Wednesday, Sept. 22, 2004 | 11:14 a.m.
A proposed land swap expected to get Henderson its first city-owned golf course moved forward Tuesday, when the City Council unanimously supported the transaction that will now return for a final council vote on Nov. 2.
The proposed deal calls for the city to give 126.5 acres of vacant land to Wildhorse Enterprises in exchange for the Wildhorse Golf Course plus $5.8 million. Top city officials said if the deal goes through as planned, city residents could be playing golf in early November at the course near the intersection of Green Valley Parkway and Warm Springs Road.
Wildhorse Enterprises is a partnership of The Walters Group, headed by Las Vegas developer Billy Walters, and American Nevada Co., which is owned by the Greenspun family, publishers of the Las Vegas Sun.
City officials have been wanting to open a municipal course for years. But plans for a course on one of the parcels now being being traded fell through more than two years ago, and plans to turn a closed landfill into a golf course have not come to fruition.
The land deal for Wildhorse, which has been closed since February, "will enable us to have a golf course, and save water, and save a mature neighborhood," Mayor Jim Gibson said, adding that the amount of grass at the course has been reduced in recent months.
The land the city would trade in the deal includes about 60 acres off Sunset Road at the intersection with Arroyo Grande Boulevard in an area known as Whitney Mesa. That piece of city-owned land was part of a larger parcel the city bought in 1999 for roughly $90,000 an acre and had been considered for the city's first municipal golf course, city officials said.
The deal also includes another 66.3 acres of city-owned land off Horizon Ridge Parkway east of Gibson Road, which the city bought from the federal government in 1969 for about $30,000, John Rinaldi, manager of the city Office of Property Management and Redevelopment, said.
Combined, the city land in this proposed deal was recently appraised at $40.2 million, or roughly $317,500 per acre, according to city documents.
The appraisal of the city-owned land seems in line with some recent land sales. Greystone Homes recently paid $310,136 an acre for 13.2 acres near the intersection of American Pacific and Stephanie Street, according to Home Builders Research.
The Wildhorse property includes the 137.8-acre golf course, plus five well sites that combined are about one-tenth of an acre near the Pittman Wash and Green Valley Parkway. That land was appraised at almost $34.4 million, or roughly $249,000 an acre, according to city documents.
The appraisals of the market value of the properties were done by outside appraisers agreed upon by the city and Wildhorse Enterprise officials, Rinaldi said.
The city-owned property was appraised as if single-family homes would be built on it, which is the proposal for that land. The golf course was appraised as if it would remain a golf course, Rinaldi said.
Because of the differences in the appraised values of the properties involved, the proposed deal also includes Wildhorse Enterprises paying the city about $5.8 million.
The city is already negotiating with potential operators of the golf course, and Rinaldi said a management agreement could be ready for council approval in early October, which would put the course on track for a November opening.
The mayor and some council members have said that with a city-owned golf course, the city could offer its residents affordable rounds of golf.
Boulder City's experience with its $22 million Boulder Creek Golf Club, which has lost at least $3 million since it opened in January 2003, had Councilwoman Amanda Cyphers somewhat skeptical of the city going into the golf business.
But her fellow council members have said the differences between the two situations would be great. For example, Henderson wouldn't have to borrow money to build the course, and Henderson has more than 10 times as many residents as Boulder City.
Rinaldi said preliminary city estimates show a Henderson-owned Wildhorse Golf Course would cost more to operate than it would take in during its first year open. After that the the course would break even financially, he said.
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