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Lloyds TSB Corporate helps new venture to tee off |
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Written by Business Weekly
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Wednesday, 11 April 2007 |
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Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets in Cambridge has helped an exciting golf project negotiate its way out of a financial bunker by providing a bridging facility worth up to £2 million that has enabled a new multi-million pound golf course to get underway in Needingworth.
Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets in Cambridge has helped an exciting golf project negotiate its way out of a financial bunker by providing a bridging facility worth up to £2 million that has enabled a new multi-million pound golf course to get underway in Needingworth. St Ives (Hunts) Golf Club has sold a chunk of its existing course in Westwood Road, St Ives, to David Wilson Homes for residential development and has begun building a new course on a 230-acre site at Giffords Farm near Needingworth. Estimated cost is between £6m and £7m. The new 18-hole links style course will boast a driving range, practice facilities, clubhouse and a Titleist fitting centre – basically a service matching tour professionals and local amateurs with the clubs best suited for them. The new course should be open by the end of May 2009, according to treasurer Jim Harrison. He said: “The money from David Wilson Homes isn’t being released just yet and we were keen to make a start on the development. Lloyds TSB moved exceptionally quickly to guarantee bridging facilities so the project could commence.” President Philip Casey added: “The Westwood Road course has served us extremely well for 85 years but we have outgrown the facilities. The move to Needingworth will secure the future of the club.” Three holes of the existing nine hole course at Westwood Road will be released to the developers. The remaining acres could be retained as a six hole course, reconfigured as a nine hole pay and play course, or used as an academy to teach aspiring newcomers. The banking arrangements were structured by Lloyds TSB relationship manager David Pope. The bank’s relationship director, Dan Harrison said: “The golf club is to be commended for its ambitious approach. The aim is to make the new arena a potential championship course and the facilities will make it one of the best golf clubs in the whole of the region.” |