Project Details
Tribal Wars Move to the Course With the proliferation of gaming privileges being granted to various American Indian nations around the country, some tribes now find themselves competing against each other for casino revenues, rather than grazing grounds or hunting rights. In Connecticut, the Mashantucket Pequots have gone head-to-head for nearly 10 years now with the Mohegan Tribe, which opened its equally striking and huge Mohegan Sun casino and resort complex in 1996, 15 minutes from Foxwoods Resort. And news of the Pequots branching out into the golf and club business with their opening of Lake of Isles prompted reports that the Mohegans were scrambling to follow suit. Last fall and again this spring, the Mohegans expressed interest in purchasing Pautipaug CC, Baltic, Conn., a members-only course and clubhouse appraised at slightly more than $3.2 million and assessed at nearly $2.3 million. Management at Pautipaug acknowledged in early May that discussions were taking place, but no agreement had been announced by the end of the month. The Mohegans also branched out into another sporting venue with a $280 million purchase of Pennsylvania's Pocono Downs harness racing track at the end of 2004. That track will be eligible to construct casinos with up to 3,000 slot machines if Pennsylvania's new gaming law, now under appeal, is upheld. Lake of Isles: Sizing Up the New Club, By the Numbers 5 sets of tees on each course 8 four-bedroom hotel villas to open on site, Spring 2006 40 golf operations staff (pros, starters, marshals, caddies,cart & bag staff) 50 full-time and seasonal workers in Agronomy Department 50 private memberships sold as of mid-May 90-acre lake in middle of property $100-$170 greens fees for resort and daily fee course 145 golf carts 298 total private memberships available 300 banquet room seating 861 acres for total resort 1,800 sq. ft. pro shop 2007 – the year that Lake of Isles will begin multi-year agreement to host Connecticut State Open 2,500 sprinkler heads in irrigation system $5,000-$7,000 annual dues 7,310 yardage length of private (South) course 7,395 yardage length of public (North) course 50,000 sq. ft. clubhouse $55,000 membership initiation fee 60,000 sq. ft. of teeing, putting and chipping space in Golf Academy $779,500 annual local taxes (N. Stonington, Conn.) for golf courses (based on current 29.5 mill rate) $5.5 million paid for land in 1993 by Mashantucket Pequot tribe $18.5 million estimated current value of land and resort $80 million total cost of resort |
When most Americans think of the American Indian tribes that have had the greatest impact on their country's history, nations like the Apache, Cherokee or Sioux are far more likely to come to mind than the Mashantucket Pequots.
That's perfectly understandable, since the Pequots, native to Southeastern Connecticut, were pretty much wiped out in a war with New England colonists in the late 1630s. By the time of the Declaration of Independence, there were barely 150 members remaining in the tribe, and during the Indian conflicts of the late 1800s that comprise the bulk of most Americans' knowledge about American Indianissues, the Pequots were down to the low double digits.
But while those other tribes are now much more a part of Indian lore and history books than the fabric of modern America, the Mashantucket Pequots are now thriving in a way that far surpasses their previous peak of 400 years ago, when they had 8,000 members. And they have already made their mark on modern history, parlaying a Land Claims Settlement Act in 1983 into a bingo operation that eventually led to the opening in 1992 of Foxwoods Resort Casino in North Stoning-ton, Conn.
Foxwoods, symbolized by its 25-story Grand Pequot Tower that rises like Xanadu out of the scenic rural Connecticut landscape, is now the largest resort casino operation in the world, employing 11,500 and attracting around 10 million visitors a year to its properties.
The current Foxwood empire includes three hotels, 25 food and beverage outlets, 24 retail stores, a 1,400-seat theater and 4,000-seat arena, and 55,000 sq. ft. of meeting and conference space. Yet all of that is already now set to be "seen and raised" by a $700 million expansion, announced this past February, that will be completed by the summer of 2008 and add a second "twin tower" hotel/resort next to the existing one, along with an additional 145,000 sq. ft. of meeting and convention space, a 50,000 sq. ft. ballroom (twice the size of what now exists in the Grand Pequot), a "junior ballroom" of 30,000 sq. ft., a new 5,000-seat multi-purpose theater, more nightclubs, lounges, restaurants and stores and—of course—still more casino and gaming space.
Taking Up A New Game
So it's certainly clear that the Pequots' place in history will now be secure for many years to come. But the tribe isn't satisifed with just making its mark through casinos, hospitality, meetings, entertainment, and retailing. Now it has set out to make a major name for itself in the golf and club businesses, too.
The Pequots began to blaze this new trail in 1993, when they bought over 900 acres of wooded land that lay across the street from Foxwoods, with a 90-acre lake in its center, for $5.5 million from the Boy Scouts of America (who had used it for a campground).
The tribe then signaled how serious it was about making a strong initial splash in the golf business when it called in Robert Trent Jones and son Rees to discuss how two 18-hole courses could be carved out of the rugged property. The elder Jones' failing health limited his involvement, but his son picked up the project with gusto. Land clearing and construction began in the fall of 2002 to construct a private course for members of a new Lake of Isles club, as well as a public course for resort and daily fee play.
Along the way, the Pequots also bought and began to operate another course and club, Foxwoods G&CC in Richmond, R. I., to further cut their teeth in the business. But it was clear that Lake of Isles would be the tribe's showcase entry into the golf and club business—and also that it would require top-notch management of a different sort than what's needed for casinos and resorts. So fairly late in the game, the tribe turned to Troon Golf to put together a management team and take over daily operation.
Cart and His Horse
Lake of Isles' 50,000-sq. ft. clubhouse, with both public and private dining, banquet facilities, and an 1,800-sq. ft. pro shop that is open daily to the public, opened in March, and the two courses opened in April (private) and May (public), respectively. After the May opening, members of the management team assembled by General Manager Archie Cart—an eight-year Troon veteran brought in from Whitney Oaks GC in Rocklin, Calif.—discussed their individual departmental roles and objectives, now that the new club was fully open for business:
· Membership—Cindy Demma, Membership Director, is one of several on the new Lake of Isles team with no previous professional experience in the golf or club fields. But as an "amateur," she did quite well—well enough, in fact, to
land the job at Lake of Isles. While working in health care sales, Demma became Tournament Chairman for the Greater Hartford Open in 2003—and her leadership in producing record numbers for that event was brought to Cart's attention as he looked for someone to head membership sales at Troon's new property.
Once on board, Demma has focused on target- marketing to corporations and "VIP groups" from among high-potential professions: physicians, attorneys, financial planners, and mortgage lenders. She's spoken tirelessly at Chamber of Commerce meetings and already held member-guest events (wine dinners and martini tastings) for the 50 members who got on board before the courses and clubhouse even opened.
Now that she has everything available to show off, Demma feels she can get to 100 memberships by the end of the year and close out the private club's total allotment of 298 memberships in three years.
"It's a very unique property because there are no residences and of course there's the resort and casino," she says. "We're starting to get a lot of inquiries from neighboring New England states; things have picked up tremendously in the last couple of months after the season started.
"We think it's an amazing price [$55,000 initiation fee] for 36 holes of Rees Jones-designed courses [members will pay no greens fees for the private course, and only cart fees when they use the public course during non-peak times]," Demma adds. "And when the villas are available (eight four-bedroom units that are scheduled to open next spring), that will only add to the appeal for prospective members from farther distances."
· Catering—Director of Catering Sheila Graham is another "outsider" to the club business but certainly no novice with large-scale events, having previously served as Corporate Events Manager at Saint Clements Castle, an upscale banquet and conference center that sits on 82 acres fronting the Connecticut River.
Lake of Isles hosted its first wedding in mid-May, and Graham is encouraged by the number of wedding and tournament events already booked through the rest of the year, "even though we got started late." She expects a bigger boost now that a 200-sq. ft. lakeside platform was completed in May that extends from the clubhouse's back deck and patio area and can serve as a picturesque primary staging area for wedding photos. And she is also staying in close touch with the Foxwoods casino events staff across the street, "to be in a ready position to take on anything they can't handle."
· F&B—Cory Conklin, Food & Beverage Director, came to Lake of Isles in January of this year, after having served in the same position at the Tournament Player's Club (TPC) in Avenel, Md., and before that at Tampa Palms G&CC in Florida.
By the time Conklin arrived in Connecticut, all of the major decisions about how to set up the new clubhouse and its F&B operations had been made, so he shifted his focus to "making the space and equipment that was in place do the best job." He also plunged into menu planning and staff positioning issues.
Contrary to a common belief about properties run by golf management companies, Conklin says that while Troon "has its service standards" and also offers individual F&B directors the value of "national resources, national agreements and [insights into] best practices," he has "tremendous flexibility" to regionalize menu selections at Lake of Isles. That's important at a clubhouse that's right across the street from a casino complex where virtually every type of restaurant can be found; the challenge for Conklin is to stay abreast of those choices and find distinctive selections for his clubhouse restaurants.
The other unique challenge facing Conklin stems from having to run a members-only dining room when there aren't yet many members to be found at such a new club—and most of those who have joined don't live close by.
"This really is a remote, rural area to begin with, and the fact that it's Indian land and so much of it is taken up by the casino, the resort and now the club means that even the 'closest' member will probably live beyond a radius of a few miles," says Conklin. "We also expect to have a lot of members who spend their winters in Florida. So we're not going to be able to count on the 'convenience factor' to attract a la carte dining; that will always be an inherent challenge."
To try to promote the club as a dining option to members and prospects, Conklin is planning wine dinners and other special events through the summer. "We'll try to keep our hours as much as possible through the season," he says. "But we won't serve breakfast (in the members-only room), we'll only have that in Matches [the public dining room].
"The good news," he adds, "is that we expect Sheila [Graham] will be keeping things extremely busy in the banquet room, so that should help offset any slow traffic we might have in the [private] dining room until membership picks up. We'll just distribute our resources according to where the traffic is."
Lake of Isles is also promoting in its membership packages that it will not be charging monthly minimums in the clubhouse—and Conklin doesn't mind at all that he won't be "guaranteed" any member-generated revenues.
"At other clubs where I've worked that have had minimums, they can actually really be a headache for [F&B] operations," he says. "You get everyone showing up at the end of a quarter to spend their minimums and you're not staffed up for it or not prepared with all the food you suddenly need in the kitchen. And when it's at holiday time [at the end of the year], you can really get slammed."
For the Matches public dining room in the Lake of Isles clubhouse, Conklin is looking to create an "extremely high-volume, fun, club grill-room atmosphere." Golf will definitely be the theme, he says, noting that's one distinction he can always have over all the casino options across the street. "They have a lot of alternatives there, but nothing golf-related," he says. "The emphasis [in Matches] will be on quick, convenient food, for breakfast, lunch or dinner, for every golfer, no matter which course they're using."
· Golf Operations—Brock Nicholas, Director of Golf, is a self-described Troon "fix it guy" who has filled a variety of roles at some of the management company's top facilities in Florida (Westin Innisbrook Resort), Hawaii (Waikoloa Beach Resort) and southern California (Monarch Beach Golf Links).
At Lake of Isles, Nicholas will oversee a multi-faceted golf offering that includes the two golf courses (under the direction of head golf pro Robbie Lemming), the Lake of Isles Golf Academy (a teaching and practice facility run by Director of Instruction Derek Hooper), and a gleaming new Golf Shop that is already far exceeding expectations.
"In resort markets, sales of hard goods are usually less than 10% [of total sales]," Nicholas reports. "But we're at 40%." He cites two reasons: "There aren't a lot of big box [golf discount] stores yet in southeastern Connecticut, and we also haven't taken the usual 'resort approach'—cost times three—to pricing. We&#
39;re not selling at cost, but our markups are reasonable."
Nicholas is also excited about the unexpected potential for branding that he's discovered at Lake of Isles, which is also translating nicely into sales of specialty items. Each course has been named to tie in with the Pequot heritage, complete with special "native art"-style symbols (turtle and tumbleweed) and colors (blue and platinum, black and bronze) that are now used on hole markers, scorecards—and merchandise and apparel that is proving to be quite popular in the pro shop.
"I saw the same kind of success in Hawaii, with symbols like ladybugs and butterflies," Nicholas says. "That's the most powerful kind of statement, when you see symbols like that, without any words, and immediately get a sense that 'you know where that is,' and what makes it special."
· Agronomy—The drought in the Northeast has subsided, but if things ever dry up again, Lake of Isles will be well-served through its Director of Agronomy, Curtis Tyrrell. "I worked on courses in the desert for seven years—so I know irrigation," Tyrrell laughs. Both Lake of Isles courses were in remarkably good shape for their openings, but Tyrell, like any superintendent with a new course, still thinks the best conditions are on their way. "This year we'll tie up loose ends and next year we'll push getting the turf to mature and working more on trees and landscaping. Then the real focus will be on having everything right for the 2007 season [when Lake of Isles will begin to host the Connecticut State Open as part of a multi-year agreement]."
Tyrrell gives Rees Jones much of the credit for how the two courses came on stream so readily. "Whenever he came out during construction, which was at least once a month and sometimes two or three, he'd walk the course and always grab one of us [from the Agronomy staff] to go with him," says Tyrrell. "He always said he wasn't going to let anything get built that couldn't be maintained. And he gave us a lot of freedom to speak up about what would and wouldn't work."
Feeling the Excitement
Asked how it came to be that some of the key members of his new Lake of Isles staff came from outside the golf and club business, while others are industry veterans, GM Archie Cart shrugs and says, "It wasn't done consciously…but it's really not all that important to have a golf background here. And there's no cookie-cutter model that says, 'Here's what you need for this position.'
"The biggest thing we needed to see, no matter what the position, was that [the candidate] had a reason to be excited about being here," Cart continues. "We don't want people who think this is just another job. This is truly a special place, and we want people who recognize and express that."
That attribute is not just needed because everyone likes a rah-rah type, Cart adds. He has already found that the layered, multiple-owner structure under which he and the rest of the Lake of the Isles team must operate—with Troon corporate management, Foxwood Casino executives and the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Council all available as strong resources, but also all watching intently because of their own set of keen interests—creates the most "complicated set of dynamics" he's ever encountered in his career.
And Cart knows that the same forces affect his staff as much, if not more, on a daily basis. So he wants to make sure they have the passion that will drive them to persevere and find solutions that are in the best interests of preserving, and continually improving, what's been created at Lake of Isles.
"If you love being here, you'll always treat this place with respect—whether you're cleaning floors or managing critical financial information," Cart says.
Sounds like the newest occupants of Lake of Isles are determined to make their mark on history, too. C&RB
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