Missed opportunities as ‘$7 million’ Revelstoke Golf Club deal crumbles

Negotiations between the City of Revelstoke and Calgary investment firm Citrus Capital Partners to revamp the struggling Revelstoke Golf Club stalled in a sudden and quite likely permanent fashion on Friday, August 28.

Citrus Capital Partners managing partner Larry Shelley (left) and team leader, hospitality and entertainment James Costello presented to a busy Revelstoke auditorium. Photo: Emily Kemp/Revelstoke Mountaineer file photo

The city’s director of community economic development Alan Mason invited Citrus’s managing partner Larry Shelley to meet, while he was in town, along with the city’s new chief administrative officer (CAO) Allan Chabot and the director of corporate administration Dawn Levesque.

The meeting lasted about ten minutes and discussions quickly nosedived with a strong reaction from Shelley.

“He was pretty firm in his response, that, I believe he said, the deal is dead,” Chabot said.

Many promises and commitments have been made in the last six months regarding the much-needed redevelopment of the Revelstoke Golf Club and the purpose of the meeting was to clear up some points to progress onto finalizing the deal.

“Our intention was to advance the discussions and the key business terms to be reflected in the lease. It really was, I think, it was high time that more clarity around certain things was achieved, so that was our objective,” Chabot said.

Shelley spoke candidly on Wednesday, September 2 to the Revelstoke Mountaineer about his frustration at receiving a three-page document, outlining 21 points that had to be addressed in order to close the deal.

“Of that 15 points drastically changed the agreement and had nothing to do with the fact we were going by a different set of rules [not-for-profit],” Shelley said.

A crowd of Revelstoke residents listened to ideas for the Revelstoke Golf Club at an April, 2015 presentation by Citrus Capital. Photo: Emily Kemp/Revelstoke Mountaineer.

“I couldn’t believe that, I was absolutely stunned, that the CAO was not the least bit concerned about that. I said ‘You understand that you are changing the contract altogether, you understand that that the golf course is in dire need of a financial partner?’ Without any iteration of our budget numbers, Citrus does not make a return in 10 to 15 years.”

Citrus was planning to invest $7 million for a 30-year lease agreement, Shelley said, and have made progress with preliminary designs for the redevelopment and secured staff for new roles at the golf course. But it appears none of this will go ahead.

“Under the scenario they set out, I don’t believe anyone can go forward,” Shelley said. “I think to resolve the issue of the Revelstoke Golf Club, you have to leave room for entrepreneurial innovation. You can’t do that in the context of a bureaucratic dominated environment. You can’t on one hand ask us to spend several million on the redevelopment and on the other hand be treated by the bureaucracy as an asset that [they] own. That’s where the whole thing falls apart.”

Chabot, who started in his role last month, has come into the negotiations late but indicated that the meeting was a discussion that needed to happen.

“I basically inherited a lease document that had been circulated and was made aware of commitments and promise that were made. My involvement in this file were pretty notional, having only been here a short time,” he said.

The clubhouse. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer

“I think there needed to be clarity around certain items, and it certainly wasn’t intended and it was not an edict from the city, it was a starting point for more detailed discussions. There were some things that were necessarily required because we are dealing with the public asset here. Dealing with a municipal corporation is a lot different from dealing with a private corporation. We certainly have more stringent and more particular requirements in what we’re able to do. Because this is the community’s land.”

It’s an unhappy result for all parties involved. Mayor Mark McKee did not attend the meeting but was briefed from Chabot and he also spoke to Shelley.

“What can I say, it’s disappointing, I thought we were so close to finalizing everything and moving forward,” Mayor McKee said.

“And I think that they had a great team and they had a really good vision, I think that they would have done really well and we would have been enhancing golf and drawing in more tourism because of all the other things they were going to do. The whole thing, I’m more disappointed more than anything, especially with the amount of time and effort put into this thing.”

Shelley said his interactions until the meeting with city staff, the golf club and residents had been excellent.

“We had what we thought was a pretty clear agreement in principle with the mayor and council who were fantastic in this whole process, they really bent over backwards,” he said.

Shelley described the project as philanthropic and while Citrus’s investment in the golf club would not have gained much of a return, it would have been offset with other projects in the city geared towards boosting shoulder season and summer month activity, with a positive knock-on effect to Revelstoke business.

“We had identified three or four other business options that would bring commercial opportunities to Revelstoke in the summer months,” Shelley said.

“We were just hours away from offering on a house and land package we were looking at, a large development we were in the process of looking at. That was the way that it made sense, we were trying to find things that complemented the golf course.”

These potential deals have now been cancelled and Shelley said Citrus has resumed business in its other areas. He advocated Revelstoke change its attitude if it wants to progress.

The Revelstoke Golf Club clubhouse building was originally built as a horse racing facility. The old caller’s booth sits atop the building. Photo: Aaron Orlando/Revelstoke Mountaineer file photo

“When we walked into the city office meeting with the CAO, and it was like getting T-boned at the intersection,” he said. “The problem is if that’s how we were treated when we’re supporting a philanthropic project, we can only imagine what we’re dealing with an economic project.

“There has to be a fundamental and profound attitude change. Right at the front door, they have to welcome and accommodate new capital.”

Now it’s back to the drawing board and while Mayor McKee said his door is always open for negotiations, he said the golf course task force will be reconvened.

“I have talked to the executive of the [Revelstoke] Golf Club Society and we are going to take this under advisement and we are going to see what we can do about moving forward. This is not going to effect golfing in Revelstoke that is for sure. We will still have a golf course.”