N E W C O U R S E S A N D R E N O VAT I O N S
An artist’s rendering of the planned condo and hotel tower to be built near the tip of Monkey Island at Grand Lake, the centerpiece of the new Peninsula Resort & Club.
Grand plans for Peninsula By KEN MACLEOD If Oklahoma is to successfully compete with surrounding states for tourism dollars, projects such as The Peninsula Resort & Club on Grand Lake and Pointe Vista at Lake Texoma will be the reasons why. The two massive projects both hope to break ground this year. Both are counting on the Oklahoma Legislature to provide some tax relief in the form of credits, a prospect to be determined later this spring. At The Peninsula, sales of condo units planned in the initial $160,000 million development have also begun. Owner Peter Boylan III has said the project must pre-sell 32 units at up to $1.5 million each before his development partner Presidian will commence building the 16-story condo and 150room hotel tower. Also in the initial project will be a 45,0000 square foot conference center, a restaurant, yacht club and marina including dry storage for smaller boats, spa, and possibly a wellness center. Matt Benn, director of golf at Shangri-La, said there has been tremendous interest in the condo units since promotions began early in the year. “What we’re finding is the Kansas City market is really fed up with the overcrowding at places like Lake of the Ozarks. Then on the corporate side you have a huge untapped market in northwest Arkansas. A lot of those folks didn’t even know that Grand Lake existed.” Benn said numerous companies through8
out Oklahoma that are now having meetings and conventions in Branson or Las Colinas, Texas, would return to Oklahoma if the facilities were there. The Peninsula project, if completed, would go beyond the original grandeur of Shangri-La, which once attracted as many as 100,000 visitors a year. Those facilities were allowed to run down or were sold off piece meal by previous owners. The former lodge and guestrooms are being converted to a sales office in which potential condo buyers can step onto a faux balcony, flip a switch and see the lake view on a giant wall projector of any condo they may be considering. Benn’s pro shop will also be housed there while the towers are being constructed. The hotel and condo towers are located where the former fitness facilities were, while the convention center location will remain the same. From a golf standpoint, little will change during the initial phase. If all goes as planned, the Gold Course, currently wedged onto 80 acres, will be consolidated to nine new holes built around several mid-level condo towers. A second nine will be built on land to the north of the current maintenance barn. The consolidation and the new nine will be handled by Bland Pittman of Pittman-Poe @ Associates in Tulsa. The Blue Course will remain the flagship course for the facility and recent upgrades in equipment and maintenance have the course in prime condition.
Benn said three factors are crucial to the development’s success. One is the presale of the 32 condo units and there has been great interest in that. The second is approval by the Federal Energy & Regulatory Commission on the resort’s request for an expanded marina. The third is the tax incentive plan. Rep. Doug Cox, R-Grove, a staunch supporter of The Penisula, unsuccessfully tried to push through a $30 million tax incentive plan in 2006. This year he is waiting for legal teams for The Peninsula and Pointe Vista, the group that has purchased the Lake Texoma resort from the Commissioners of Land Office, to present a plan on how to pursue the tax credits in this legislative session, which concludes in May. “It will probably go into the tax package bill that we look at in the last month,” Cox said. “At this point the legal people from each project are working with each other to come up with a plan to present to us. “I would like to see both projects succeed. In this case, I think one plus one equals three for the state of Oklahoma.” Randy Heckenkemper, architect of the Chickasaw Pointe course at Lake Texoma, said he is currently working on a redesign of the course to accommodate plans for the resort and condos at what will be called Pointe Vista Resort. He expects construction on the resort and re-routing of the golf course to commence in the fall of 2007.
EMERALD FALLS GOLF CLUB
One section project that has generated much curiosity and anticipation is the upscale Emerald Falls, located several miles east of Forest Ridge, which has long been recognized as the flagship of upscale daily fee courses in the section. Can a similarly priced course (anticipated greens fees are $75 weekends, $65 weekdays including cart and range balls) within five miles generate the play necessary to pay bills and sell real estate, as more than 650 lots are available? The Oklahoma-based ownership group is betting on it. “We know we’ve got to provide something unique,” said Director of Golf Operations Billy Neal, who knows something about customer service having worked for the Landmark team at PGA West. “We’ve got a great layout, and our conditioning and customer service will set us apart.” Some of those touches Neal mentioned will include greeters in the parking lot and bottled water provided on the carts. The course will be the first in Oklahoma to have the acclaimed Zorro zoysia, with an extremely fine blade, on the fairways, with SOUTH CENTRAL GOLF
