Napa (Calif.) GC Increases F&B Business Sixfold

Boosted by the opening of a banquet hall two years ago, revenue at the municipal property in Kennedy Park has risen from $1.45 million in 2013 to $2.63 million last year. Food concessions, which totaled $211,387 in 2013, reached $1.31 million in 2015.

The Napa (Calif.) Golf Course is building revenue and edging toward profitability, its managers say—with more help from its food services than its fairways and greens, the Napa Valley Register reported.

A more than sixfold increase in food and beverage business, boosted by the opening of a banquet hall two years ago, helped raise revenue at the municipal links inside Kennedy Park from $1.45 million in 2013 to $2.63 million last year, directors of CourseCo Inc. said in their annual report to the City Council, the Register reported.

Food concessions, which totaled only $211,387 in 2013, reached $1.31 million in 2015. The increase follows the addition of the Wedgewood Wedding and Banquet Center, a rental pavilion with room for 220 guests that has allowed the golf course to compete with restaurants and meeting halls to host catered gatherings, the Register reported.

Though Napa Golf Course is not yet turning a profit, CourseCo’s chief operating officer Michael Sharp told councilmembers that strong food-related businesses have put the links on a path toward going into the black in two years, even amid slower growth in membership, greens and cart fees, the Register reported.

“It’s safe to say it’s been a good investment, and the future looks pretty bright for us,” Sharp said.

The Napa course’s manager since 1999, Petaluma-based CourseCo, which oversees 28 public golf facilities on the West Coast and in Texas, entered a 10-year lease in 2013 after more than $400,000 of city losses over five years. The lease assures the city of at least $278,000 in rent, plus a share of food and drink earnings. CourseCo took over responsibility for making the Kennedy Park course profitable, and announced it would expand food options and attract more large events toward that goal, the Register reported.

“I remember when the city was losing $100,000 a year, and now I see you’re almost like a food and beverage operation with some golf on the side,” said Councilman Peter Mott.

Out on the links, improvements in the past two years have included rebuilding nine of the 22 green-side bunkers to their original 1968 designs, as well as replacing dead or dying Monterey pines and starting a three-year program to replace more than 400 irrigation heads, said General Manager Sean Silva. CourseCo also has reduced its waste output to a level that, starting later this year, will require only one household-size trash tote per week, the Register reported.