Based on the taxes, the operating cost and the green fees charged here, this course won't make it three years as a public. I was talking with somebody about Rav the other day and, like everybody else, the tax bill went up more than 50% and he calculated they would need to charge $60 per round and hope to get 20,000 rounds to pay the tax burden alone.
Isn't 20,000 rounds realistic in Chicago...even on the south side of the city? I can think other publics in the city that get 50,000.
Sounds like the owner plans on keeping it afloat out of pocket?
20,000 rounds should be realistic for a reasonably busy public course, but there's competition aplenty and the unresolved issue is how much demand there will be to play an old-timey, short golf course. The analysis I alluded to did not include the cost of maintenance ($500,000 on the cheap side), the cost of employing people to manage the clubhouse, the pro shop and other areas of the club or the cost of maintaining the clubhouse, which is significant because it is old, with a lot of infrastructure problems.
There's a lot of speculation about the wisdom of this guy's purchase, of course. There's also talk that he will try to operate it as a public course and if it fails, he will have more "ammo" when trying to get the village to allow him to develop the property. If he's ever able to develop the property, it would be a pretty good investment on his part. Otherwise, it might just be a rich guy's folly. Who knows?