Nearly a decade after Hurricane Katrina swamped much of the 1,300-acre park, work has begun to build a $13.2 million course as part of a $24.5 million project that seeks to bring championship golf back to the Crescent City.
With the turning of a few ceremonial shovelfuls of dirt, the long-awaited construction of a new championship golf course in New Orleans’ City Park began on February 12, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reported. The groundbreaking ceremony came after almost nine years of delays, roadblocks and obstacles that had to be overcome to jump-start the $24.5 million project, which is seen as a major milestone for both the city’s recovery from Hurricane Katrina and its return to prominence on the national golf map.
Duininck Golf Inc. will build the $13.2 million golf course, for which construction must be completed by the beginning of 2017. But the course could be ready by the fall of 2016, officials said at the groundbreaking, the Times-Picayune reported.
Once completed, the course will be the crown jewel of a $24.5 million project to restore high-level golf at the City Park, which saw most of its 1,300-acres damaged severely from flooding after Hurricana Katrina hit New Orleans in 2006. The project will also add a new clubhouse for the course and new maintenance and golf facilities, along with improvements to the North course and the driving range.
All of that work is also expected to be completed when the new course is ready for play, the Times-Picayune reported.
The new tract, which will be able to play 7,300 yards in length, will be built in the 250-acre footprint of the former City Park East and West courses that were ruined by Hurricane Katrina’s floodwaters.
“It has been a little while for us to get to this point, but we’re all pleased to be here,” said Bayou District Foundation chairman Gerard Barousse Jr., whose organization will manage City Park golf. “I think what we will see as a result of everybody’s patience and efforts is going to be a tremendous golf facility.
“What we will see here is going to honor the existing great attributes of this golf course and of City Park,” Barousse added. “Great oak trees. Great waterways. I think this is going to be a golf course for the city that will provide a great asset. It will complement and help finish the park and the great work that has happened over the last 10 years. We’ll all benefit and see great results and be proud of the work.”
In planning how to restore golf at City Park after Katrina’s damage, the Times-Picayune reported, a decision was made to rebuild two courses—the North Course, which is now up and running, and the championship course.
In November of 2012, City Park announced an agreement with the Bayou District Foundation to manage and run the championship course. When that agreement was made, the Times-Picayune reported, it was hoped that the course would be opened some time in 2014. But several delays by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and in-state funding then put the project on hold.
The $24.5 price tag will be funded by three sources, the Times-Picayune reported. About $9.5 million will come from the state’s capital outlay budget, $6 million from FEMA and $8.9 from the Bayou District Foundation.
The course is being designed by Rees Jones Inc. and Torre Design Consortium, and those two companies have worked along with the PGA Tour course design team to map out the tract, the Times-Picayune reported. The Bayou District Foundation paid $300,000 for the design.
City Park and the Bayou District Foundation agreed to a 35-year contract in November of 2012 for course management, the Times-Picayune reported. Under that agreement, City Park will receive 75 percent of the first $1.15 million in revenues each year, with Bayou District getting 25 percent. After that number is reached, City Park will get 55 percent of revenues, and Bayou District 45 percent per year.
The park projects to collect as much as $3 million in revenue from the new golf course along with the North course and driving range, which opened in 2009, the Times-Picayune reported.
“This project is so important to the park,” City Park CEO Bob Becker said at the groundbreaking. “It achieves a number of goals. First, it restores a historic use. There has always been golf here and it restores that historic use. It repairs one of the last remaining areas of the park still exhibiting damage from Hurricane Katrina. So it’s been a long time getting here. But when this course transforms this area, we will have totally erased the memory of Katrina in this park.
“Second, this course and the golf complex will generate very important operating revenue for the park,” Becker continued. “And for a park that doesn’t get any general tax support, golf here is crucial.”
Barousse said he thinks the new course will be a boon not only for City Park but New Orleans and the surrounding region, the Times-Picayune reported. He thinks it will attract golfers locally, regionally, nationally and those in the city on business. It could also bring in local, regional and national tournaments, as well as possible United States Golf Association events.
There has also been mention that the PGA Tour’s annual New Orleans stop, the Zurich Classic, could eventually move to the new course, the Times-Picayune reported. The tournament is currently held at TPC Louisiana in Avondale and is contracted to be there through 2019.
But Barousse stressed that the primary focus of the championship course will be to provide revenue for both the Bayou District Foundation and City Park, the Times-Picayune reported.
“From our standpoint, we’ve always approached this as we’re looking to build quality golf in the park for the benefit of the park as a revenue generator,” he said. “We believe it will be capable of hosting local, regional, national events, whether that’s a U.S. Amateur event or a professional event. But we are really not working toward moving the [Zurich Classic] here. That’s really out of our context, and not something that plays into the economics of this model.”
Before Katrina hit, The New Orleans Advocate noted in its reporting on the start of construction, City Park, as one of the 10 largest urban parks in the nation, hosted approximately 11 million annual visitors. The park also houses two stadiums and other venues for organized and recreational sports.
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