The golf-loving family behind Dieppe’s Fox Creek Golf Community used a smart residential-development plan to finance the construction of a dream golf course

Maurice LeBlanc and his sons Marcel, Denis, and Michel are avid golfers who had often joked about owning their own golf course. Ten years ago the entrepreneurial family was building two or three houses a year in Dieppe, N.B. One day Maurice and Marcel were trudging across an undeveloped parcel of land when they found themselves overlooking an abandoned quarry. Marcel turned to his father and asked, “Are you seeing what I’m seeing?” 

“Yes,” said Maurice. “I see a par 5.”

Without a market study, and armed only with a vision of what could be, the LeBlancs bought the 200 acres and, over the next few years, added adjacent parcels of land for a total of 895 acres. "We didn’t do a market study because we knew people would ask if we were crazy,” says Denis with a laugh. “But we had a vision that it was possible to do this in Dieppe. People sometimes underestimate what is possible in Dieppe.”

The family’s company, Terramine Development Inc., bucked the usual practice of using a golf course to lure residential developments to an area. It did the opposite, using house sales to finance the construction of a course. Denis says they sold 52 lots in five months and 110 lots in 18 months, something never before seen in Dieppe.

The Fox Creek Golf Community aims to provide country living inside the city. Mature trees were left untouched, and the smallest lots measure 100 by 200 feet. No lots stand back-to-back; all backyards face either the golf course or a brook. 

In the last few years, hundreds of young adults hailing from all over New Brunswick flocked to Dieppe, attracted by Moncton’s economic boom. Many moved into Fox Creek. The construction of 90 townhouses quickly followed. Now a third phase is underway, and the LeBlancs report that they have sold 50%, which amounts to 55 lots.

Denis has a theory to explain Dieppe’s economic success in these difficult times. First, the city has no market speculation, unlike major urban centres, so the price of residential lots was not over-inflated and due to come crashing down. “If it wasn’t for the media telling us that the sky is falling,” he says, “we wouldn’t know it was.”

And that imaginary par 5 that started the ball rolling? The soil in the old quarry wasn’t suitable for a golf course; that land is now under a recent extension of Dieppe Boulevard. A nearby parcel was more suitable, and a course was designed by renowned Canadian architect Graham Cooke. In 2005 the four  LeBlancs, their employees, and guests teed off for the inaugural round of the spectacular new 18 holes.

Each sibling has found a niche in the family businesses. Marcel, 34, manages Advance Construction, his father’s first company, which specializes in water and sewer infrastructure. He is also the president of Karma, which owns the golf course and the land for future developments. Denis, 32, is the  CEO of the Fox Creek Golf Club. Michel, 29, is the vice-president of Terramine, which oversees the residential developments. (Patriarch Maurice still helps run Advance Construction and manages Karma.) The four regularly talk shop. “We’re all involved in the decisions for the companies,” says Maurice. “We talk daily. We don’t always agree, but once a decision is made, there are no quarrels.”

Two years ago the LeBlancs made a new purchase: the 500 acres adjacent to Fox Creek. This should keep them busy, with more residential developments and some commercial components, until 2028. Denis also thinks this new parcel might be the perfect site for—you guessed it—a nine-hole executive golf course.