In nearly its first decade of existence, Lawrence’s Orchards Golf Course established a niche for itself. It was the place to play in town if you were too poor for Alvamar Public Golf Course — either in terms of money or skill.

But in 1998, the nine-hole golf course off 15th Street east of Kasold Drive found itself deep in the rough. That’s the year the city opened its 18-hole public course, Eagle Bend Golf Course, which is in the Clinton Lake outlet park.

Suddenly Ed White, co-owner of the Orchards, found himself competing with a city-owned facility that paid no taxes, no water bill and just $1 per year for the golf course land as part of a lease with its fellow government agency, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

“Life before Eagle Bend was pretty good,” White said. “The golf course generally was full of players. We had a very good business, but when Eagle Bend opened up, we lost 25 to 30 percent of our business almost immediately.”

The Orchards course went from posting a yearly profit to a posting a loss. White was convinced that the property’s days as a golf course were numbered.

“I couldn’t afford to keep it anymore and neither could anybody else,” White said. “It just wasn’t profitable competing with Eagle Bend because it had all the resources and it was getting all the breaks, and I was getting none.”

So White stuck a “For Sale” sign on the property, put a roughly $2 million price tag on it and started marketing it to companies that were interested in converting the 30-acre golf course into a multifamily housing development.

The property drew some interest. A company from Florida and later one from the Kansas City area signed options to purchase the property as a site for about 200 apartment units.

But nearby residents objected to the idea, and plans to rezone the property to allow for apartments collapsed at City Hall. White also came close to selling the property to the city, which would have operated it as a golf course, but that deal fell apart.

Steve Sims, left, business manager of Orchards Golf Course in Lawrence, and Ed White, co-owner of the golf course, are optimistic about its future after reaching a deal with neighbors that will give the business new money to operate.

With no new development in its future, White and Orchards seemed destined to wither on the vine.

A unique deal

But help arrived and it came from an unlikely source. The 55 neighbors who had property abutting the golf course banded together to present a unique deal to White.

Last year the neighbors approached White about buying him out — sort of. The neighbors didn’t want to buy the golf course but instead wanted to buy White’s development rights.

They offered to give White $280,000 if he agreed to sign documents that would ensure that the land would be used only as a golf course or undeveloped open space. The restrictions on the property’s use would automatically be transferred to future owners. Neighbors would be able to pay off their shares during a 10-year period because city commissioners agreed to issue a low-interest bond for the project. The payments for the bond would be tacked onto property tax bills of the 55 properties.

White accepted the deal, which should be finalized in May or June.

“It was a lifesaver,” White said. “It is the only thing that is allowing me to stay afloat.”

Neighbors also seem pleased, even though the deal is costing each property owner, on average, more than $5,000.

“It hurts, but it is worth it,” said Jack Skeels, a neighbor of the course who helped organize the deal.

Skeels said the neighbors were nearly unanimous in their support for the idea. That’s because there was a lot of concern about what apartments would do to property values in the area. Jean Milstead, another neighbor, said real estate agents had estimated a large-scale apartment complex could reduce property values by 10 percent to 30 percent.

“We bought our lots based on the value of having a golf course in our back yards,” Milstead said. “The thought of not having that in the future concerned us.”

The idea of buying development rights from a property owner is unique but not unprecedented. Groups, like Lawrence-based Kansas Land Trust, have helped others across the state negotiate similar deals, which typically are called conservation easements. But the easements are more commonly placed on undeveloped pieces of property rather than on an operating business.

City Commissioner David Schauner applauded the neighbors and White for hammering out the deal.

“You have to give the neighbors a lot of credit,” Schauner said. “It was real nice that they put their money where their mouths were.”

Skeels said the deal served as a good example of how neighbors and developers could work together in the future.

“I believe it showed what’s possible if everybody is willing to do some creative thinking,” Skeels said.

Competing again

The $280,000 will give White enough money to pay off Alvamar Inc., which built the course in 1979 and sold it to White in 1992. It also will give White — who owns the course with his ex-wife, Judy White — the ability to begin aggressively competing for golfers again.

“We’re going to do some things that we really couldn’t do in the past because we were focusing on selling it to developers,” White said. “But now that I know I’m going to be in business, we’re going all out to make it work.”

In December, White hired Steve Sims, a North Carolina real estate salesman, to serve as business manager and promote the course.

“We’ll make this work because we’ll be focusing on our niche,” Sims said.

Sims said he planned to highlight the golf course’s uniqueness. Orchards is what’s called an executive golf course, meaning that its holes are shorter than a typical golf course.

That makes it possible for people to play a round more quickly than at a course like Eagle Bend or Alvamar. Sims plans to start marketing the course to business people who want to get in a round of golf before they go to work or over an extended lunch break.

The Orchards also will offer new types of golf leagues. For example, on Mondays the business will feature a league that is open only to members of the real estate, development or banking communities. Sims said the idea was to create a league that offers business networking opportunities in addition to the golf.

Other plans call for an expansion of the course’s food and concession area and a remodeling of the clubhouse.

White said the number of rounds played at the course had dropped to about 22,000 per year. He hopes the changes will boost that number to at least 28,000 rounds per year.

Neighbors are keeping their fingers crossed that the golf course takes off again. If it doesn’t, the only other use for the land would be a parklike open space, which could create questions of who would pay to maintain the property.

Skeels said neighbors discussed whether the course could ever be viable again. He said the fact that other executive courses were successful in the Kansas City area made him believe one could work in Lawrence. He said the course should be a nice alternative to what is available in the area.

“Our friends tell us that the Orchards is the golf course of the working man,” Skeels said.

Battling the eagle

Orchards will continue to compete with the city-owned Eagle Bend.

“I’ve always thought that it was unfair that a public entity with all kinds of funding would go and compete with a private enterprise,” White said. “If there was a need for another golf course, it should be left to the private sector to provide it.”

Eagle Bend needed a $150,000 subsidy from the city to remain in operation in 2003. Originally, Eagle Bend was designed to be self-sufficient, but the course has not attracted the number of golfers that were projected when it was approved in the mid-1990s.

Schauner blamed much of that on an unexpected downturn in the economy. He predicts Eagle Bend will rebound along with the economy.

“The commission is committed to not pulling the plug on Eagle Bend,” Schauner said. “We’ll just look at how to manage it more efficiently.”

White thinks taxpayers ought to prepare themselves for more red ink.

“It is going to continue to be a losing proposition,” White said. “That’s why private enterprise wouldn’t build a golf course. The need wasn’t there.

“What’s sad to me is that it is no big deal to Eagle Bend because it has a big brother to support it — the taxpayers.”