Henrico County purchases The Crossings Golf Club

Northern Henrico’s sports tourism corridor is getting another upgrade.

Henrico County and Henrico Sports and Entertainment Authority officials today are announcing the Henrico Economic Development Authority's $3 million purchase of The Crossings Golf Club in Glen Allen from Crossings Golf Club LLC and, simultaneously, an agreement with Independence Golf Club operator Pros, Incorporated to renovate the course to PGA standards and then continue to operate it as a public course as part of a $1-per-year, 20-year lease.

Perhaps even more significantly, the three parties are hopeful that the upgraded course (situated on about 268 acres at the northeast corner of the I-95/I-295 interchange near Virginia Center) will in 2026 become the permanent home of the PGA Tour Champions Event currently known as the Dominion Energy Charity Classic. That event for PGA Tour golfers 50 and older has been held annually at the Country Club of Virginia’s James River Course in Henrico’s West End since 2016, but CCV and Dominion Energy officials announced late last year that the 2025 event would be the last for both entities.

At the time, Dominion Energy officials cited a desire to focus on a “back-to-basics” strategy company-wide, while WTVR reported that some CCV members were unhappy that the tournament prevented them from playing the course for a number of weeks each fall.

Henrico EDA Executive Director Anthony Romanello and Henrico Sports and Entertainment Authority Executive Director Dennis Bickmeier told the Citizen that although PGA Tour officials have not committed to relocating the event to The Crossings, county and Pros, Inc. officials hope to convince them by turning the course into a tournament-caliber site.

In a statement, DECC Executive Director Steve Schoenfeld of the PGA Tour didn’t dampen those hopes.

“As we saw with the 2023 Dominion Energy Charity Classic’s $34 million economic impact, having a golf course of this caliber in Henrico can provide a significant boost to the greater Richmond region’s economy and, potentially, a new home for PGA Tour sanctioned events,” he said.

Work on the course’s renovation is expected to begin later this year or early next and be completed sometime in 2026, according to county officials, with the goal of having the course ready for a potential tournament in October 2026. The course will be closed until that work is complete.

A rendering of the renovated course layout shows a significantly longer distance from the championship tees – 7,415 yards in total, or nearly 800 yards longer than the course in its current iteration from those tees. The course's three longest holes – 2,7 and 15 – would get even longer (552 yards to 605 yards, 529 yards to 560 yards and 535 yards to 620 yards, respectively) as part of the new design, but the general structure of the course won’t change much, according to Pros, Inc. President Giff Breed.

Breed’s firm wasn’t looking to expand its operations beyond Independence in Midlothian (which is considered one of the top public courses in the region), but when Bickmeier approached him last year on the day that Dominion and CCV announced their partnership was ending, the intrigue grew rapidly.

Breed and Henrico officials initially weighed the possibility of building a new course, but discussions kept coming back to The Crossings, he said, because of its history and its location near the GreenCity project. Once they learned that its existing owners were interested in selling, the plans took shape quickly.

“There are a few opportunities that kind of come along and you can potentially leave the place better than you found it,” Breed said. “Had this not happened at CCV, we’d be just fine [operating only] Independence. But this is just an opportunity to be a part of a great team on a great initiative.”

Said Bickmeier of the Pros, Inc. team: “They delivered a championship caliber golf course there, and we feel they can do the same here.”

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Breed suggested that the pricing structure for the renovated iteration of The Crossings likely will end up being comparable to what Independence charges ($139 for 18 holes for an adult, or $75 for a junior player 17 or younger).

“To maintain a golf course, we’re probably going to spend $1.5 million [on maintenance alone], but we need to create wonderful experience,” he said. “At Independence, we’re providing you a value and [the feeling that] the experience that we’re giving you is worth the money that you’ve paid. We’ll focus on [that] again at the new course.”

At Independence, the property’s financial success is due largely to its non-golf uses (weddings and other events, as well as its restaurant), and Breed told the Citizen that his team will be working with Shamin Hotels CEO Neil Amin to consider ways to provide similar amenities at The Crossings. Shamin Hotels is planning two hotels at the nearby Virginia Center site.

“He’s just a really smart guy,” Breed said. “We’re very very fortunate to have him as a partner.”

Although Henrico is the fifth-largest locality in Virginia, The Crossings is its only 18-hole public golf course, following First Tee’s renovation of Belmont, which transformed it from an 18-hole course to a 12-hole course with a six-hole par-3 course. In addition to its potential use by the PGA Tour Champions, officials envision The Crossings becoming the host site for various high school and collegiate golf tournaments, Romanello and Bickmeier said.

Bickmeier’s team soon will begin the process of reaching out to NCAA conferences, the Virginia High School League and other organizations that might be interested in bringing tournaments to the course, he said.

“It just gives us another opportunity in our sports tourism portfolio to go out and bid on some golf events now,” he said.

And county officials believe that The Crossings’ location, along what is quickly becoming Henrico’s “sports tourism corridor” between RF&P Park and the future GreenCity site, will only help attract those types of events. The Crossings is located just across I-95 from GreenCity (which soon will be home to a 17,000-seat arena) and is adjacent to Virginia Center and the Henrico Sports and Events Center, a 4,500-seat arena that opened last year.

It’s also just about four miles from Glover Park, whose expansive second phase will bring more than 30 large baseball tournaments and countless soccer, lacrosse and other outdoor sporting events to Henrico annually.

“This Henrico corridor is being transformed into an epicenter of economic activity,” said Fairfield District Supervisor Roscoe Cooper, III, whose district includes most of the sites. “Adding a championship-level golf course to our inventory of public facilities will elevate Henrico’s sports tourism program to the next level.”

Said Breed: “Golf brings a certain cache to an area like that, but we’ve gotta do it right. It’s got to be a world class facility that can host a PGA tour event, can host a collegiate championship. We’ve got to be able to accommodate all of that.”

Of the way the corridor has transformed from a sports tourism vision into reality, Bickmeier said: “It’s really coming alive, it’s really happening.”

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The partnership will continue Henrico’s recent pattern of entering into public-private agreements that allow private operators to manage county-owned facilities, all under the umbrella of the Henrico Sports and Entertainment Authority. Similar agreements are in place at Belmont Golf Course (operated by First Tee), the Frank J. Thornton YMCA Aquatic Center (operated by the YMCA) and the Henrico Sports and Events Center (operated by ASM Global) just around the corner from The Crossings, and another was just announced with Prep Baseball Tournaments for a four-field baseball complex at Glover Park, just a few miles away.

Also in keeping with each of those agreements, the lease agreement with Pros, Inc. will include a benefit for the county – in the form of 90 rounds of golf collectively for Henrico County’s seven public high school golf teams during their seasons, at no cost, Romanello said.

When a golf course first opened on the site in 1960, it was known as Ethelwood Golf Course, before it became Half Sink Golf Course in the 1970s. The construction of I-295 necessitated the relocation of a portion of the course, and The Crossings opened under its current name in 1979.

The site was assessed earlier this year for $2.77 million. It last was sold by CF Crossings Arcis LLC for $1.75 million in August 2016.

“All of us at Pros, Inc. are honored to be a part of the team to collaborate on bringing a new golfing and entertainment experience to Henrico that will serve the residents and business community of this region,” Breed said. “We appreciate the energy, creativity, and vision that we have experienced in our discussions with the Henrico EDA and Henrico SEA and look forward to getting started on this project.”