The Bayou District Foundation's Proposed Land Grab
While the loss of public park land in City Park's version of the revised 2007 Master Plan is disturbing, it pales in comparison to the Bayou District Foundation's "Conceptual Master Plan" for City Park, which is downright chilling. Basically, the entirety of City Park north of I-610 would become an extension of their new housing development across the bayou. The North Course would cease to exist, its land used for the BDF's new softball and soccer complexes, the Police Stables are no more, and the Couturie Forest is shrunken and surrounded by golf courses.

How inconvenient that so many critics, lowly New Orleans residents all, have interfered with their plans to take over all of this "underutilized" public property for their private development concerns.

From their "Highlights of the Bayou District of New Orleans", they claim their plan is to:
-Redevelop approximately 1,300 acres of New Orleans City Park, the country's second-largest urban park;
-Plans include two 18-hole championship golf courses, a nine-hole executive golf course, a First Tee Learning Facility and eight baseball, softball and soccer fields;
-Golf facility will be affordable to New Orleans residents and tourists;
-The revitalized course will be the home of the PGA Tour supported First Tee of New orleans and will be capable of hosting local, regional and national golf and other sports events;
-A portion of the proceeds from the golf operations will be available to support the vocational, pre-school, after school and other programs within the new Bayou District residential community, an estimated $1,500,000 annually;
-The Fore!Kids Foundation will manage the golf operations and New Orleans City Park will manage the recreation. >>


City Park golf complex is in final design phase
It's been nearly a year since City Park officials said anything publicly about their post-Katrina commitment to bring a championship golf complex to the storm-ravaged site of the old East and West courses. But City Park CEO Bob Becker is adamant that the ambitious project is alive and well. Becker said last week that the design phase for the facility is heading into the home stretch. His board of commissioners expects to solicit construction bids by the fall and award a contract and break ground by year's end.

"The good thing is it's in final design," Becker said. "That's a huge step forward, and we're on track to choose a contractor by mid-September."

Exactly what the course will look like, however, is still unclear. >>


New Orleans City Park officials optimistic about championship golf course
By most accounts, the ongoing recovery at New Orleans' City Park from an estimated $43 million in damage caused by Hurricane Katrina has been remarkable, as beloved attractions return better than ever and flashy, new ones come on line.

The lone pothole on the park's comeback trail has been the inability of administrators to close a deal with private investors on a proposed championship golf course. >>


City Park golf course project is nearing 18th hole
A painstaking push to restore City Park’s storm-battered golf complex appears to be nearing an end as officials consider a scaled-down version they hope will lead to a long-term management agreement for a proposed championship course.

The revised plan — which scuttles a 9-hole course and reduces from 310 acres to 250 acres the space needed for the new, 18-hole layout — is scheduled to go before the City Park board of commissioners on March 22. >>


Developers coming to City Park's golf courses
Our championship-level golf course on the west bank has flopped, requiring close to $30 million in taxpayer subsidies over the last few years, but are we discouraged?

No, sir. The way we figure it, if one PGA-style course proves ruinous, the best way to make a bunch of money is to build another one, this time in City Park.

Mr. Micawber would approve of the business plan. Park commissioners must figure something will turn up, because, having received three proposals, they have given the nod to one with a budget that exceeds the available cash by $9 million. >>


Audubon Golf Course: Lessons for City Park?
Reprinted from and courtesy of SaveAudubonPark.org
In honor of Bob Becker's current foray into the world of constructing expensive new golf courses, this time in his role as CEO of City Park rather than VP of Planning for the Audubon Institute, a job he held until July 2001, we thought it was time to remind people ONCE AGAIN of how this one turned out. Who knows: some day, reality may prevail over hype and misinformation. >>


Legislature set to bail out struggling golf course
$9 million plan saves La. money, backers say
BATON ROUGE -- The Legislature is poised to sign off on a $9.2 million bailout of the financially struggling Tournament Players Club Louisiana golf course near Avondale on top of the $18.4 million the state has poured into the private project in the past decade.

Among the factors driving the deal is a clause in an old contract that could allow the 250-acre site to revert to the private donors of the land unless the course is maintained by professional golf tournament operators.

Proponents of the deal have pitched it as a money-saver for the state, a conclusion they reached by assuming that the current state subsidy would expand over a seven-year period at a cost of $14.6 million. But the current subsidy, which has been widely criticized, is expiring this year and no such obligation exists for that cost-saving comparison. >>


"Due diligence"?! Golf and money figures just never add up.
Responding to May 21 Times Picayune article
The City Park Golf Projections done by Economic Research Associates were downloadable from their website and are also attached here. Assuming the 36-hole plan that keeps the North Course open (since that is likely to be the only one fundable): at year 3, which is the first year both courses are fully open, they're projecting net operating revenues of $3,573,000, net operating expenses of $3,048,000 (including cost of goods sold), and net operating income of only $525,000.

This is basically the same revenues as the old courses pre-Katrina, higher expenses as would be expected, but not a whole lot of improvement in net income to show for it all. At year 5, there is an inexplicable increase in rounds played, which trigger an equally inexplicable but steadily increasing rise in revenues and net income.

However, even these low income figures in year 3 are based on 56,000 rounds of golf being played at City Park, 38,000 at the old North Course and 24,000 at the new championship course! In Louisiana, the average number of rounds per course in 2007 and 2008 was under 22,000/year; even at the TPC Louisiana course, reaching 26,000 rounds in 2007 and 2008 was considered a highly successful number (From a Times-Picayune article of 4-19-09, "Going for the Green").

From where and with whom are these remarkable rounds of golf going to materialize? There is no explanation attached for how these numbers were derived, and they seem absurd... yet we are supposed to believe that the City Park Board has practiced "due diligence" by accepting them? >>


Bayou District Foundation considers City Park ripe for the picking
An "underutilized" resource, the favorite catch phrase of developers
Bayou District Foundation believes that City Park golf was an underutilized resource before Hurricane Katrina -- however, if the course is properly supported, it could become one of the finest public golf facilities in the United States.

As with so many other aspects of life in New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina totally reconfigured the picture. City Park's golf courses were largely shattered. Irrigation, piping, electrical and sanitation facilities were all destroyed by the floodwaters of Katrina. Out of state contractors hacked up many of the golf courses oak trees and the courses were left with large gouges and craters where heavy equipment had settled.

Out of this mess, the Bayou District Foundation leadership saw an opportunity. What if City Park could combine some of its disaster relief funds with private dollars provided by Bayou District Foundation and create a world class public golf facility? This would solve the financing problem that vexed earlier efforts to improve golf in the park using only private funding and would advance golf in the Park far above what could have been done exclusively with existing FEMA funds (which by statute could only be used to restore golf in the park to pre storm conditions.)

From the Bayou District Foundation website: their private plan for our public park:

Bayou District Foundation's fundamental goal is to help create a city neighborhood that thrives from excellent housing, nearby high quality schools and retail services and abundant recreational resources for youth. Since the Bayou District borders the historic New Orleans City Park golf courses, as well as the park's many other recreation and youth sports amenities, the redevelopment of the park's dormant golf facilities, in particular, has become a committed objective of the Bayou District Foundation's recreational plan. >>


Public housing, golf and redevelopment
What does golf have to do with the redevelopment of public housing in New Orleans? Golf-loving former HUD Director Alphonso Jackson made sure they would be connected, when his agency chose the Bayou District Foundation to spearhead the redevelopment of the St. Bernard Housing Development. Bayou Foundation joined forces with Fore Kids Foundation and the Baton Rouge Foundation to help put the project together. For profit Colombia Residential joined the team as the developer.

Bayou District Foundation is, or was, banking on revenue from the proposed PGA-style golf course to fund a host of social services it plans for the St. Bernard site. In a recent City Business Article ( May 18, 2009), it is revealed that there is no money to complete two thirds of the proposed redevelopment. One third of the redevelopment, 466 "mixed income" units will open by November, according to the
article. One-third of those units will be for former residents of the St. Bernard Housing Development, if they qualify, under a host of new rules.

On Bayou District Foundation's website, the site continues to link to a Times Picayune (Nov. 27th, 2007) article stating the Foundation is counting on revenue from the proposed PGA style golf course for City Park. However, City Park CEO Bob Becker in recent public statements has cast doubt on the use of that revenue outside of the park, if and when the golf course is built. >>


A brief summary of the participants and genesis of the Bayou District Foundation plan for City Park
An attempt to make sense of how we got to this point.
The Bayou District Foundation's plan is to emulate the success of East Lake at the old St Bernard Housing Project, using City Park's public golf courses in place of the private East Lake Golf Club and the public Charlie Yates Golf Club. It would cost almost as much to play at the proposed new City Park Golf Course as it would at the private East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.

To make sense of how a simple $21 million renovation of the existing golf courses in City Park morphed into a plan for a private non-profit foundation to take ownership of the public land through a 90-year lease and build a $46 million golf complex instead, one must start at the beginning, with Atlanta's East Lake Golf Club.

In 1993, developer Tom Cousins purchased the derelict East Lake Golf Club adjacent to the notorious East Lake Meadows housing project in Atlanta for $4.5 million, and invested $25 million into its renovation, with Rees Jones as the course architect.

In 1995, Cousins formed the East Lake Community Foundation (ELCF, now called East Lake Foundation) to partner with the Atlanta Housing Authority (AHA) on the redevelopment of the adjoining housing project into the mixed-income "Villages at East Lake" with the aid of a $33.5 million HUD HOPE VI grant, a public-private partnership similar to what happened here in New Orleans with the St Thomas Housing Project redevelopment in the late 1990's. The ELCF then went on to incorporate a charter school, a YMCA, a pre-school, and a First Tee program for young golfers, held at the Rees Jones designed Charlie Yates Golf Course, a public par 58, 18-hole course opened in 1998, and built within the East Lake community next door to the private East Lake Golf Club. >>


Outlook for golf in New Orleans area sobering
During the past few months, I have met with many prominent people connected with the local golf industry. Not surprisingly, their business reflects the current state of our economy. To borrow a golf phrase, the bottom line is below par.

That is OK if one is actually playing the game, but not so good if one is trying to balance the books.

Some area golf facilities have reached the point of no return. The next 12 months could determine whether their doors remain open. Other facilities appear to be better positioned to weather the storm and not be pulled under by a strengthening economic riptide. Still others are venturing out into the great unknown, specifically the new Lakewood Golf Club in Algiers and the Bayou District Foundation, which is trying to win over the Board of Commissioners at City Park and begin construction on a $46 million golf complex by the end of the year. >>


Average Joe not part of City Park golf plan
What's not to like about the Bayou District Foundation working to create "a new mixed income community, complete with schools and recreation facilities, in the old St. Bernard housing community?"

What's not to like about the Bayou District using golf as "an organizing theme as well as an ongoing funding source for special programs designed to revitalize the distressed public housing community, " all of it aimed at "allowing low-income families of the neighborhood to work their way out of poverty?"

Nothing whatsoever.

However, when it comes to the role golf, and City Park, are being asked to play in this laudable venture, I have a problem. >>


Massive City Park Golf Course Best Use of Space?
Below are comments Faubourg St. John Neighborhood Association member David Muth sent to his neighborhood organization regarding the golf course in City Park prior to a public meeting held March 10, 2009. A decision could be made as early as March 24, when the City Park Board of Commissioners meets at the Pavilion of the Two Sisters. If approved, construction on Phase 1 of the project could begin this year.

March 10, 2009
Thanks for the heads up about the new City Park golf proposal. I went online to read it, and compare it to the 2005 Master Plan it will supersede.

One of the joys of City Park post-Katrina has been that the vast 400+ acre golf complex between I-610 and Robert E. Lee has been available as a public greenspace. For the first time since the former swamp was drained and cleared, people have been out walking, jogging, bike-riding, flying kites, birding, and picnicking as well as fishing in the formerly inaccessible lagoons. Public land used for a public purpose, instead of for the exclusive use of the tiny minority who play golf. Last year City Park re-opened the north course, closing everything between Filmore and Robert E. Lee once again to public use. But the golf area between 1-610 and Filmore has remained open. If you haven’t been out there, give it a visit. The paved golf cart trails are perfect for strolling or bike riding. Wildlife, especially birds, are everywhere. >>


Golf Complex Plan Unveiled by City Park
$46 million project to be done in two phases
The City Park board of commissioners unveiled a "master plan" Tuesday that would convert hundreds of dormant acreage into a new $46 million golf complex on which construction could begin by the end of 2009.

Phase 1 would cost approximately $24.5 million and include the construction of an 18-hole championship course, clubhouse, access road to the clubhouse and parking, driving range, range clubhouse and maintenance facility, all encompassed between I-610 and Filmore Avenue and bounded east by Marconi Boulevard and west by Wisner Boulevard. >>


New Orleans proposal links St. Bernard and City Park
Golf fees would help finance development
In its bid to create an ambitious mixed-use development at the site of the St. Bernard public housing complex the Bayou District Foundation, a nonprofit with financial ties to restored City Park golf courses, might be accused of post-Katrina fantasizing.

Golf and public housing may seem like odd bedfellows. But the plan uses as its model Atlanta's East Lake housing and golf development that replaced a notorious Atlanta public housing complex with what by all accounts has become a thriving mixed-income neighborhood. That unique project taps the golf revenue to finance education and recreation programs for families in subsidized housing. >>