Norton Bill Seeks to Rescue Three Deteriorating Golf Courses to Benefit the Public (10/31/07)
Norton Bill Seeks to Rescue Three Deteriorating Golf Courses to Benefit the PublicOctober 31, 2007
Washington, DC— In a break from tradition, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) today introduced a bill to pave the way for desperately needed investment and improvements at the Langston, Rock Creek and East Potomac Golf Courses, to reverse their long term slide into deterioration, and to preserve “these unique, valuable and historical D.C. attractions for the enjoyment of future generations,” Norton said. The Golf Course Preservation and Modernization Act would allow the National Park Service (NPS), which owns the three courses, to use a ground lease rather than a traditional concession contract governing private entities that contract with NPS. “A long-term ground lease is the only way to attract private investment for modernization and maintenance of the courses,” Norton said, “because federal government responsibility for capital investment has never worked for these golf courses for nearly a century and almost certainly will not happen in the future.” Concession contracts are relatively short-term and are not intended to encourage capital investment. Unlike other NPS properties, golf courses require unique, continuing, significant capital investment to keep up to par. Despite its best efforts, NPS has continuously struggled to manage and maintain each of these courses since their inception in the early 20th century. This bill allows one of the three courses to be renovated and operated at competitive market rates in order subsidize the other two courses, both of which must remain affordable to the average golfer. The bill will require ample private investment in all three courses while maintaining the mission of NPS.
“The three courses together constitute an undervalued asset that has extraordinary potential as affordable recreational outlets, attracting significantly more golfers, and perhaps even producing new revenue for the Treasury if appropriately contracted, “ Norton said. “None of the courses has the appropriate amenities for golf courses today.”
Norton’s bill mandates that all three courses be combined into a single competitive request for proposals in order to generate ideas and alternatives that will lead to renovations, while preserving their historic features. NPS recently issued a request for bids for concession operations for Langston and Rock Creek Golf Courses under one seven-year contract because their concession contract had expired. However, these two courses have the least appeal to the private market, and to a large degree, have depended upon their informal association with East Potomac, which attracts the largest number of golfers. Professionals from the General Services Administration, whose responsibilities include land lease and real estate management, as well as private sector experts, agree that a single lease for all three courses is the way to rescue them from their present conditions and that the concessions vehicle has long been a direct cause of the deterioration of the courses. The Norton bill would correct the misfit of golf courses contracted in short term concessions.
East Potomac Golf Course was built in 1920 and included three courses that accommodated all levels of play. African Americans were permitted to play only on Mondays, until 1941 when African American women, through their Wake Robin Golf Club pressured Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes to desegregate the course. Rock Creek Golf Course opened in 1923 as a 9-hole golf course, and in 1926 an additional nine holes were added. Langston Golf Course was named for John Mercer Langston, the first African American congressman from Virginia (elected in 1888). This course opened in 1939 as a segregated African American golf facility and was the home course of the Royal Golf Club and the Wake Robin Golf Club, thenation’s first clubs for African American men and women golfers respectively. Originally a 9-hole course, Langston’s expansion to an 18-hole course began in 1955, but was not completed until the mid-1980s. Langston is listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
Norton said, “All three golf courses are treasures in their own right, but they must be matched with the private market that would be quick to recognize their value and act to make them worthy of the golfing public in the nation’s capital.”