Alvamar Inc., whose golf courses, country club and residential areas built an upscale image for design and development of much of western Lawrence, is poised to begin operations this week under new management.

Alvamar’s existing five-member board has agreed to step aside during a special shareholders meeting Thursday night, acknowledging that a self-described “Group of Concerned Investors” appears to represent a majority of Alvamar’s outstanding stock, according to a letter circulated by board members to shareholders. The board would resign only if new members win election.

The group intends to nominate seven new board members whose stated goal would be to maximize value for all shareholders.

The nominees – including some who are former Alvamar board members and employees – would start their board terms in control of a company with two golf courses, a lease for a pool and listings for sale on about 150 acres of prime development land in and at the western edge of Lawrence.

The group maintains that Alvamar’s recreational operations lost at least $449,000 last year, which covers both the public and private golf courses. Group members say they are committed to “exploring all strategic alternatives,” including the cutting of costs or the possibility of selling one or both courses.

“One thing that won’t happen is any quick changes,” said Jerry Waugh, a board nominee and former golf coach at Kansas University, who worked for 15 years as a vice president at Alvamar beginning in 1979. “Everybody has to get their feet on the ground, but change has to come. You cannot continue to operate in the same way things have been done and compete in the golf world.”

John Drake, a fellow board nominee, seeks a return to the board after resigning last year.

“It’s a going business, and it’s going to keep going,” Drake said.

The effort comes three years after the death of Bob Billings, the visionary behind the partnership Billings founded in 1967 and today includes some 120 shareholders – a list said to include a number of Lawrence leaders, plus others from Johnson County and nationwide, such as NBA legends Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing.

Alvamar, which started on 200 acres of goat farm, has long been a player in development circles. Its influence, drawn up by Billings and financed with help from chosen partners, would grow in the coming decades to make room for hundreds of largely upscale homes, offices, businesses, research operations and recreational areas on 3,000 acres west of Kasold Drive, between Sixth Street and Clinton Parkway.

The road that bisects the property, 15th Street, would be renamed soon after his death as Bob Billings Parkway.

“He created a whole town west of Kasold that didn’t exist before,” said John McGrew, who handled real estate as one of three original Alvamar partners. “Bob Billings was the driving force, and he was nice enough to bring a lot of people along for the ride. :

“He’s the reason we have all of this. Everybody had a lot of faith in him. Nobody can fill his shoes, that’s for sure.”

Should the existing board resign – the meeting is set for 7 p.m. Thursday at Alvamar Country Club, 1809 Crossgate Drive – it would mark the first time that a Billings had not been in the company’s leadership. Billings’ widow, Beverly Smith Billings, is among the five existing board members who intend to step aside should a new board be elected.

Attempts to contact Smith Billings by phone Monday were unsuccessful, but others involved in Alvamar ownership and leadership acknowledged that board changes were on the way.

‘Bob Billings spirit’

“I think the people who are concerned have voiced some reasonable concerns,” said McGrew, who remains an Alvamar shareholder and is chairman of Coldwell Banker McGrew Real Estate. “Actually, I think the present board was addressing those concerns, maybe more than anyone knew. A lot has been done already to improve the situation.

“I’m just hopeful that there will be a few other nominations and we’ll get a board that will follow the Bob Billings spirit and accomplish the things that need to be accomplished.”

Larry Chance, who has offered to resign after serving on the board for 20 years, went to work for Billings in 1982. He’s been a leader at Alvamar Inc. since then, through the booming developments of the late ’80s, an offer to sell the public course to the city in early 1990s and the city’s decision to build its own municipal golf course later in the decade.

The municipal project, Eagle Bend Golf Course, ended Billings’ vision for a third Alvamar layout, this one west of Wakarusa Drive, and heightened the competition for golfers in a market already being challenged by additional courses being built in Johnson County.

Chance declined Monday to answer questions about the board’s future or his role with Alvamar, but he did acknowledge that he was proud to have had the opportunity to work with Billings toward fulfilling the Alvamar founder’s one-of-a-kind vision.

“I don’t know anybody that would have sacrificed their personal time and effort the way Bob did for the benefit of the community,” Chance said. “There aren’t any other Bobs.”

Work to do

Bob Johnson, elected last year to take the seat vacated by Drake, said the current board had been working to trim expenses and improve operations. Golf revenues are up since greens on Alvamar’s public course were reseeded, and the company has retired more than $3 million in debt since March 2003.

The current board has explored a number of ideas that would be intended to boost income: opening clubhouse dining to the public, consolidating pro shop management, buying rather than leasing equipment, consolidating both public and private courses into a single “semi-private” operation, and even selling the courses themselves.

Also considered: selling other real estate – such as the remaining upscale residential lots in The Reserve at Alvamar and elsewhere – in bulk to pay off company debt.

“It’s an investment that could be better, and we should do what we can to make it better,” said Johnson, whose wife, Pauline, owns 15 shares of Alvamar.

While the board has been working on financial issues, Johnson acknowledges that a change in leadership is coming.

“My sense is that a new board will be elected,” said Johnson, who also is chairman of the Douglas County Commission. “Who will be on that board? I don’t know.”