City making switch at golf links
Published 9:06 pm Thursday, July 12, 2007
EVERETT – Faced with continuing annual losses at the city’s two public golf courses, Legion Memorial and Walter E. Hall, the City Council is expected to approve a new management contract with Premier Golf Centers LLC of Seattle, ending the management tenure of Billy Casper Golf.
Pending council approval, likely by the end of this month, Premier Golf would take over operation at both courses on Oct. 1, said Paul Kaftanski, Everett’s Parks and Recreation director.
The management change, he explained, is one element of “a multipart strategy to turn Everett golf into profitability.”
Currently, he said, the two courses combined are losing about $500,000 a year.
A new contract, which is still being negotiated, would “change the business model on how we contract the management of our courses,” Kaftanski said. The current contract is “kind of a hybrid concession model,” which would become a completely nonconcession model under the new contract. The city would pay a fixed management fee per course, per month, while retaining all sources of revenue less expenses.
Restructuring the management arrangement “will help improve getting us to the goal of becoming profitable. … It should save us approximately $200,000 in management fees a year,” he said.
Incentives based on revenues will be included in the contract that could pay off for both Premier Golf and the city, he said.
“We believe this new model completely aligns the economic interests with both the contractor and the city,” Kaftanski said. “We know we have to work together … (because that) contributes to the bottom line for both of us.”
Billy Casper Golf has managed Everett’s two courses since 2003, and in that time “it’s fair to say, as with any contractor, there were some very good things about the contractor and things we wish the contractor did differently.” But the bigger issue, he said, “is the business model itself.”
After being notified that another operator had been chosen, Billy Casper Golf asked to be released from its contract, which was to continue until 2010. The council agreed, and Billy Casper Golf will cease its management duties on Sept. 30.
Premier Golf manages several municipal golf courses in the Puget Sound area, including Seattle’s Jackson Park, Jefferson Park, West Seattle and Interbay golf courses. It also manages Bellevue Municipal Golf Course as well as Pierce County-owned Lake Spanaway Golf Course in Tacoma and Fort Steilacoom Golf Course in Lakewood.
With the new management structure, Kaftanski said Everett’s two courses can be profitable by 2010 “if not sooner.”
Reporter Rich Myhre: 425-339-3297 or myhre@heraldnet.com.
