it and placing a lien the property for the cost. He said Eco Industries, which bought the 62-acre property for $160,000 in 2013, opted to do the demolition.

ECM Transport formerly occupied the property adjacent to the golf center along Route 366. It's now a division of Pitt-Ohio Express and has relocated to the new Pitt-Ohio facility in Harmar.The Plum Borough School Board voted in February to buy the ECM property for $1.7 million and locate its school bus operation there. The deal for that 14-acre property had not been closed as of Thursday.

Plum School District officials did not return a call seeking comment.

What, if anything, is planned for the 62-acre Golf Resort property is not clear. Edward Meier of Allegheny Township, president of Eco Industries, did not return calls seeking comment.

“There's been no official plans filed for the development of that property,” Thomas said. “Any positive development would be welcome to the borough. But, at least seeing the removal of the dangerous structure was our critical concern.”He said the borough hasn't expressed a preference for any particular use of the property, saying it isn't the borough's place.

“We have certainly identified the land uses where we believe the borough is lacking or could use additional land uses,” Thomas said.

Broader look at land use

He said officials determined the northern half of the borough does not have enough retail/commercial development.

“All of the residential development has taken place in this half of the borough,” Thomas said. “But given all of the residential development that has happened, there isn't enough commercial or retail to support the residential.”

He said that's why the borough is about to seek proposals to put in a retail-commercial development on the site of the current municipal building along New Texas Road.

Borough officials plan to move the municipal offices to a new building that will be built on 110 acres it owns at Ross Hollow Road and Old Leechburg Road.

“The intersection of Old Leechburg Road and New Texas Road has the highest counts for traffic in this end of the borough,” Thomas said, “so why have a municipal center at this property when you could have a commercial/retail center here?”

Thomas said the borough property is 12 acres but surrounded by properties whose owners are willing to sell. “So, there is about 40 acres altogether,” he said. “We are probably about six months away from accepting proposals and putting together an agreement with a developer for development of the site.”

Tom Yerace is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-226-4675 or tyerace@tribweb.com.