The city voted to accept the donation of the City Course at the Phillips Event Center, triggering the closure of the Travis B. Bryan Municipal Golf Course, which the city plans to redevelop into a super park. The gift of 107 acres is valued at $4.85 million and includes the 18-hole course, cart paths, maintenance buildings, and irrigation system.
The “City Course at the Phillips Event Center” became official on December 12 with a 6-1 vote from the Bryan (Texas) City Council to accept the donation of the course from owner Wallace Phillips. The vote triggers the closure of the Travis B. Bryan Municipal Golf Course, which the city plans to redevelop into a super park, the Bryan-based Eagle reported.
Described as perhaps the largest donation not associated with Texas A&M in Bryan-College Station history, it was a moment celebrated by council members as an opportunity to repurpose the struggling municipal course while also providing a public golf option in town that may able to make enough money to at least break even, if not turn a profit. But after years of false starts, it was the end of a slow death march for the municipal course that many local golfers have long feared, the Eagle reported.
The city is expected to close on the Phillips Event Center’s course by December 28, and it could start operating as the city course by as soon as the beginning of next year. Included as part of the gift of the 107 acres valued at $4.85 million and the 18-hole course are cart paths, two maintenance buildings, the irrigation system and 40 dedicated parking spaces, the Eagle reported.
Included in part of the motion for approval Tuesday, the deal will be further sweetened when the city and Phillips reach an agreement to purchase the practice greens and driving range. The city also will have the right of first refusal for the clubhouse—which includes the pro shop, Phillips Event Center, pool and other amenities—should Phillips ever choose to sell, the Eagle reported.
Mike Southerland, for whom the preservation of the municipal course has become something of a pet project and a campaign platform over the years, said he thinks the deal will work out “great” for the city, the Eagle reported.
“I’m just still torn about bulldozing Muni,” said Southerland, who cast the lone vote against accepting the donation. “That’s a real tough thing for me after all these years, but I think the numbers are there, and I think if done properly it’s gonna make us a lot of money.”
The municipal course is estimated to lose about $200,000 annually on the roughly $1 million-a-year operation. According to city budget documents, the city expects 32,250 rounds to be played there this year, with each round costing about $28 versus the $22 it brings in. Deputy City Manager Hugh Walker said the city will give up the roughly $65,000 in profit it makes each year on food and beverage and merchandise sales at the municipal course, but the city will make up that revenue in other areas. The main revenue streams will be cart and greens fees, and the city also will get the fees charged for use of the driving range, the Eagle reported.
The city also is expecting that it might turn a profit with the additional rounds that will be played at the new city course. When Texas A&M’s course closed in 2013 for renovations, the municipal course saw about 4,000 extra rounds and revenue spiked by about $270,000, Walker said. A roughly $200,000 increase is estimated to come from the anticipated extra rounds of golf, the Eagle reported.
The closure of the municipal course will make the City Course at Phillips Event Center the only public golf venue in town. That course is part of what was formerly known as the Briarcrest Country Club, which was purchased in 2013 by Phillips, the home developer behind Castlegate, Castlerock and other area developments, the Eagle reported.
In addition to the expected profit from the extra rounds, some expenses associated with the municipal course will also be eliminated. The largest of those will be water, which costs between $55,000 and $60,000 annually. The city will have access to a water well at the Phillips Event Center course on Briarcrest Drive, the Eagle reported.
Despite the “win-win” situation touted by several council members, dozens of golfers criticized the lack of transparency surrounding the deal, with several asking for the vote to be postponed. For nearly 80 minutes during Hear Citizens, golfers and residents voiced concerns about the closure of the municipal greens, which they said remains popular for its affordable prices and relatively easier course. Some residents who live on the golf course at the Phillips Event Center also wanted to know if the city had considered how the influx in golfers would affect them, the Eagle reported.
At least 50 people filled the room, and as many, if not more, were outside the council chambers, where more seats had been set up. A recurring complaint was that the city has previously heard from residents that they weren’t interested in the city pursuing the Phillips Event Center course, the Eagle reported.
In 2014, the city proposed redeveloping the municipal course into a super park and entering into a 20-year public-private partnership with the Phillips Event Center. The proposed agreement, which would have dropped Briarcrest’s prices and had the city make annual $50,000 payments, was abandoned after negative feedback from golfers, the Eagle reported.
And in 2011, the council had tentatively agreed to buy Briarcrest Country Club, as it was formerly known, for $2 million, but residents both rejected that idea in a nonbinding referendum and a related proposition to eliminate the municipal course’s parkland dedication, which would have allowed the city to sell it to the private sector for development, the Eagle reported.
Not all in attendance were against the redevelopment, however. Several members of the youth sports community said the super park would both allow for tournament play in Bryan and introduce more children to sports while providing them with more fields, the Eagle reported.
With the acceptance of the donation, the city announced the conceptual plan for a regional park at the Travis B. Bryan Municipal Golf Course site. In addition to baseball, softball, soccer and football fields, other amenities could include pavilions, trails, an inclusive playground, an amphitheater, concession areas and an indoor facility. It’s unclear how much it would cost for the city to develop the super park, the Eagle reported.
Walker also addressed residents’ concerns about parts of the golf course that are contaminated by arsenic from Elf Atochem’s agrichemical plant that could be disturbed by the redevelopment. He said the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has cleared the soil, water and sediment at the golf course, with the exception of a few “hot spots.” However, those areas can be cleaned out completely, he said, and TCEQ is no longer monitoring those areas, the Eagle reported.
Phillips will serve as interim manager of the course until a third-party manager for day-to-day operations can be selected. The four full-time employees at the municipal course will be reassigned to other positions within the city, Walker said. Rates at the new city course will stay within the same structure that was approved by the Council in 2015. The new operator may choose to raise those fees to the maximum amount, the Eagle reported.
Addressing parking concerns, city officials said the public will be able to park in spaces at the Phillips Event Center beyond the 40 that are dedicated for the golf course, and more could be added in the future. Walker said he anticipates the city will buy out its lease purchase agreement for its current electric golf carts for about $70,000, resell them and work out a proposal to purchase the gas carts at the Phillips Event Center, the Eagle reported.
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