The Week That Was, october 20, 2013

     All that glitters may not be gold, but Donald Trump’s golf venue in Scotland continues to sparkle. Last year, the value of Trump International Golf Links Scotland increased by more than £8 million (nearly $13 million), from £20.3 million ($32.8 million) to £28.4 million ($45.9 million).

     Spanish Peaks, a private golf and ski community in Big Sky, Montana, has closed, and its owners may file for bankruptcy protection, according to a letter addressed to property owners. Scott Johnson, the community’s general manager, blamed its financial troubles on “the long and protracted recession” and a resulting lack of real estate sales. It’s possible, however, that prospective home buyers had others reasons to steer clear of Spanish Peaks. Earlier this year, the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports, a local court determined that the community “deceived customers when it didn’t tell them that pricey lots they were buying were located on active landslides.” Ironically, Spanish Peaks has closed just a month after a press release with Johnson’s name on it said that there’s “a bunch of positive ‘mojo’ going on in our little community.” The press release also credited Cross Harbor Capital, the owner of Spanish Peaks and the nearby Yellowstone Club, with the revival taking place in Big Sky. So maybe you can’t have a rosy future without a few thorns.

     A Manhattan-based restaurateur has unveiled plans to revive the defunct Big Vanilla resort outside Fallsburg, New York, in the heart of what used to be the Borscht Belt. Misa Chang, who owns a chain of Szechuan eateries, bought the property that will become the Davos Resort USA sometime around the turn of the century. To create what the Middletown Times Herald-Record calls “a destination for people interested in healthy living,” Chang plans to build a new ski lodge and to add a 101-room hotel, a winery, and an 18-hole golf course surrounded by 100 condos. Chinese investors are expected to finance the construction, via the U.S. government program that trades green cards for big-money investments that create jobs.

     Say what you want about Donald Trump, but the bottom line is that he gets things done. A case in point is the finally completed Jack Nicklaus “signature” golf course in Ferry Point Park, which New York City has had in some stage of planning or construction for well over a decade. Nicklaus told the Wall Street Journal that Trump, who got involved in the project in 2010, “did a really good job of getting it to the finish line,” and Trump didn’t disagree, saying, “I sent the roughest guys there. I sent construction guys that eat nails.” The 7,365-yard track, which has been designed to serve as a venue for professional tournaments, will get a soft opening next year and have its official debut in 2015. Naturally, Trump believes it’ll be “one of the top golf courses in the United States and, indeed, the world.”

     Later this week, elected officials in St. Paul, Minnesota may agree to seek private-sector operators for two of their three golf properties. The number of rounds played at the city’s courses has fallen by 27 percent since 2005, and this year the trio -- Como Golf Course, Phalen Golf Course, and the 27-hole Highland National golf complex -- are expected to lose $1 million. “Running golf courses in St. Paul has been a big loser since 2005, to the tune of several hundred thousand dollars a year,” a spokesman for the parks and recreation department told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. “We’ve been looking at ways to make it successful, and it just hasn't been.” If the city council approves a proposal that’s been put on the table, the 18-hole Como and Phalen courses will be put out for bid. For now, the parks and recreation department plans to continue operating the courses in Highland Park -- the newspaper says they’re “on slightly better financial footing” -- but they may eventually need professional help as well.

     If a wind farm in the ocean off Trump International Golf Links Scotland would inevitably destroy Scotland’s tourism industry, as Donald Trump insists, what will be the impact of a wind farm within view of the Old Course at St. Andrews? St. Andrews University has secured government approval to build a half-dozen wind turbines, each of them 328 feet tall, just three miles from the world’s most revered links. The turbines will be visible from several areas of the course. The university’s proposal has been controversial, but the Daily Telegraph reports that the St. Andrews Trust, the entity that manages St. Andrews’ seven courses, “did not object to the wind farm” and is “relaxed about the decision.”

     Blackstone Group has found a buyer for the Waldorf Astoria in Naples, Florida. Northwood Investors, a real estate investment group, has purchased the resort-style hotel, whose featured attraction is the 13-year-old Naples Grande Golf Course. According to WorldGolf.com, Naples Grande’s Rees Jones-designed track is an “old-fashioned parkland layout” with traits that golfers “used to love but which have largely disappeared from the modern course-design lexicon,” in particular “small greens that are treacherous if you miss long.” The company that marketed the property views the sale as evidence of the growing appeal that luxury hotels have for foresighted investors. “The market for Florida oceanfront resorts is not only back, it’s thriving at a level that we have not seen since 2006 or 2007,” said Daniel Peek of HFF. “The story is not just about Miami anymore. Investors and lenders are competing to enter all of the resort markets across the state.” The terms of the sale haven’t been revealed.

     The city of Casselberry, Florida is thinking about buying a financially challenged golf course, secure in the knowledge that the track will almost certainly lose money every year for the foreseeable future. A consultant has determined that the city will lose $200,000 a year, and maybe more, if it buys Casselberry Golf Club, a nearly 70-year-old facility that needs capital improvements. Nonetheless, the city believes it has a compelling reason to begin negotiations, because a purchase would preserve open space and prevent the course’s ownership group from developing the property, as it aims to do. Before a check is written, however, city officials must answer a critical question: Would the purchase benefit the community at large or merely the 200 home owners who live immediately adjacent to the course?

     This week, the nation’s first and still best golf trail celebrates a major milestone. The 21-year-old Robert Trent Jones Golf Trail, Alabama’s only true claim to fame, will ring up its 10 millionth round. If the rounds had been distributed equally, and if the courses had all opened at the same time, each of the 11 properties on the trail would’ve attracted 909,090 rounds. If you’re wondering, that’s almost 43,300 rounds a year.