On Monday night, the Council voted to accept the final, amended Purchase and Sale Agreement for the golf course. This may sound like old news so you may be wondering, didn’t they already do that? Well, yes and no. In September 2013, the Council accepted the initial purchase and sale agreement. We’ve been working out the details ever since. If you’ve ever tried to sell a house or a piece of property, you understand a fraction of the details and paperwork involved in selling a golf course.
On the surface, the agreement looks the “same” since the main details remain: the buyer is paying $50 million to the City for approximately 154 acres plus an additional $9 million to build a vehicular bridge across the White River at 24th Street. However, the specifics fill many more pages that, to many, looks roughly the size of War and Peace. For example, the purchase will now be completed in two phases. In the first phase, we’ll sell approximately 67 acres for roughly $20 million, which will pay off all our outstanding golf course debts, fund our contribution to the YMCA, and help us finance some necessary improvements for phase two. Phase two will involve the remainder of the property and the bridge, with payments spread out over a number of years. I like the idea that the rest will come in slowly over future years as I think it will ensure the sale proceeds continue to benefit the City over time.
Other specifics include among other things, details about flood channel improvements along the White River, access to utilities, and that we will work with City of Auburn to improve vehicular access. The point is that the City is taking a major step forward for our long term financial health, turning what was a financial drain into something that will help support services for years to come. Without this, we all could have been seeing significant increases to each of our utility bills and property taxes. The good news is that we’re actually not selling all the land we own up there. We will still retain 100 acres of land, now free and clear of all debt. Currently, that land is leased to Mosby Farms for agriculture. It’s nice to know that the Burr Mosby you hear on the radio commercials is doing some of that farming right here in Sumner.
Back to the sale, there are still some issues that we are working through with a neighboring developer, but we hope very soon to finally close the chapter on the City’s golf course.
