Real Estate Notebook: Mattamy Homes buys Minnetonka Country Club for housing development

Mattamy Homes paid $15.21 million for the Minnetonka Country Club, and the company said it's ready to begin the approvals process to build an upscale housing development. The deal closed last Friday.

The Edina-based division of the Canadian homebuilder bought the nearly 120-acre site — the largest undeveloped parcel of land in Shorewood and one of the oldest golf courses in the state — from Minnetonka Country Club Association Inc. in Excelsior.

The deal has been the subject of a long-standing family feud over what to do with the golf course, which shut down last fall and is in a desirable spot near Lake Minnetonka. Bonnie Witrak, who stepped forward with her own development proposal, sued her brother, Bill Witrak, the club's owner and president, alleging he didn't have permission to do the deal with Mattamy.

The suit was tossed out because she was a minority shareholder, enabling Mattamy to move ahead with the purchase. The course opened in 1916 but Witrak's father bought the property in 1954 and transferred ownership to his family before he died last year at age 99.

Steve Logan, Mattamy's division president, said plans for the site are very preliminary and the company will solicit feedback from neighbors and the city before firming them up.

He said that he hopes to build single-family houses at a variety of price points, the highest around $1 million, and that he'd like to cluster the homes together so that he can reserve about half the site for parks, open space and other community amenities. "We are open to just about anything," said Logan. "We hope to end up with a plan that works for everyone."

Jim Buchta