Operator of Newport Beach Golf Course reveals details of potential high-tech upgrades
Newport Beach Golf Course operator William Buck Johns unveiled plans this week to upgrade the 18-hole course and morph the driving range into a trendy entertainment complex with food, cocktails and music.
Johns told the audience at Speak Up Newport’s monthly forum Wednesday night that he’s in negotiations with the Jack Nicklaus Academy of Golf and Topgolf, a Texas-based chain of sports entertainment facilities that boast a high-tech driving range and upscale gathering spaces for groups to relax with a drink or share a meal while they hit golf balls.
At Topgolf facilities, players hit balls containing computer microchips that track each shot’s accuracy and distance while awarding points for hitting targets. Johns hopes to have the concept at Newport Beach Golf Course.
“This is Newport Beach, after all ... we want to have the most sophisticated, enhanced golf course on the planet,” Johns said.
Johns has already started making some changes at the public course at 3100 Irvine Ave., such as laying new synthetic turf, fixing the fountain and hanging new netting.
However, he said, before he moves forward with more-aggressive upgrades, he’s waiting to see whether the Orange County Board of Supervisors will grant him a 50-year lease extension for the course.
He said he expects to begin negotiating the extension with the county, which owns a portion of the 67-acre course, in the next several months.
For 40 years, the course has been operating south of John Wayne Airport in a space known as the “clear zone.” In the past several years, course revenue declined and expenses increased, resulting in a profit of just $80,000 in 2012 and a loss of $130,000 in 2013. Losses also were projected for 2014 and 2015, according to county documents. The numbers for those years have not been made available.
In 2015, the Board of Supervisors voted to give Johns the remaining five years of the golf course’s 10-year lease after the shareholders of NBGC LLC agreed to sell their interest in the course to his company.
According to Johns’ proposal, a 50-year lease extension would enable him to finance about $4.6 million in improvements over a longer period, making the effort economically viable.
In February, Newport Beach city leaders agreed to send county officials a letter of support for the extended lease.
Along with an upgraded course, the extension would provide another benefit to Newport Beach, according to Johns and city officials.
“The golf course is an important amenity for the region, as well as providing an important buffer against efforts that would expand existing runways at John Wayne Airport,” Newport Beach Mayor Diane Dixon wrote to the county. “It has always been important to our community that the airport remain within the same footprint that it exists today.”
In 2006, the city entered into an agreement with the county that, among other things, stated that if the county wanted to expand the airport’s runways into the golf course area, it would need the city’s permission.
About a year later, the county considered a proposal to rip out the back nine of the golf course to put in an overflow parking lot for the airport. The idea upset golfers and some Newport residents who opposed expansion of the airport’s footprint. The proposal was eventually taken off the table.
Johns said Wednesday that an extended lease would ensure the space continues as a golf course for many years to come.
“We need to do what we can to contain [the airport],” he said.
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Twitter: @HannahFryTCN
