The deal that will transfer a 160-acre Henrico golf course to a North Carolina company begins with a symbolic price tag: one dollar.
That nominal sum is what McConnell Golf, a Raleigh-based operator of private and daily-fee courses across the Southeast, will pay Henrico County for The Crossings Golf Club off Nuckols Road — a facility the county shuttered in 2020 after years of declining rounds and mounting maintenance costs. In exchange, McConnell has committed to pouring roughly $6 million into renovating the course and clubhouse, reopening it as a public facility where anyone can pay to play.
It’s a transaction built on promises rather than cash. And for Henrico officials eager to offload a property that was bleeding money, those promises apparently outweigh the risk of selling valuable real estate for essentially nothing.
The Crossings opened in 1999 as part of the county’s Glen Allen golf complex, designed to serve a growing suburban population and generate revenue for Henrico’s general fund. For a while, it worked. But like golf courses across the country, The Crossings couldn’t survive the sport’s decline in casual participation, competition from private clubs, and the economics of maintaining 18 holes of irrigated turf in Virginia’s humidity.
McConnell Golf currently operates 12 courses in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee. The company’s model typically involves acquiring underperforming courses, investing in targeted renovations, and building membership while maintaining some public access. The Crossings would represent its first Virginia property.
Under the proposed agreement, McConnell would keep the course open for daily-fee play — meaning anyone can book a tee time without a membership — and would make the facility available to Henrico high school golf teams for practice and competition. County officials have also discussed the possibility of hosting professional-tier tournaments, though no specific events have been announced.
The $6 million renovation figure covers course improvements, clubhouse upgrades, and equipment replacement, according to county documents. What it doesn’t include: any ongoing payment to Henrico, any profit-sharing arrangement, or any guarantee about green fees. McConnell sets its own prices.
For Henrico taxpayers, the calculation is straightforward, if unromantic. The county was spending money to maintain a closed facility on land it couldn’t easily develop for other purposes. Now a private company will maintain it instead, keep it accessible to residents, and maybe bring some tournament visitors to local hotels and restaurants.
Whether that’s a savvy disposal of a depreciating asset or a giveaway of public land depends on what The Crossings looks like in five years — and whether anyone’s actually playing it.
- McConnell Golf will pay a nominal price of $1 for the 160-acre Crossings Golf Club property
- The North Carolina-based company has committed to approximately $6 million in renovations
- The course will reopen as a public, daily-fee facility with access for Henrico high school golf teams