Vince Lamarra, the club’s Board President, stresses the proposal is far from a done deal and is just one of many options on the table for financing the critical and pressing need to replace the club’s decades-old water system, which comes at a cost of $4.3 million. “There are subsets of the membership that feel like we don’t want to give up the equity of the club,” Lamarra says. “There are some that say this is an opportunity we can’t pass up.”
David Jenkins has offered to buy the Logan (Utah) Country Club, stating his primary interest is ensuring the future of the private club for the benefit of its members and the community at large, The Herald Journal reported. The club is facing a $4.3 million tab for a new sprinkler system.
“The only reason I’m doing this is I want this golf course to still be here when we’re dead,” Jenkins, a member of the club, said in a question-and-answer session with fellow members. “This is a beautiful gateway to the community and it should always be that way.”
Jenkins went on to say: “I love to golf, I love to solve problems, I love to find ways to make organizations successful, to be able to operate on their own. I don’t want to be in the middle of things. I’ve got too many things going on to be able to do that anyway. I just want to help set the club up for long term success.”
A club member provided The Herald Journal with a video recording of the Q&A session, but the newspaper has been unable to contact Jenkins for more detail. The member said although he believes Jenkins has the club’s best interest in mind, he also thinks no acquisition proposal should be entertained without seeking other offers.
However, in a phone call over the weekend, Logan Country Club Board President Vince Lamarra stressed the businessman’s proposal is far from a done deal and is just one of many options on the table for financing the critical and pressing need to replace the club’s decades-old water system, The Herald Journal reported.
“There are subsets of the membership that feel like we don’t want to give up the equity of the club. There are some that say this is an opportunity we can’t pass up. And so it’s ultimately going to be a decision of the board and the membership as to which opportunity to embrace,” Lamarra said.
Lamarra stressed the club is not in financial straights, despite the looming expenditure, The Herald Journal reported.
“The country club is not underwater. We have never been healthier,” he said. “We have over a million dollars in the bank, our membership is 100 percent full, in fact we have a waiting list, so to say we’re doing this out of some sort of drastic need is a total misrepresentation of what’s going on out there.”
To address financing for the sprinkler system replacement, the country club has relied on the expertise of its membership, which includes some of Cache Valley’s best-known businessmen, accountants, engineers and others, The Herald Journal reported. The club’s finance committee has built computer models to gauge the impact that different payment options—an assessment, a loan or some combination thereof—would have on members.
The possibility of a self-financed loan is also on the table, The Herald Journal reported.
“We have some fairly influential and really smart businessmen in the club membership, and they could go ahead and self-finance a loan of money to the country club,” Lamarra said, explaining that this was a tactic employed five years ago when the club opted to buy out the mortgage on its new clubhouse.
What Jenkins has proposed is not a loan but an outright assumption of the debt, both for the sprinkler system and what’s left of the clubhouse loan, and in the process he would also purchase the equity of the club and take over finances moving forward, The Herald Journal reported.
“That’s a lot of debt to put on an organization,” Jenkins told members, contending his plan “allows us to invest in the future and not be focused on paying for the past.” He said he is not interested in a return on his investment.
Jenkins credits much of his business success to providing a “fun team environment” in the workplace, The Herald Journal reported.
Although Lamarra said the club is currently on solid financial footing, it did go through a rough patch in the early 2000s after investing in the new clubhouse, The Herald Journal reported. Rising dues and an assessment placed on members led to the departure of several individuals, and then came the recession.
“In 2014 we were in dire shape. We had half the membership in 2014 that we have right now,” Lamarra said. “But over the last eight years we have really dug ourselves out of a hole, and it’s because the members that remained have such a dedication to maintaining the club. We set up programs and opportunities to get people to come up there, and quite honestly, COVID helped us, as it did the golf industry throughout the country, because it was one of the few sports where people could get out.”
Though about 70 percent of the golf course sits on land leased from Utah State University, an ownership change of the club apparently would not affect the lease, The Herald Journal reported. The lease has been renewed several times and won’t be up for renewal until 2046. If the university ever wants to sell the land, the club has first right of refusal, which gives it the option to purchase the property itself.
It currently has 300 members, who can make use of the clubhouse and golf course along with their spouses and qualifying children, The Herald Journal reported.
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