This is one that might not be worth anything. This project was a major stretch (large mixed use real estate development) even in the best of times. Kind of the go-go AZ/Nev/Fla development transported by a native back to Hutch. It was a wonderful parcel of land for golf, but it did not take a HP 12c to see the economics of any project in this location where a stretch.
Cottonwood Hills course set to reopen
BY BILL WILSON
The Wichita Eagle
An eastern Reno County golf course designed by Nick Faldo will reopen in a month, its developer said, despite financial problems that forced its closure late last year.
But Reno County's commission chairman is skeptical about Cottonwood Hills Golf Club's future and said the course must prove itself financially before the county follows through on a $1 million commitment for nearby road improvements.
The course, which closed quietly in December, will reopen in mid-April with new financing, its developer Lane Neville said.
Its financial problems, along with the economic downturn, will delay housing development along the course for at least a year, Neville said.
"Our plan moving forward is to really just focus on the golf this year," said Neville, a Hutchinson native living in Scottsdale, Ariz.
"Our focus will be on golf this year, then if we can we'll move toward infrastructure for the development toward the end of the year, first of next year."
Faldo, the winner of six major championships, and his golf course design company laid out Cottonwood Hills in a rolling stretch of sandhills just south of Buhler and east of Hutchinson on Fourth Street.
Reno County borrowed about $1 million to improve Haven-Buhler Road, the north-south road on which the course sits, Reno County Commission Chairman Brad Dillon said.
The county also planned to extend Fourth Street to the east, but those improvements were put on hold and the money spent on other projects when the course began having financial problems, he said.
"We're going to have to see a lot of progress before we spend that money," Dillon said.
Neville called the course's winter hiatus a "function of restructuring debt."
"Fortunately, we got some additional interim money forwarded into the project in the last week or so," he said.
"That will allow us to move forward through the playing season here this year, focusing on general refinancing dollars that will allow us to leverage it with our current loan and get the infrastructure to put the water, power and sewer down and bring on our first 40 or 50 lots."
The course lost $125,000 last year, Neville said, necessitating its closing. Staffers were laid off and telephones disconnected.
"Unusual? Well, yes and no," said Chris Tuohey, the general manager of Sand Creek Station Golf Course in Newton.
"I can see some courses doing that from a feasibility standpoint. Golf courses in the off-season lose money, and from a service level standpoint, it could be challenging.... But if that's all he lost over there last year, that's terrific."
The closing also cut Buhler High School's golf program off from its home course, forcing a move to the Highlands northwest of Hutchinson, said athletic director Gregg Gordon.
"To say that we haven't been affected by current conditions in the real estate market wouldn't be accurate," Neville said. "We have had delays, even prior to the economy going bad, just from the rural nature of the project.
"This has been an unprecedented thing. Our long-term goal, and all of our entitlements, are out in Reno County seven miles east of Hutch. As far as the rural development goes, we're going to hang on and try to work through the downtime."
Chuck Porter, a longtime area football coach who ended his career coaching football and golf in Buhler, said Tuesday that he's been called back to work at the course next month.
"I love that place dearly," Porter said. "It's the best course around. Brian's (course manager Reffner) going to have a meeting with us in the next few days, and I'm feeling very positive that there will be golf out there a month from now."
Tuohey said he's pulling for Cottonwood Hills' survival.
"I think we did feed off of each other, from the Kansas City market," he said. "We'd get people down here to play us one day and then the next. If Cottonwood Hills closes, it'll hurt us in that respect."
Reach Bill Wilson at 316-268-6290 or bwilson@wichitaeagle.com.