Sewer district makes offer for Holmes Harbor Golf Course

Published 8:30 pm Thursday, May 13, 2010

The Holmes Harbor Sewer District has made an offer to buy Holmes Harbor Golf Course, and officials on Whidbey Island — not to mention the island’s golfing community — hope a forthcoming deal will allow the course to reopen.

The sewer district has offered $200,000 for the 18-hole public course on 60-plus acres of property. The offer does not include the clubhouse, restaurant or any other adjacent facilities or land.

The sewer district has an easement on the property to use as a disposal area for recycled water, and the agreement means the property must remain a golf course or some other open area.

The offer was sent Wednesday to the Holmes Harbor Community Partners LLC, which has owned the golf course for the past seven years. The partnership is part of The Schuster Group of Seattle, where Mark Schuster is the chairman and CEO.

The sewer district is awaiting a response, but Stan Walker, president of the sewer district’s board of commissioners, said he is “cautiously optimistic” about the prospects for a sale.

“I’m not thinking we’ve done this for naught,” he said.

If a deal is reached, a temporary operating agreement between the current ownership group and the newly formed Holmes Harbor Recreation Association, which would operate the course, would allow the course to reopen.

Once there is a sale agreement, “we’ve been assured that the operating agreement with the current owner will be in place,” said Todd Bitts, president of the recreation association.

After the sale closes, there would be a long-term operating agreement between the sewer district and the recreation association.

The notion of the sewer district owning the golf course has been well received, Walker said.

“The community is vastly supportive and encouraged by this,” he said.

There is urgency to complete the sale, Walker said, because “the golfing season is proceeding with or without us. And until we have an operating agreement, we can’t conduct a golf operation.”

“We’re not going to take this over in September,” Bitts said. “That makes absolutely no sense to us at all. And I think the current owner is aware that if there’s any chance of this flying, now is the time to do it.”

Schuster could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Holmes Harbor closed March 14, apparently due to financial problems at the 18-hole course. Negotiations have been under way with the current owners about an operating agreement, and it was tentatively set to reopen on Monday, “but now that’s not going to work,” Bitts said.

Still, Bitts and Walker said they are hopeful golfers will be back playing at Holmes Harbor before long.

“My expression would be stand by for news,” Walker said. “We hope to get it open soon.”