General Motors to Sell New Jersey Course

File this one in the That Makes Sense Dept.: General Motors is getting out of the golf business -- or, more accurately, it's getting out of the real estate business.

According to this Bloomberg story, the struggling auto manufacturer said it will start to sell or auction off many of its non-essential assets, "including contaminated factory sites, parking lots in Flint, Michigan, and a nine-hole golf course in New Jersey."

The facility is the Hyatt Hills Golf Complex in Clark, N.J. According to the story, Hyatt Hills was built in 1938 on the reclaimed site of a factory where GM once manufactured steering wheels and door handles. The Newark Star-Ledger has described Hyatt Hills as the "best-conditioned nine-hole course in New Jersey."

As for the decision to unload Hyatt Hills, here is what Tom Wilkinson, GM's director of news relations, told Bloomberg:

"The new GM hardly needs to be in the golf course business. The old GM will be selling a lot of potentially valuable but peripheral property the company accumulated over 100 years, kind of like a big garage sale. You will see some really good real estate deals come out of this for investors and communities."

-- G.R.