.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} North of Ankeny along Interstate 35, earthmoving equipment is cutting deep holes for ponds and shaping mounds of dirt into hills, signs of a new golf course that’s taking shape.

The golf course being built on about 200 acres of former farmland on the northeast side of Ankeny will replace the city-owned Otter Creek Golf Course directly south of the new course. On May 21, the Ankeny City Council is expected to approve a redevelopment proposal for the existing golf course with DRA Properties, a company owned by Ankeny businessman Dennis Albaugh. The new course, which is expected to be complete by June 2009, will incorporate about 270 single-family homes.

As part of the redevelopment, Otter Creek will close in October and not reopen until June 2009. The city of Ankeny will continue to run the course.

The redevelopment project is in response to challenges faced by 25-year-old Otter Creek as a result of its aging infrastructure and its location; a proposed interchange on I-35 serving the north side of Ankeny is slated to take land away from the course. Kevin Beard, Otter Creek’s director of golf, said he has been aware of plans for an interchange for several years.

“We knew that we would be losing two of our holes and the driving range,” Beard said. “We’ve had conversations for about four years on a full course redesign.”

In planning for the golf course’s future, the city of Ankeny set its sights on acquiring farmland north of the course to make up for land it would lose to the interchange. But the city wasn’t the only one eyeing that land.

“While we were thinking about approaching our neighbors to the north, some area developers decided they were interested in acquiring that land for housing,” said Carl Metzger, Ankeny’s city manager.

One of those developers, DRA Properties, became the front-runner, and the company and the city began discussing ideas for how they could work together to accomplish their goals. They agreed to a land swap, with much of the golf course moving north to DRA’s newly purchased land and DRA developing housing on the new course. To sweeten the deal, DRA agreed to pay for construction of the new course.

“We came up with a plan that would be cost-neutral to the city, and in the process of exploring this, it just made sense,” Metzger said.

Ted Rapp, a development coordinator for DRA, said his company was willing to partner with the city on the project because “Dennis (Albaugh) likes to do projects that are unique.” He said the company is planning on the value created by the golf course lots to make its investment cost-effective.

Timing is everything

Beard said every hole on the golf course will change with the redevelopment, and the new course will be more challenging and include 20 ponds, a sharp increase from the three it has now. The new course will have four tee boxes at each hole instead of two. The length of the course will increase slightly from about 6,600 to 6,881 yards.

As Otter Creek was facing the expense of replacing its greens and irrigation system in the near future, the redevelopment project addresses two major problems for the course, Beard said. He also expects the makeover to help the course better compete against other public courses.

“Like any kind of product you have to sell, if it gets stagnant, it’s harder to sell,” Beard said. “One way to change that is to redefine your product, and this is doing that in a large way.”

In recent years, newer public golf courses such as the Tournament Club of Iowa in Polk City and The Legacy Golf Club in Norwalk have opened, giving golfers more choices on where to play. Bill Dickens, executive director of the Iowa Golf Association, describes the golf market in Greater Des Moines as “very competitive.”

“There is a lot of golf available in Des Moines,” Dickens said. “Some people in the area feel that we are overpopulated with golf courses.”

Nationally, Dickens said, golf is experiencing a “leveling-off period,” after explosive growth in the 1980s and 1990s. He said the number of rounds that golfers play is declining because people have more demands on their time.

At Otter Creek, Beard said, the number of players has started to tail off in recent years. He said the course has had an average of about 38,000 golfers each year over the past 20 years. In 1999 and 2000, attendance hit a high of 43,000. But in 2005 and 2006, attendance was only about 36,000.

“Our rounds have flattened out quite a bit,” Beard said. “We don’t get the outings we used to because our buildings are not up to snuff.”

Beard is pleased that a new clubhouse is part of the redevelopment plans for Otter Creek. Although plans are still being discussed for the clubhouse, he hopes that a banquet center for up to 400 people will be part of the final plans. He sees potential for a meeting space of that size to fill a need in the community and generate more income for the golf course.

The current Otter Creek Golf Course has a park-like setting with wide-open spaces, but the new course is designed to be more challenging, with 20 ponds and many berms dispersed throughout the layout. Photo by Duane Tinkey

The new clubhouse, which will be built where the current one stands, will be paid for with money from a civic trust fund that was created as part of Prairie Trail, another project DRA is developing in Ankeny.

“The agreement with DRA Properties states that 75 percent of that fund has to be investment on infrastructure for Prairie Trail, and the other 25 percent is ours to use as we wish,” Metzger said.

Metzger said the plan is to use $5 million from the $25 million fund to cover the clubhouse construction and the city’s expenses for the golf course redevelopment. Those expenses include salaries to the golf course staff during the time the course is closed and not generating income.

In a typical year, Metzger said, Otter Creek generates about $1 million in revenues, approximately the same as its expenses. Although expenses will be scaled back during the 20-month shutdown, Metzger expects the city will have to pay about $750,000 in expenses for the course, in addition to having to absorb a loss of about $750,000 in revenues as a result of the course being closed. The city plans to recoup some of its losses with increased property taxes from the new homes on the golf course.

Complicated project

The city of Ankeny hired Paul Miller Design Inc. from Northfield, Minn., to design the residential golf course. After those plans were completed last August, the challenge was deciding where to go from there, Metzger said.

“Early on, we were thinking that we would do all of this while keeping nine holes of the course open to keep some cash flow coming in,” Metzger said. “But there were all kinds of challenges associated with that plan.”

In evaluating whether to keep part of the course open, the city learned that the cost of the project would increase greatly if the course remained open because it would create challenges for the construction crews and extend project timeline by at least a year. In addition, the golf course staff questioned whether people would want to come to the course if it was torn up.

In the end, the decision was made to close Otter Creek after this season. Currently, DRA is working on building eight holes of the new course. In the fall, work will begin on the other 10 holes and a new driving range.

“Shutting it down provides a much more straightforward approach to reaching our goal,” Metzger said.

During the time the course is being worked on, other changes are also planned. DRA expects to have platting completed for as many as 120 homes. Rapp said it’s too early to say what the homes will cost because the builders have not been selected. But he expects pricing to be comparable to homes at The Legacy and nearby Briarwood Golf Course in Ankeny, for “second- or third-time buyers.”

“Golf course lots come at a premium,” Rapp said, “and about 80 percent of the lots will be walk-outs, which comes at another premium.”

Rapp expects the housing development to take four to five years to complete, depending on market conditions. He said the project is an interesting one to work on because it involves so many people.

“It can be complicated,” Rapp said. “The golf course designer has a way that he wants things to look and feel, and you have engineering issues that you have to take into consideration with single-family homes.”

DRA’s project plans also call for relocating the 10-acre Otter Creek Park to make way for commercial and high-density residential development along the interstate. The park will move to the southwest corner of the existing golf course.

Changes bring challenges

Beard said getting the new course ready is going to require a lot of work by his staff, followed by additional challenges once the course is open.

“We are obviously looking forward to the new clubhouse and a better golf course,” Beard said, “but I don’t know that any of us on staff are looking forward to the huge amount of work this is going to involve. Our crews will be working up until the end to get the grasses in, fix washouts and get the fairways, roughs and greens established.”

He also expects additional work for the staff with booking weddings and special events at the new clubhouse. In addition, Beard worries about luring players back after construction is complete. Already, two leagues have left Otter Creek in anticipation of its closing.

“We will be beating the bushes to get players out,” he said. He is thankful that greens fees are not expected to increase much, if at all, since the city will not incur much expense in the redevelopment project.

Because it will be a residential course, Beard expects to encounter residents trickling onto the course and complaints about errant golf shots hitting homes. But in the end, he expects the new residential component of the course to be a good change.

“The housing development will affect the course greatly, but it will also give us an additional base of potential members,” Beard said.