Canton is setting its sights high in an effort to get the news out that its golf course is for sale, by putting money down to advertise in one of the nation’s most well-read business newspapers.
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Janet Pelletier | Ledger-News
Doug Atkins, golf course superintendent for the Fairways of Canton, mows the grass at the shuttered course Aug. 25.
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The city sent out a request for proposals (RFP) Aug. 25 for the Fairways of Canton after the Canton Building Authority, which officially owns the course, met Aug. 16 to discuss options.
“We have developed RFPs, and those are being advertised in the Wall Street Journal national edition beginning (Aug. 25),” City Manager Scott Wood said. “Those advertisements will appear on Wednesdays and Saturdays and then in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Sundays.”
Wood said he recognizes that the cost to advertise in the WSJ — $2,200 — is pricey, but said he’s hoping the national exposure will pay off.
The ad will run in the WSJ for five weeks and will be online daily.
“We’ve had a number of people expressing interest in a maintenance and/or management contract for the golf course,” Wood said. “Our interest at this point is focused on a disposition, selling the golf course. We may or may not consider management or maintenance options in the future, but our first preference and our immediate course is to pursue outright sale of the facility.”
The course, which opened in 2007 in the Laurel Canyon community, was a $6-million public-private partnership financed equally between the city (via the Canton Building Authority for $3 million), the developer, Laurel Canyon LLC, and associated entities, Levitt and Sons and Laurel Canyon Golf, which ran the course, for the remaining $3 million. Canton has made two $300,000 payments from the city’s general fund toward the course, but still owes $2.4 million.
It’s unclear what interested parties may offer for a selling price, and the city has not conducted an appraisal, Wood said.
“I think whatever bid options are presented will represent an appraisal,” Wood said, adding that while advertising in a high-profile publication is pricey, an appraisal would be expensive and would take one to two weeks to conduct in a situation where time is of the essence.
The deadline for RFPs is Sept. 30.
In the meantime, golf course Superintendent Doug Atkins and Assistant Golf Course Superintendent Tom Leppert have been grooming the greens and fairways. They were able to continue their work after the building authority approved a $40,000 request for landscaping costs that, in-part, covers their services.
Ward I City Councilman Bob Rush, who lives in Soleil at Laurel Canyon, said the prime planting time for the grass is now through the end of September.
A recent visit to the Fairways clubhouse showed bare walls, missing fixtures and a virtually empty kitchen, save for a soda fountain and protruding wires. The golf shop had also been reduced to a skeleton with just a few mesh bags of golf balls and some blueprints to spare behind the former pro shop counter. Golf carts had previously been returned to the company that leased them out.
