Real estate developer SimonCRE cleared the first step in acquiring the last vacant portion of Glendale’s shuttered Glen Lakes Golf Course this week.

City leaders approved a purchase and sale agreement on Tuesday with the Scottsdale-based development company, which is looking to buy the roughly 1.5-acre property for $965,000.

SimonCRE, which moves into the due diligence phase of the sale, wants to construct a 4,500-square-foot multi-tenant retail facility and a roughly 2,500-square-foot drive-through eatery.

The project will replace what’s left of the golf course, its former pro shop and parking lot, located at 55th and Northern avenues.

For about the next year, SimonCRE will finalize the sale, submit project designs for permitting and break ground, explained Economic Development Director Jessi Pederson.

“They move quickly,” she said of SimonCRE. “So, the agreement allows them plenty of time for due diligence on the property and plenty of time on the permitting side. We expect to see development happening, you know, in the next year.”