Or, just to be a bit more clear: Washtenaw Community College might take over the Washtenaw Country Club, according to this article in the AANews. Here’s a quote:
“We’re not looking for a golf course, we’re not shopping for one and we’re not going to buy one,” [Washtenaw Community College President Larry] Whitworth said. “But given the fact that it’s right here and the debt is relatively small, we think it’s a smart thing to do.”
Should a turnover occur, the changes could be drastic.
Most notably, Whitworth said, the club would cease to be private and would start accepting public memberships and selling rounds of golf to non-members. Likewise, the club’s dining facilities would be open to all customers, enhancing opportunities for culinary arts students and presumably cutting down on paid staff since students work for class credit.
For the college, access to the golf course could mean the birth of a new transfer program in turf management to universities such as Michigan State and Ferris State.
The idea of moving its Culinary Arts program into the club’s kitchen has been tossed around as WCC’s on-campus fine-dining restaurant, Garrett’s, has struggled to attract outside patrons.
Now, as a golfer, I’m all for this. I’ve never played there and, given that I drive by the course nearly every day and it is almost within walking distance from my house, I am curious to see what it’s like.
But I do have to wonder. Why isn’t EMU involved in this at all? Where exactly is WCC getting the money to do this, even if it is just a matter of assuming the debt? And isn’t this perhaps a really great opportunity for a little collaboration/cooperation between WCC, EMU, Ypsilanti, and Ypsi Township?
WCC should look no farther than EMU to learn how hard it is to run a golf course. Eagle Crest has been losing money for years and had to be subsidized by EMU. One of the WCC regents asked to look at the books at Washtenaw and will see how bad things are. Personally, I like the idea of being able to golf there but this a money losing venture that will cost WCC money. Golf play is down in general and there are too many courses. WCC will regret this purchase if they make it.
The Washtenaw Country Club board is looking to get out of trouble quickly. They are going to ‘gift’ the property and structures at the club to WCC in exchange for the college assuming almost 2-million in debt. Golf course are losing money almost everywhere in Michigan… Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti township… This is just another great way to spend a lot of money and get almost no return. For once I am glad to see EMU is not involved!
The two Toms have excellent points, but this could be a good deal for the community college, depending on the terms of the deal. Would it oblige WCC to retain the golf course as a golf course? If not, all that land for $1.8 million in debt might be a good long term investment — or even flipped in the near term to pay off that debt. In contrast, the EMU golf course – which was developed with EMU funds – is on land that EMU does not even own, and so cannot sell for a profit or to break even or to get out from a pointless money loser. The EMU golf course is on land leased from Ypsi Township for a dollar a year for 99 years. So not only does EMU lose money on its golf course, EMU also has no possibility of benefiting from either appreciating property values or from the improvements that EMU money is used to purchase. The EMU golf course has been a clear cut loser for EMU since day one, and it will always remain such. (Much of the revenue it or its food vender generate are nothing but internal fund transfers from other divisions of the university). In contrast, in buying the country club, WCC would get some useable facilities for some of its academic programs (including food services) and also acquire a chunk of potentially valuable land. A public authority may well in the future want to buy that land to preserve it as open space, minus golf — what’s called a park! In contrast, EMU put much more than 1.8 million, in real dollars, into creating its golf course, about 20 years.
Current EMU regent Roy Wilbanks, back in the day he was an EMU VP, was the chief mover and shaker behind getting EMU into the golf course business. A strategic blunder of the first order.
>>>>>….all that land for $1.8 million in debt might be a good long term investment
I think this is what it comes down to…
Can somebody askl Larry at WCC that after the humongus rec center, the WCC golf course, what is next? The EMU President’s house for himself?:-)
>>>>>>>>>Current EMU regent Roy Wilbanks, back in the day he was an EMU VP, was the chief mover and shaker behind getting EMU into the golf course business. A strategic blunder of the first order.
I agree 100%!
The Ann Arbor paper reports this morning in its top story that the community college intends to kept running the golf course, but will open it and the restaurant to the public, and that the land is worth an estimated $6 million.
I think the article anon is referring to is this one: Washtenaw Country Club was once the only game in town for socializing, business deals.
I suppose if Washtenaw Community College has the money, it can do what it wants to do. But I do wonder about this a bit. I mean, I go to WCC’s “Health and Fitness Center,” and as far as I can gather, there is very little connection between WCC and this place. It is, for all practical purposes, a private club where students can get in if they are taking a PE class. So will the country club be like that? If so, isn’t this getting the community college a few steps too far away from the “education business?”