City of Kilgore, Texas and Eagle Golf Come to Terms on Meadowbrook CC

The Dallas-based management firm outbid seven other companies for the contract that will pay it $5,000 a month to run the formerly private, 80-year-old club. All current staff is being retained.

The city of Kilgore, Texas has finalized its contract with Eagle Golf, a Dallas-based golf course management firm, for the operation of the formerly private Meadowbrook Country Club and its nine-hole golf course, the Longview (Texas) News-Journal reported.

The city council agreed to buy the financially strapped property last spring and began seeking an entity to run all or some of the club’s components. The city paid $275,000 for the club, which will be open to all residents at a per-visit price or memberships, the News-Journal reported.

Eagle Golf, which manages 30 courses in Texas and specializes in partnerships with municipalities, was selected in September from among eight companies that submitted bids to the city. The contract, finalized on October 25, will pay the firm $5,000 a month, the News-Journal reported, to manage all Meadowbrook components: the 60-acre, nine-hole golf course; the clubhouse, including a bar, kitchen, ballroom, dining hall and offices; the 19th Hole restaurant; and the saltwater swimming pool.

“Eagle will submit to the city an annual budget that will include improvements that need to be made to the course,” said City Manager Scott Sellers. “Once those improvements are made, we anticipate having a positive cash flow in the second or third year of the agreement.”

Eagle Golf will keep Meadowbrook’s current staff intact, Sellers told the News-Journal. “Yeah, every one of them,” he said. “[Eagle Golf management] has been here for several weeks, in anticipation of the agreement. Today they were transitioning the employees into Eagle Golf [procedures], and have hit the ground running.”

Meadowbrook was developed as a private club in 1932. It continued to operate until 2007 when a group of investors, including Kilgore Mayor Ronnie Spradlin, was formed to “carry the course when it did not meet revenue projections,” the city’s letter to prospective bidders said.

The investment group offered the club to the city last spring after its initial investment was depleted, the News-Journal reported. “The city is confident,” the bid letter read, “that through city ownership the course can be operated at a profit — primarily through the absence of property taxes and a possible subsidy of the water utility costs.”

Tags: Eagle Golf Kilgore texas Meadowbrook Country Club Ronnie Spradlin scott sellers