Granite Links Golf Club’s 99-year lease proposal

Granite Links Golf Club lies in Ward 4, on land owned by the City of Quincy and leased by the Quarry Hills Associates (QHA).

In 2022, Mayor Koch proposed extending the QHA's lease, which runs for at least the next two decades, for an additional 99 years – a proposal that would have needed to go before the city council to move forward.

QHA announced on September 25, 2023, that it would pause its pursuit of the lease extension, following pushback from community members who cited a variety of concerns (see videos below for discussion of the lease). However, the announcement leaves open the possibility that lease extension discussions will resume in future.

Because the lease extension has been a hotly debated topic in the lead-up to the 2023 election, Quincy Votes! researched political campaign contributions related to Marina Bay Management, which runs the golf club, and related businesses, on the website of the Massachusetts Office of Campaign and Political Finance. 

We searched for recent campaign contributions from members of the board of directors for Quarry Hills Associates, Marina Bay Management, Marina Bay Company, and O’Connell Management, as well as donors who listed those companies as employers in the state campaign contribution database. Quincy Votes! also performed web, news, and LinkedIn searches for “Granite Links” and “Quarry Hills Associates”, as well as the Granite Links website, to find names to search for in the state campaign contribution database. Below you will see contributions to current council and mayoral candidates from these donors from January 1, 2022, to October 11, 2023 (data downloaded Oct. 11, 2023).

It is legal for leaders and employees of companies with business before the city to contribute to the political campaigns of candidates running for local office, subject to state campaign finance laws, and does not necessarily imply anything improper. Quincy Votes! takes no position on whether a lease extension should be granted, if proposed again. The data below is being shared in the interest of a well-informed public. We welcome any corrections or other feedback.