One of the reasons i wanted the RCSC to buy the Lakes Club, it would have allowed us to open a truly incredible park where the old maintenance shop is behind the bowling alley.
I hear one of the RCSC Board candidates wants to revive the purchase interest in the Lakes Club. The past price tag makes it a pipe dream unless a new price would be more reasonable. The old maintenance shop behind the bowling alley will probably be occupied or replaced by the time any visualized action could occur. And of course we have the re-do of Lakeview and Mountain View rec centers within the next 5 to 6 years. Oh yes we still have the makeover and the new buildings to be built on the Grand Ave property. Could be a busy decade on the horizon to say nothing about an expensive one. The idea of a park being built on the maintenance shop property should have some priority thought so we can plant and harvest money trees.
Curious what kind of numbers you are hearing Gary. Back when we were looking at it we figured between buying it and renovating we would be looking between 5 and 6 million dollars. If memory serves me, it was 38,000 plus square feet and a very large footprint on the water. The problem was the Sun Health Foundation owned the land and held a land lease to the company that owned the building.
Bill I have no recent numbers for 2017 only the old info that of which is similar to your numbers but a few mil higher and still with no land ownership if memory serves me. I know real estate values have gone up but for a valid interest to resurface the price has got to go way, way down. Maybe someone has a secret that they are not willing to share yet or maybe they are just "smoking their socks".
I guess we disagree on that one Gary. I think 6 million for that building fully remodeled would have been a bargain. The deal we were working on while on the board was to give the Sun Health Foundation square footage in the building in exchange for the land. Obviously the land lease is an issue, but that lot is one of the most attractive pieces of property in all of Sun City. I know while you were on the board there was talk of building a two story admin building where the maintenance shop was. In the end it would have been a fraction of the square footage with a multi-million dollar price tag. Just for comparison purposes, what do you think the Grand Ave project will cost when it is all said and done? My guess would be around 4 million. If that's in the ballpark, compare it to what the Lakes Club would give us to that island on Grand Ave. Mind you, i wasn't against buying it, but compared to what we could have done with the LC, there's no comparison.
We are not so far apart. I could agree with you if all opportunities were lying in front of us at the same time. The Lakes property would be the intelligent pick. But different opportunities at different times always creates the "I would have...I should have ...I could have ...remorse. And of course after the "smart" decision at the time to acquire any of the opportunities the real discoveries and awareness comes into play and you think and realize that more homework should have been done. I'll use the Grand Ave property as an example. That was a very quick decision and probably too quick. There was purported pressure and information that led the Board to think that there was a "competitive Buyer" trying to buy at the same time. So the mind set was to make a fast move so we don't lose it. After all there WAS a great demand for additional club space...right! End result is that that single digit demand does not equal "great demand". No thought or very little as to when funds would be available to fix or build whatever was going to be put on the property. Nor any real thought as to the amount of funds would be needed. If we look at reality of any other large projects it is a 10 to 20 year wait. Will the clubs have the need and desire to move there in 10 to 20 years. Most club members will have "moved on" by then. Oh almost forgot the best part...the competitive buyer for the property was purported to be the car club. At least that was the information being used for the fast action at the time. Knowing what I know now I would not have voted for the purchase.
All of which points to the exact need for a true long range planning committee and not the board doing knee jerks reactions without any real plan.
One thing i would suggest RCSC board members do is look at how much money from the yearly capital budget has gone towards golf. I couldn't understand why there wasn't more in the PIF, and now i know why.
Once the long range planning committee is in place perhaps we can get a better idea how to plan for the next 20 years.
