The private city club in Milwaukee, Wis. has a letter of intent to sell its golf course and country club to Concert Golf Partners. Any sale agreement needs approval by club members. The club will keep its downtown site, which includes dining rooms, bars, a grand ballroom, and a concierge and shuttle service.
Wisconsin Club, one of Milwaukee’s oldest private clubs, has a letter of intent to sell its golf course and country club to Lake Mary, Fla.-based Concert Golf Partners, according to a presentation to club members that was shared with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The club will keep its downtown site.
Any sale agreement needs approval by club members, the Journal Sentinel reported. That could come within 60 days.
Wisconsin Club is facing a high debt level that has placed it in a precarious financial position, said Rick Whiting, club treasurer, in a recent presentation to members, the Journal Sentinel reported.
“We don’t have the capacity to borrow additional money,” Whiting said.
Meanwhile, an estimated $1.3 million is needed to repair the golf course’s bridges and dams that are a key part of its irrigation system, said Whiting and club president Fred Joachim, the Journal Sentinel reported.
Concert Golf Partners would assume that responsibility as part of a sale agreement − which could also generate around $1.2 million in cash for Wisconsin Club, the Journal Sentinel reported.
The club’s financial difficulties, including an $880,080 loss during its last fiscal year ending Oct. 31, 2022, are tied to a decline in members, Whiting said, the Journal Sentinel reported.
The club has more than 1,200 members, Joachim told the Journal Sentinel. That compares to around 1,500 in 2015.
The $880,080 loss “can primarily be attributed to post-pandemic challenges, and then surging inflation costs for labor, services, and food and beverage,” said Lora Zuercher, Wisconsin Club Director of Marketing.
Concert Golf Partners, which owns and operates around 30 private golf and country clubs nationwide, says it invests in clubs “to fund capital projects, build new amenities, pay off all club debt, and ensure that member assessments are a thing of the past,” according to the company’s website.
Wisconsin Club bought the country club, formerly known as Brynwood Country Club, in 2011 for $2.7 million, the Journal Sentinel reported. The 200-acre grounds included the golf course, swimming pool, tennis courts and clubhouse.
That purchase made the Wisconsin Club one of just a few U.S. private clubs that owns both downtown facilities and a golf course, the Journal Sentinel reported.
The downtown club, was founded in 1891, the Journal Sentinel reported. It has been in its present location, the former home of Milwaukee industrialist and banker Alexander Mitchell, since 1895, according to the Wisconsin Historical Society.
The club’s amenities include dining rooms, bars, a grand ballroom, and a concierge and shuttle service to area concerts, theater and sporting events, the Journal Sentinel reported.
“We believe our future will include two thriving locations: a well-capitalized country club under separate ownership and a reinvented city club,” Wisconsin Club said, in a statement to its members. “The sale of the country club probably preserves this for both places.”
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