- April 24, 2024
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Palm Coast city councilman Steve Nobile isn't quite satisfied with the answers he's gotten so far on the city-owned Palm Harbor Golf Club and tennis center, which have lost money year after year despite pledges five years ago by management company KemperSports to turn them around.
"What I would like to see is a presentation first that shows the use at the tennis court and the golf courses compared to our other amenities, so parks, and trails and things like that," Nobile said at a Palm Coast City Council meeting Jan. 19. "If we’re going label this an amenity, I’d like to see how it compares with other amenities that we provide, in both cost and use."
The city acquired the properties in 2008. KemperSports pledged to make them profitable, but that hasn't happened, and they've together lost hundreds of thousands of dollars per year each year since.
The golf course's estimated loss for the 2015-2016 fiscal year is $296,881, according to a KemperSports presentation before the council last week. It was $346,191 in the 2014-2015 fiscal year and $315,000 in the 2013-2014 fiscal year.
The tennis center's projected loss for 2015-2016 is $81,000. Its loss for the 2014-2015 fiscal year was $84,951, and its loss for the 2013-2014 year was $98,237, according to the presentation.
The city makes up those losses, and has placed the golf course and tennis center under the purview of the city's parks and recreation department, with other properties that aren't expected to turn a profit. But unlike parks and trails, the tennis center and golf club aren't free to users, and they're managed by a private company, not by city staff.
Meanwhile, Nobile pointed out, the golf course competes with other area courses that are privately owned, putting the city in the position of competing with private businesses.
"We’re talking about a city-owned entity pulling clients, basically, from a privately owned entity," he said. "So what’s going to happen? It seems at some point, somebody’s going to close. So it bothers me that we’re in competition with a private entity."
If the city's goal with the properties truly isn't to make money, but to treat them as parks, Nobile said, he'd like a City Council presentation and discussion "to get everybody on the same page, that that was our goal."
A few residents expressed their frustration with the arrangement during the meeting's public comment period.
"Five years ago ... we were assured by the company that maintains it, that we would break out even," Palm Coast resident Jack Carall said. "That’s five years go. …When, just when, are we going to break out even and stop paying for somebody else’s enjoyment?"
Another resident, John Brady, said he could see the wisdom of providing recreational opportunities for residents. But, he said, "If we have a management company that’s telling us we’re losing money, what do we need them for?"
City Councilman Bill McGuire said there weren't any easy options for the golf course property.
"We can talk about the history of the golf course, and I think that’s good. The problem is we have no alternatives," he said. "We have a golf course that we can’t sell. ... If you got rid of Kemper and you hired your own people to run that course, the savings isn’t really enough to justify that. … At the end of the day, we’re stuck with a golf course that nobody wants to buy, and if we shut it down, the expenses don’t stop."
