Bud Hansen left his mark on Montgomery County

Bud Hansen

When they list the people who changed the face of Montgomery County, the name of Elmer F. “Bud” Hansen Jr. will be at the top.

In the business world, many terms come to mind when thinking of him: pioneer … visionary … benefactor.

In the personal world there was a different set of terms: family man … devoted Catholic … golf nut.

Bud Hansen died Thursday at age 79, after a very short bout with pancreatic cancer. With the exception of the last two months, he was a remarkably robust, energetic and healthy individual who played a very active part in the community and touched the lives of so many people.

A graduate of La Salle College High School and La Salle University, he went to work with his father in the business world. That partnership ended after less than a decade, when his father died at at relatively young age.

In 1968 Hansen took his first big plunge in the commercial real estate world, building and developing a small office building on Pennsylvania Avenue in Fort Washington. To make ends meet, he also ran a small janitorial business at night. Soon the janitorial business gave way to commercial real estate development.

Hansen would build or buy a building, rent it to commercial tenants, then manage the building. He eventually would sell it, but often kept the management contracts.

Under the blanket of Hansen Properties, he crafted one success after another.

“My father’s greatest business attribute was that he had an amazing eye for real estate,” said Bud Hansen III, his son and now the vice president of Hansen Properties. “He had a knack for picking the right location.”

The buy-lease-manage-sell formula worked to perfection throughout the ’70s and into the 1980s. At the same time Hansen was fighting an incurable addiction – the golf bug.

He played the game. He watched the game. He supported the game. And he got pulled into it.

The connection came about in a most unconventional way. It was through his deep connection with the Catholic Church and the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

The archdiocese had acquired the old Oak Terrace Country Club on Welsh Road in Ambler. The plan was to tear it down and convert it into a much-needed cemetery. Unfortunately, it was determined that the water table was too high throughout much of the property.

Hansen, who had become very involved with the Catholic Church in the area, came to the rescue. He owned a plot of land about 10 miles away, on the corner of County Line Road and Upper State Road in Chalfont. A trade was structured and the Archdiocese built St. John Neumann Cemetery on that site. In 1981 Hansen took ownership of his first golf course.

Renovations converted Oak Terrace from a tired, old, failing private club into a viable entity in golf-rich Montgomery County. The success sparked future thoughts.

He purchased the former JDM National CC, a private 54-hole facility in West Palm Beach, Florida in 1988. He changed the name to BallenIsles CC and redeveloped the property. Around the same time, he turned his eye back to Pennsylvania, showing his expertise as an innovator and a visionary.

Hansen looked at the old Hidden Springs GC in Horsham. It also was an older golf facility (36 holes), that had water problems and needed renovation. He bought it and launched one of the most ambitious golf projects in Pennsylvania history.

Golf courses, surrounded by housing developments, had started to spring up across America. It was a popular business concept. Hansen took it one step further, marrying his area of business expertise with his passion.

He came up with the concept of surrounding a new golf course with a corporate office complex. And he convinced the legendary Arnold Palmer to design and build his first golf course in his native Pennsylvania. The project opened in 1991 and became known as Commonwealth National Golf Club.

Huge fanfare accompanied the opening and big names immediately were brought in to play PGA Tour two-day tournaments (the Tylenol Kids Classic) and celebrity tournaments (including the likes of Michael Jordan, Mike Schmidt and Charles Barkley).

Last year, to commemorate the 25th anniversary of Commonwealth National, Palmer did an interview and remembered his initial involvement with Hansen.

“Bud Hansen asked me to create a golf course that would rival Pine Valley and Merion in terms of a challenging layout,” said Palmer. “The course has stood the test of time for more than 25 years, as one of the best ever built in Pennsylvania, and that is a tribute to the vision that Bud had for the property.”

The success of Commonwealth National immediately sparked thoughts of another project and Hansen went to work on BallenRose – a proposed estate home development and private country club on Route 202 in Blue Bell. Unfortunately, a national recession during the early ‘90s plunged all of Hansen’s projects into financial peril. Overextended and unable to fund the multiple projects, a fiscal retreat became necessary.

Both Commonwealth National and BallenIsles were sold. Also, the BallenRose project failed. It was the low point of Hansen’s career. However, he embarked on an amazing comeback.

“Bud loved real estate development. It was the key to his success in business,” said Dave Sherman, who has been with Hansen Properties since 1987 and is currently its chief financial officer. “His golf involvement was equally as successful, but it was the national collapse of the real estate market that caused the problems. Nobody could get financing.”

The Toll Brothers construction company took over the project in Blue Bell. Instead of estate homes on huge lots, they built a development of more than 800 homes that included townhouses, villas, single homes and estate homes. The footprint of the golf course—again designed by Arnold Palmer -- was kept virtually intact and turned over to Hansen for management.

Blue Bell Country Club opened in 1994 and slowly started to establish itself as a golf and social center of Montgomery County. Expansion of the clubhouse and successful cultivation of an active membership took place under the management of the Hansen team until 1999, when the deed to Blue Bell CC reverted back to the Hansen Properties company.

In 2014 Blue Bell CC celebrated its 20th anniversary and, via a radio show connection, Palmer addressed a large gathering of members on a Saturday morning.

“It is a great pleasure for me to be able to say hello to all of the members and Bud Hansen and (general manager) Bill Beisel on the 20th anniversary of Blue Bell Country Club,” said Palmer. “What is even more important is to be able to congratulate everyone – the members and management team – for their support over the years. I am very proud to see the success of Blue Bell Country Club and hope the members enjoy it for many more years to come.”

In 2001 Hansen took another aggressive step, purchasing the remaining property at Normandy Farm, on the corner of Route 202 and Morris Road – across the street from Blue Bell CC. The farm buildings, outbuildings and surrounding property were incorporated into a project that would become one of the shining lights in Montgomery County.

Normandy Farm became a hotel, conference center, banquet and wedding facility and public restaurant that has flourished since its outset. Visitors from around the country and the world come to the property and it holds a stately ranking in the Montgomery County business community.

“His transition into the hospitality industry was an important part of the company’s growth,” said Sherman. “It was a sharp contrast to the real estate development business but it provided a steady cash flow.”

Beisel, who started with Hansen Properties as a PGA professional at the old Oak Terrace CC, spent 34 years with the company, finally leaving for a business opportunity in Florida at the end of 2015. He grew into the role of general manager at both Blue Bell CC and Normandy Farm.

“It was the most personally satisfying portion of my career,” said Beisel. “To spend 34 years with such an amazing person and seeing his vision come to fruition was an incredible experience. His fingerprints are all over the beauty and growth of Montgomery County.”

As thousands prepare to pay tribute to Hansen during memorial services and a Mass of Christian burial at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Ambler Sunday and Monday, certainly many more memories of his contributions to the county and the community beyond will be retold. His legacy will live on in the overall landscape of a county that he helped to change forever.

The Times Hearld