(Photo by Glynis Kazanjian, Bethesda magazine)
Athletic fields, an arboretum and housing are among the possible uses being considered for the Rockville, Md. property, which closed at the end of 2018 after Billy Casper Golf terminated its operating lease three years early. The city is also awaiting a report commissioned from the National Golf Foundation on the viability of it remaining a public course.
Athletic fields, an arboretum and housing are among the options expected to be considered for Rockville, Md.’s RedGate Golf Course, Bethesda magazine reported, and the city may soon hire an appraiser to suggest other uses, including an outright sale to a developer.
The city is also awaiting a report it commissioned from the National Golf Foundation (NGF) on the viability of holding onto the public course, which has struggled financially for years and has fallen into disrepair, Bethesda reported.
The course was closed by the city on December 31, 2018 after the company that had run it since 2012, Billy Casper Golf (BCG), abruptly ended its lease three years early, according to City Manager Rob DiSpirito.
“There wasn’t any discussion about termination,” DiSpirito told Bethesda. “There was an increasingly strong need for this stuff to get addressed. I needed to get an independent objective analysis of the course before we had those conversations.”
DiSpirito said he had hoped the golf company and the city could sit down with the new NGF report, which is due to be delivered in February, and flesh out responsibilities for improving the 144-acre property, Bethesda reported.
After losing hundreds of thousands of dollars on the course for years, the city hired the NGF in 2011 to conduct an analysis of its viability and whether it should remain under city control. The commission concluded that Rockville should hire a professional golf company to take over the course, Bethesda reported.
Against local opposition, and claims that some of the losses were self-inflicted due to financial mismanagement by city staff, the city leased the 18-hole course to Billy Casper Golf in 2012 for 10 years.
BCG requested a reprieve in its $1,000 monthly payment two years into its lease, Bethesda reported. The city agreed to release the management firm from payments for five years, without having to pay the money back, said Rockville Recreation and Parks director Tim Chesnutt.
The city also allowed the company to delay a series of payments for equipment it was contracted to purchase, Bethesda reported.
City leaders have been discussing what to do with the course in recent months, Bethesda reported. “I would like the city to investigate selling all or part of the RedGate property,” Rockville City Councilman Mark Pierzchala said at an October 8 council meeting. “The city could do this at the same time frame as the National Golf Foundation report coming in.”
At the meeting, Pierzchala’s motion to investigate possible uses of the land passed 4-to-1, with Mayor Bridge Donnell Newton dissenting.
“I’m opposed to putting the cart before the horse,” Newton said in an interview with Bethesda. “We’ve just been handed a major problem with RedGate. I would like to take it one step at a time.”
Building houses on the land should be at the will of the people, Newton added, and she wants to hold public meetings on any plans. If the course can’t be saved, the mayor said she envisions using it for an arboretum, walking paths and possibly an amphitheater.
Pierzchala said selling part or all of RedGate would be a good way to pay for other initiatives, such as the Rockville Science Center, the King Farm Farmstead and much-needed athletic fields, Bethesda reported.
“I don’t think there is any doubt that the land would not be snapped up,” Pierzchala said in October, noting that he had been approached by a builder asking about a possible sale. “There is limited space in the county for this type of development.”
Pierzchala added that he would support single-family and townhouses, but not multi-family units, Bethesda reported.
The city is in the process of hiring an appraisal company to look at the value of the land, including its worth for other uses, such as housing, according to DiSpirito.
Several problems contributed to the course’s financial woes in the last decade, Newton said. The city was charging the golf course for water, when it wasn’t for a city swim center. Red Gate also wasn’t receiving revenues from a Verizon cellphone tower property when it should have been, and a surplus of funds was used to purchase a new irrigation system outright.
The 2011 NGF report also revealed that the city was paying significantly more in employee benefits and pensions for golf course staff compared to the county, which has a separate Revenue Authority that operates nine public golf courses (https://clubandresortbusiness.com/maryland-superintendent-sees-expanding-authority/).
“In the past, the course was in good shape financially,” said Joe Jordan of the RedGate Advisory group. “The golf course was building up a reserve fund. There was more demand than available tee times. There was so much outcry from golfers and the community at large to save the golf course.”
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