By HELMUT WERNER
This is written on behalf of three families, the Werners, the Langs and the Faerbers, who are homeowners and longtime residents of Bluewater Bay for more than 30 years. We are also the owners of a local business, Bluewater Bay Resort.
We did not develop and profit from the sale of the Magnolia Plantation or any other residential development in Bluewater, as some have said. The resort just operates the four nine-hole golf courses that run through the Bluewater Bay community. It is important to us, both as neighbors and as owners of the resort, to keep Bluewater Bay beautiful and successful. We do our part by operating a high-quality golf operation in Bluewater Bay. Over the past few years, we have invested capital in a remodeled and upgraded clubhouse, upgraded course irrigation systems, renovated greens and tees and made other improvements to keep that commitment, despite the significant challenges to our operation.
Unfortunately, our experience matches that of many other golf courses in our region which are suffering economically, even closing down, because of the combination of a significant downward trend in the popularity of golf and a serious down economy.
Like most course owners, we considered many creative options for survival and thought our best shot was our plan to redefine our market and redevelop four golf holes on the Magnolia course to par 3’s as part of a shorter course design to attract beginning golfers, occasional golfers, local families and seniors back to our courses.
These changes could have reduced our course maintenance costs and made approximately 20 additional acres available for sale to local homebuilders who, thankfully, are in need of new, developable land in our community. We were committed that the capital generated from the land sales would fund paydown of debt acquired in the recent years of business losses and also provide ongoing capital for the golf operation. We were committed to place controls on future development of our land to guarantee quality and compatibility with existing development.
For more information on our plan, go to www.bwbresort.com and click on the Magnolia Project update tab.
Starting last May, we talked about this plan throughout the Bluewater community in many ways. We used personal meetings, the web, email and print media to get the discussion going. We sponsored stakeholder meetings that brought together leaders from the major owners associations in Bluewater for the first time ever in one room.
But some parties in opposition were hostile from the outset, undermined any positive community dialogue and simply refused to consider our plan. They remained on that path and rallied their audience with a negative campaign that never once included a real settlement proposal beyond “put it over in those people’s back yards instead of ours.”
We ultimately withdrew our plan when we saw the sentiment this group was encouraging in our community against us and our business, and chose the only option we see as left to us at this time. We have chosen to close one of our nine-hole courses to reduce operating costs. We will focus our excellent employees on operating a great 27-hole operation.
We will work hard to avoid closing a second course as the economy improves, because we know these closures leave our property unused and inaccessible, because even our club members’ access to these areas must be limited because of very real liability concerns.
It was our first desire to keep all of the resort’s courses operating as beautiful amenities that energize the entire Bluewater Bay community. But vocal community members have said they would rather see the courses closed than see our plan implemented.
We simply cannot, in the space of this column, address the large amount of inaccurate information that has been published about us and our intentions during these efforts to turn community opinion against us. Perhaps, over time, the community will address its challenges in an honest, positive and unified manner that will fairly balance our respective property rights.
Our community cannot stand still in this time of economic uncertainty and increasing market competition from new communities both north and south of the bay. Maintaining the status quo will not save Bluewater Bay; it will only ensure decline. We are ready to do our part — just not in a way that denies us all our desired uses for our own property for the benefit of people who have no legal or rightful claim to it.
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Helmut K. Werner is chairman of the board of directors for Bluewater Bay Resort Inc. and has been involved in the Bluewater community for almost 30 years as a resident and a businessman active in international real estate sales and management. He and his wife, Monika, are active in Bluewater golf and social activities.