While many vacation homes offer golf course views, few look out over the game’s seminal playground: the Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland. Next summer, however, a handful of individuals will be able to call the world’s oldest and most famous links home when Hamilton Grand—a collection of 26 luxury residences located just paces behind the 18th green—welcomes its first owners.
The residences at Hamilton Grand will occupy a late-?19th-century Victorian edifice that served as the high-society Grand Hotel before its roughly five-decade run as Hamilton Hall, a University of St. Andrews dormitory that closed in 2005. In 2009, golf enthusiast Herbert V. Kohler Jr., CEO and chairman of bath- and kitchen-products manufacturer Kohler Co., who also owns the nearby Old Course Hotel, acquired the building. He is now overseeing a multimillion-dollar renovation intended to create the most coveted address in golf.
"This is St. Andrews, the holy grail—it will never be repeated," says Debbie Taylor, president of hospitality and real estate for the Kohler Co. "Hamilton Grand is a once-in-a-lifetime property."
The two-, three-, and four-bedroom residences range from 1,330 to 2,780 square feet and are priced from about $2.2 million to more than $8 million; the five choicest units will be sold without asking prices, with offers that are expected to range from about $2.6 million to $8.9 million. All units will be purchased on a 99-year lease (after this time ownership will revert to Kohler), for occupation 50 weeks per year (two weeks are needed for maintenance). The roughly $8.3 million penthouse takes up the top floor of the six-story building and boasts a private deck with views of the course, the North Sea, and "Auld Grey Toon," as St. Andrews is commonly called.
Owners will have the option of furnishing the residences themselves or enlisting the services of interior designer Jack "JJ" Reese, who will choose furniture, fabrics, and finishes appropriate to the building’s Victorian style. (Kitchen and bath products will be Kohler’s, of course.) When not in use by owners, the residences can be put into a rental pool or shared with friends and family.
In addition to the cradle of golf outside their doors, owners will have access to an array of amenities and services, including a golf concierge, a personal assistant to manage trip details, a rooftop garden, a library, a parking valet, and a private chef. A pub restaurant on the ground floor will be open to the public. Owners will also have privileges at the nearby Old Course Hotel—including access to the Kohler Waters Spa—and can play unlimited golf on the Kohler-owned Duke’s Course just outside St. Andrews.
"It’s about buying into the St. Andrews lifestyle, as well as a piece of Scottish history," says Taylor. "Hamilton Grand can’t be replicated."
Hamilton Grand, +44.13.3447.4371, www.hamiltongrand.co.uk
