A celebrated Parry Sound golf course will open this summer for its fifth season under new ownership.
Seguin Valley Golf and Country Club co-founder Ron Dennis confirms a new undisclosed buyer is coming on the scene for the 2008 season and tentatively expects an announcement of the new owners during the first week of June.
Dennis says the course may be open after the deal is finalized, but could be open on some earlier weekends before, depending upon the wishes of ownership.
Dennis, who is stepping aside as manager to retire to Florida and Muskoka, says the sale of the vast 2,000-acre property is in the hands of the estate of the late Robert McRae, his former business partner, and is being sold by the executor.
He says the 18-hole, 6,900-yard course has been well-maintained by their superintendent and golfers will still be able to enjoy Seguin Valley as a top quality course.
"All the operational end is perfect, it's in great shape."
The new owners will be doing more to develop the property, but he wasn't sure if the course would remain public.
Dennis, who couldn't divulge the identity of the new owners, says he hasn't been involved in the sale or search for new ownership. "That's being handled by a firm out of Toronto."
Seguin Valley was Dennis' first attempt at course design. He retired years before as Air Canada's chief pilot and director of flight operations.
He went into the golf business with his partner and fellow pilot Robert McRae who acquired the 2,000 acres of rugged Canadian Shield bushlot in the Parry Sound area over a 15-year period.
After opening in June 2003, Seguin Valley won rave reviews and was selected by golf website, Tee It Up Ontario, as the best new course in the province. The course only occupies about 300 acres of the entire land package located just east of the newly four-laned Highway 69-400 highway. There were tentative plans to develop residential estates around the course.
Dennis says there were many expenses at the start-up and challenges to build revenue streams and compete with other high-end resort courses in the Muskoka-Lake Joseph area.
But he was not at liberty to disclose any financial information on Seguin Valley at the insistence of the executor.
Dennis called his experience helping with the course's design and initial start-up as "excellent, one I wouldn't have missed.
"It's been exciting and enjoyable with lots of fine people to work with in Parry Sound."
At its seasonal peak, the course employed more than 35 people. Last season, he estimated traffic somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 rounds.
An earlier deal to sell the course to the Anishinabek Nation fell through in February.
The Aboriginal group was unable to finalize a $12.7 million deal to develop the course and a residential complex, says Maurice Switzer, spokesman for the Anishinabek Nation/Union of Ontario Indians.
Their financing partner (St. Clair Energy Inc.) said it was an "excellent proposal" but Switzer says it's a challenge for First Nations to break into business fields. "By all accounts it was a good first effort.
"At the last moment our financiers sought further securities in the form of loan guarantees and development funding," says Switzer. "We found all sorts of programs available for small businesses and multi-billion businesses, but we couldn't find one that would help us close our deal."
The Native group formed the Seguin Valley Land Assembly, a project-specific development corporation, which attempted to purchase and develop the property.
The bid for the golf course and property acquisition was part of the larger Anishinabek Nation Economic Strategy, a 10-year plan to develop local and regional economies and create wealth for the 42-member First Nations, a quasi-government political leadership group.
Switzer anticipates a major Anishinabek announcement in late April for unveiling of a very comprehensive economic development strategy that has been in the works for months.
"It just so happened that this opportunity came up in the middle of the development of the strategy. There are lots of issues that make it complicated for First Nations to get involved in financing, all sorts of challenges, but our strategy will address a lot of those.
