Golf Course Proposed for Revitalizing Palm Springs
A Texas company hired to help this city reclaim its title as the desert’s premier vacation spot unveiled its prescription for success Tuesday, recommending construction of a golf course smack in the middle of downtown.
The twisting, 18-hole course was billed as the “cornerstone” of a “bold” $700-million downtown face lift designed to help Palm Springs woo back tourists who have abandoned the city for newer, glitzier resorts.
Calling their plan “unique” and conceding it is “very ambitious,” representatives of the Ft. Worth-based SENCA Real Estate Development Co. insisted it would “turn the town around.”
“Palm Springs is getting worn around the edges, and it has fallen behind its neighbors in the Coachella Valley,” said the project manager, Jerry Ogburn, who outlined SENCA’s blueprint to the public and the City Council on Tuesday. “And now is the time for action, and we think this kind of aggressive, exciting move is a big part of the answer.”
Reaction to the proposal was mixed among the crowd packed into the council chambers.
“Are they serious?” one silver-haired woman whispered to another during the lengthy slide presentation.
“A golf course downtown? I think it’s an excellent plan,” said Steve Lyle, a commercial real estate broker.
City officials said that they were initially wary, but quickly saw the allure of the golf course idea.
“My first reaction was, ‘You’re kidding, right? “ said Community Development Director John Mangione. “But then it knocked my socks off.”
Councilman Tuck Broich called the idea “dynamite,” and Mayor Sonny Bono labeled it “a terrific marketing tool.”
“As a songwriter, I know the value of a good hook,” Bono said. “This is one hell of a hook.”
SENCA signed a contract in May to create a strategy for reviving the 52-year-old city’s aging downtown. The company’s work is part of a citywide rejuvenation designed to help Palm Springs capture a greater portion of the tourist trade and the economic development sweeping Coachella Valley.
“Until 1970, Palm Springs was the Coachella Valley. We were the only destination out here,” Mangione said. “But then all these communities began to incorporate--Rancho Mirage, Palm Desert, Indian Wells, La Quinta. Suddenly, they started getting all the glitz.”
Palm Springs--world-renowned as a winter playground for the rich and famous--was being left behind. The city’s economy reflected the rising competition. Merchants, discouraged by the flagging tourist industry, pulled up their roots and moved out, further eroding the city’s tax base. New hotels and shopping malls were built elsewhere, as were luxury residential developments.
“We had to do something to get our image back,” Mangione said.
Under the SENCA plan, the golf course would curve for half a mile west from the Convention Center, with hotels, shops and homes lining the greens. The course would be divided in two by a pedestrian promenade that would span three blocks and cross the city’s main north-south thoroughfare, Palm Canyon Drive.
“We like the idea of having people drive into town, stop at a light and watch golf carts cross Main Street,” Ogburn said. “That’s a very exciting and memorable experience.”
The SENCA plan--which would take 10 years to complete--also envisions a new 710-room luxury hotel, 914 residential units, a performing arts center and a golf hall of fame.
In order to build the golf course, the city would need to buy, relocate or condemn 101 condominiums, a U.S. post office, a thriving automobile dealership and assorted other businesses.
More difficult will be winning agreement from two other groups controlling land needed for the redevelopment project--the Agua Caliente Indians and members of an exclusive golf club whose nine-hole course would be merged with new links to create the 18-hole municipal course.
