By McKenzie Kane
Buena Vista reached a milestone last month when an external audit showed the city was finally free of crippling debt created by the ill-fated Vista Links Golf Course.
Essentially, city officials pulled off an albatross, a rare feat in golf, when they walked away from the project nearly 10 years ago by refusing to pay any of the loans, penalties and fees that totaled nearly $15 million. PGA of America claims the odds of a golfer’s scoring an albatross—or 3 under par—is 6 million to 1.
At the Feb. 15 council meeting, city officials learned that they’d beaten the odds: The city now is in its best financial shape in at least 10 years.
“In terms of the golf course, what’s that mean for the city?” City Council Member Steve Webb asked accountant Saidee Begoon, who works for Robinson, Farmer, Cox Associates of Staunton.
“An extreme benefit,” Begoon said.
“In so many ways,” Mayor Tyson Cooper said, provoking chuckles from the audience of about 25 people.
At one point, the golf course comprised more than 50% of Buena Vista’s total debt. City Manager Jason Tyree said the city plans to use the freed-up space for debt to fix roads, renovate schools, and address concerns with the sewer system.
The audit’s finding marks a turnaround for Buena Vista, which faced a lawsuit and the possible loss of city buildings that it had used as collateral for the golf course loans.
The city built the golf course in 2005 with a $9.2 million bond from U.S. Bank. From the start, the course’s revenue failed to cover its operating costs, and the city stopped making payments.
In 2016, bond insurance company ACA Financial Guaranty Corp. sued the city for defaulting on the bond. Two years later, a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit, ruling that repaying the golf course’s debt is “an unenforceable moral obligation.” In 2022, the city relinquished ownership of the golf course land to U.S. Bank.
Tyree, who’s served as Buena Vista’s city manager since 2021, said other city managers warned him away from Buena Vista because of the financial debacle. “‘Don’t go to Buena Vista, they’re going to go bankrupt in a year,’” he quoted his counterparts as saying.
It wasn’t the first time Tyree had heard about Buena Vista’s financial struggles. He said the city’s golf course struggles served as a case study in one of his classes at Virginia Tech when he was working on his master’s degree. It was used as an example of what a city should not do.
But he said he didn’t let that stop him from pursuing the job. “I grew up right down the street from Buena Vista, so that was challenging for me to hear,” Tyree said. “I was like, ‘No, we’re going to make sure we start doing OK financially.’”
In fall 2022, U.S. Bank sold the land to real estate investor Glade Knight, a founder of Southern Virginia University and a former chairman of its Board of Trustees.
Knight hasn’t done much with the property other than installing artificial turf on three of the course’s greens. But he has renamed it: The Ranch Golf Club.
Jared King, the club’s maintenance manager, said there are no plans at the moment for the golf course. For now, the club allows the SVU men’s and women’s golf teams to use parts of the course for practice.
Tyree said the golf course debt nearly bankrupted the city. “Twenty years from now, hopefully, we’ll be in a good enough financial position people won’t even think about the golf course.”