Totteridge majority owners take full acquisition of course, continue to expand housing community

Zoltan and Patrick Cendes have helped to build 100 patio homes and 30 single-family homes in the Totteridge Golf Course housing community in Salem since becoming majority owners in 2015.

This month, they acquired full ownership of the more than 500-acre property while finishing development of 30 new homes, said Patrick Cendes, president of real estate at Totteridge.

Most of these units already have been sold, Cendes said, apart from seven that are available or still under construction.

Single-family homes in the housing community range from $700,000 to $1.4 million, Cendes said. The patio homes start at just under $400,000.

Pending expansion of the property’s sewage system, Totteridge will build 40 additional patio homes. Totteridge also plans to seek approval for 45 1-acre lots overlooking the sixth and seventh holes of the golf course, Cendes said.

Cendes expects to finalize approval for the additional homes and sewage expansion within the next year.

Totteridge started as a private, membership-only golf course in 2001, opening to the public in 2009.

The course saw about 30,000 rounds of golf last season, said Brian Fritz, director of golf operations. This is an increase in about 2,000 rounds from 2022, he said.

Fritz — who has worked at Totteridge since 2013 — has seen the number of rounds played per year increase steadily in the past decade, with a noticeable spike during the pandemic.

“Golf in general had a big boom during covid,” he said. “It was the only acceptable way to get together with your buddies for a while. You could go out on a golf course and still see people.”

On a Saturday with good weather, the golf course may see about 200 people, Fritz said. Holiday weekends — from Friday to Monday — draw close to 1,000 golfers.

The housing options available at Totteridge a decade ago were sparse, Fritz said.

“Now we’re down to just a few lots that are still available for sale. The carriage homes … they’ve doubled in size,” he said. “The golf course — we used to maintain the properties in the community. We don’t have the time for that just because there’s so many properties to do.”

Increase in golf course traffic has impacted Totteridge’s real estate success, Fritz said.

“Coming in and playing golf here and seeing these homes being built, vacant lots up for sale, people get interested,” he said.

According to a February report by the National Golf Foundation, there were about 90 golf course closures across the country last year. This was the lowest number of closures in about two decades, according to the foundation.

Following a spike in golf course openings in 2000, net decreases in golf course availability have been reported since 2005, according to the foundation. The highest net decrease — a loss of about 250 golf courses — was reported in 2019.

Cendes said the availability of multiple amenities at Totteridge — including walking trails, a clubhouse and a pool — have kept real estate growth steady.

“It’s not just you’re moving here and you’re going to golf every day and you have to golf,” Cendes said. “We’re finding that a lot of people with young kids … they just like to have the golf course in their backyard.”

Over the past year, Totteridge has added speakers, patio furniture and a fire pit to the clubhouse space. Food trucks are brought in each Tuesday.

“I think it is a unique property to have the golf course sort of separated from the community in that sense,” Cendes said.