An effort to reopen the Holmes Harbor Golf Course on Whidbey Island has developed a snag, leaving the 18-hole facility with an uncertain future.
The course closed on March 14, apparently due to financial problems. It is owned by the Holmes Harbor Community Partners LLC, which is part of the Schuster Group of Seattle, where Mark Schuster is the chairman and CEO.
The newly formed Holmes Harbor Recreation Association had sought a temporary operating agreement with the ownership group so the course could reopen, but in a Friday letter to association members and supporters, president Todd Bitts announced that the HHRA “will not be in a position to open the course this summer.”
In his letter, Bitts said that “economic realities and legal developments affecting the owner and the owner’s lender led to complications and caused the owner to decline to complete and sign an Operating Agreement.”
In addition, the Holmes Harbor Sewer District, which has an easement on the property to use as a disposal area for recycled water, had made a recent offer to buy the course. According to Stan Walker, the sewer district’s board president, the ownership group accepted the offer but the owner’s lender, Columbia Bank, rejected the plan.
As a result, Walker said, the course “will not be reopening anytime soon.”
Walker said he didn’t want to characterize the conflict between the ownership group and the bank, which included “pending litigation. … They have their reasons for doing what they’re doing and they’ll have to comment on that.”
A few weeks ago, the outlook for a Holmes Harbor reopening sometime this spring or early summer was much more promising, Walker acknowledged.
At that time, he said, there was “a sense of optimism that it will one day will be a golf course again. But (now) it’s going to be difficult to make that happen.”
The sewer district will do continuing maintenance work at the course, Walker said, but that will only entail rough-cutting the grass so the property can serve as open space.
Asked if Holmes Harbor will ever again be a golf course, Walker said, “I don’t know the answer to that. There’s always a reason for optimism, but right now that’s not a question anybody can answer.
“Obviously when parties are at loggerheads, some things have to change. … As time passes, issues do get resolved. We have to hope that when that happens issues will be sufficiently clear, and what used to be impossible becomes possible.”
Schuster was unavailable for comment on Friday.
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