The nonprofit owner of the course has been talking for months about selling the land.

Homes sit behind a screen protecting them from stray balls hit at the Park Hill Golf Course. (Kevin J. Beaty/Denverite) park hill; golf course; denver; denverite; kevinjbeaty

By Andrew Kenney

Denverite, June 27 2018

The chances of a major redevelopment on the site of Park Hill Golf Club got slimmer this week.

The nonprofit owner of the course has been talking for months about selling the land, allowing to be redeveloped as housing, commercial space and parkland.

Denver officials wanted to buy the land for $20.5 million from the owner, Clayton Early Learning. But the operator of the golf course, Arcis Golf, has blown up that plan.

This week, Arcis said that it would extend its lease on the land for five years, according to the landowner. The lease was set to the expire at the end of this year, but Arcis has taken the option to extend it until 2023.

“The golf course land continues to be an asset of the Clayton Trust and its revenue helps support Clayton Early Learning’s mission to improve early care and education during the critical first five years, especially for children living in communities of limited opportunity. Arcis’ decision does not change our mission and we will continue our work educating Denver’s children,” read a written statement provided by Clayton’s public relations firm.

With the lease extended, Clayton will have a much tougher time selling the land. In fact, the trouble with Arcis already led the city to cancel its plan to purchase the land last year.

An Arcis representative didn’t immediately respond to a question about the company’s plans for the land.

Meanwhile, Arcis is suing in an attempt to gain control of the land. It argues that its contract gives it the “right of first refusal” to buy the 155-acre course — which, of course, is an enormously valuable piece of land in northeast Denver.

Despite all the extended lease, the course is still set to close temporarily. The city plans to build flood control infrastructure on the course in 2019 and early 2020.

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Park Hill Golf Course operator will renew lease, adding new complication to nonprofit owner’s plans

By Jon Murray

Denver Post Jun 27 2018

An aerial view of Denver’s Park Hill golf course.

The operator of the Park Hill Golf Course gave notice this week that it will renew its lease for five years, adding a new complication to discussions about the 155-acre property’s future.

Arcis Golf’s renewal notice comes on the heels of a pending lawsuit the same company that aims to force a sale to the Dallas-based operator. The company is the second-largest owner of golf courses in the country.

Last fall, the George W. Clayton Trust, which owns the land in northeast Denver, briefly reached a $20.5 million deal in which the city would buy the course and continue a community discussion over potential future uses. Clayton Early Learning, an early childhood education nonprofit that manages the trust, has been looking for ways to make more money for its programs than it was reaping from the $700,000-a-year operator lease with Arcis.

But the city’s deal was scuttled in November, when Arcis said it might exercise its option for the first of two five-year lease extensions. Its lease expires at the end of this year, and Arcis had until July 1 to notify Clayton of its decision.

“Arcis has informed us of their intent to renew the lease,” Clayton president and CEO Charlotte Brantley told The Denver Post on Wednesday morning.

Arcis’ lawsuit, filed in April, seeks to activate its contractual right of first refusal to match the city’s earlier purchase offer. But Clayton officials contend that the city’s offer didn’t trigger that provision because the City Council hadn’t yet signed off.

It’s unclear whether Arcis still intends to pursue a purchase of Park Hill. An attempt to reach Scott Siddons, the company’s general counsel, was not immediately successful.

While Arcis may hold legal leverage to continue operating the golf course, company officials also are aware that a city stormwater drainage and detention project — part of the massive Platte to Park Hill program — will require the closing of the golf course for up to two years, starting in 2019. Arcis likely will have a claim to compensation from the city during the closure.

Clayton officials are pushing ahead with a planned July 10 community open house. They plan to share a summary of the input they have received during a two-year “visioning process” for the property, which has featured passionate arguments for preserving open space as well as addressing needs including affordable housing.

But that conversation may now be speculative, at best.

“The golf course land continues to be an asset of the Clayton Trust, and its revenue helps support Clayton Early Learning’s mission to improve early care and education during the critical first five years, especially for children living in communities of limited opportunity,” says a statement issued by the nonprofit. “Arcis’ decision does not change our mission and we will continue our work educating Denver’s children.”

Siddons said during an interview last month that after years of losing money on its lease, Arcis unsuccessfully asked to cut the annual rent back to $300,000.

But he said that last year, for the first time, the operator made a slight profit at Park Hill.

Siddons said the city’s proposal to buy the property last summer took the operator by surprise. The deal could have meant as much as $24 million for Clayton, depending on the site’s development potential.

“We thought that they would be in breach of that lease if they didn’t offer on the same terms to purchase” as the city had offered, Siddons said. “Our position is: Look, we went through all the bad times on the lease. We upheld our obligations. The fact that you went out and cut a deal with the city — and didn’t offer it to us — is a breach of the lease.”

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Park Hill Golf Course operator renews lease for 5 more years

Business Den Aaron Kremmer June 29 2018

The operator of the Park Hill Golf Course doesn’t want to relinquish control of the 155-acre, 18-hole golf course while it litigates a chance to buy the entire parcel.

Dallas-based Arcis Golf, which manages the 90-year-old course, confirmed to BusinessDen this week that it renewed its lease for five more years with landowner Clayton Foundation.

“We don’t want a time period for the property to be out of our hands while this (litigation) goes forward,” said Scott Siddons, general counsel at Arcis.

Since the end of April, Arcis and Clayton been locked in a lawsuit over a lease stipulation that gives Arcis a “right of first refusal” to buy the land after a “bona fide” offer.

Siddons previously told BusinessDen that the company wants to buy the course from the Clayton Foundation for around $21 million – the same terms announced last fall when the Clayton Foundation held a press conference announcing a deal to sell the course to the City of Denver.

The putting green at Park Hill Golf Course. (Aaron Kremer)

The Clayton Foundation, which has hired Denver law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, claims that the right of first refusal does not apply because the deal was never consummated with a City Council and Mayor’s signature, and is therefore not a “bona fide” offer.

The Clayton Foundation runs an early education nonprofit, relying on revenue from Arcis to help cover its budget.

Arcis pays the Clayton Foundation rent of $700,000 per year, and that rate remains the same when the new lease term starts in January 2019.

Siddons said that the golf business at Park Hill has improved from a few years ago, when the course lost money.

“City Park Golf Course closed for the season has increased demand at our golf course. It’s good for business,” he said, adding that Park Hill is making a profit now.

Siddons also said Arcis renewed its lease knowing that the City of Denver wants to begin construction of is a planned storm water system upgrade on part of the course.

Denver initially planned to take 25 acres for a storm water retention area in the deal announced last fall. 

“We will have to deal with the city’s plans,” Siddons said, adding that construction likely will cause the course to be closed.

“We hope to negotiate with the city to get compensated … which would require a reimbursement of rent,” Siddons said.

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