Running Lake Wilderness Golf Course won’t cost the taxpayers of Maple Valley anywhere near the amount it did last year.
The golf course is estimated to require a total of $80,000 in subsidies from the city, a 285 percent decrease from last year, when it cost the city $228,000.
City Manager David Johnston attributes the sharp decline to two factors: the Lake Wilderness Golf Course Task Force and changes made by the contract manager.
“First of all, I think the work of the Golf Course Task Force last year show it was the first time the city took a hard look at that operation,” Johnston said. “I think it really made more and more people in the community aware of the golf course, its operation and the market that we have to operate it in.”
The Lake Wilderness Golf Task Force was formed in June 2010 in order to review the operation and find a way to lower its costs to the city. Ever since the city purchased the golf course in 2006, it has needed funding from the city to break even. Though the golf course itself brings in a small profit annually, the Lake Wilderness Grill continued to operate at a loss. From 2007 to 2009 revenue for the restaurant dropped more than 50 percent.
The task force, comprised of a variety of individuals who lived in Maple Valley or used the golf course, spent six months reviewing before they made several recommendations in December 2010.
“It was a comprehensive approach,” Johnston said.
One of their recommendations was to close the Lake Wilderness Grill and open up a sports bar.
The task force, Johnston stated, “Pretty much said the operation as an enterprise the city can’t sustain subsidies like it is. The first way you do that is you look at the way they were doing business.”
The restaurant, Johnston explained, did not have a good business model.
“They had a full service restaurant, full service bar,” he said. “There wasn’t the demand to meet the level of service they were providing.”
The restaurant remained operational, albeit it now only opens at 4 p.m., and has significantly limited its food service.
“They changed the menu from dinner to one that supports more bar activity,” said Johnston. “You don’t have all of the different types of salad offerings. They didn’t have to buy as much food to keep in the freezer. It all steamrolls when you reduce the level of operation.”
Another result of the task force’s findings was a 12 month extension of Premier Golf Center’s management of the golf course. Seattle-based Premier Golf Center has managed it since 2007, about six months after the city bought the property.
“It seems like they’re doing a pretty decent job,” Johnston said.
Johnston stated he hopes the amount of money the city puts into the course will continue to decrease in the upcoming years.
“Our charge is to break even or make it a profitable business,” he said. “And so that’s one of the mandates that Premier received from us. You’ve got to pay attention to costs and how you do business.”
