New name, new owners give boost to Ormond club

Have paid for $500,000 in renovations

The group of investors who will buy Willowdale Country Club might want to look at Cypress Lakes Country Club in Destrehan as an example of how new management can have a positive impact.

Cypress Lakes, previously Ormond Country Club, has been doing well since it was bought in October 2010.

Derek Sanders, general manager, said that business has picked up by about 15 percent since the new management took over.

The club has also undergone about $500,000 in renovations under the new ownership with more on the horizon. So far, the club has done renovations to the restaurant and bar, upgraded the men’s locker room and added a new meeting room that seats 80 people.

Besides the renovations, Sanders said the club is focusing on taking care of the 106-acre golf course.

“A lot more money will be put back into the golf course to make sure it will be in good shape year-round,” he said. “The right people are behind this. The people behind it really care about the community – they don’t want to see this country club fail because it brings a lot to the community.”

Ormond Country Club filed for bankruptcy in February 2010 after Chase Bank called the club’s $900,000 note. Then-president Ken Turkington said that bankruptcy was unavoidable and that the people who live on the golf course but are not members were a major challenge to the club’s financial stability.

“Even under reorganization or if the club is bought out of bankruptcy, if the community does not support it in one way or another then it still won’t make it. The important group is the 185 people who live on the golf course and don’t belong to the club,” he said last year. “With 2/3 of people living on the golf course and not supporting it, it makes it very difficult to maintain it.

“We’re maintaining their view, their backyard and they contribute nothing. If we can’t change that, it’s going to be very difficult for the course to make it.”

Sanders said that Cypress Lakes’ new owners are taking many precautions to make sure the club remains open and functional.

Willowdale Country Club is going through a similar situation with a group of investors who live in the community buying the business and trying to revamp it. The club had ceased operations on Nov. 1 following financial problems.

 

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