Golf

SHELLY GARCIA Staff Reporter Plenty of builders use unusual architecture or lush landscaping to spruce up their industrial parks, but Royal Clark Development Co. has gone one step further in its design for the Cascades Business Park in Sylmar. The company is building a golf course. Royal Development, which is constructing the 67-acre business park on a 300-acre parcel, will devote more than 100 acres to develop an 18-hole public golf course on property the company was unable to use for the industrial center. “When we had the business park all set up, we had a lot of geography that would not be conducive for a business park but was conducive for recreation,” said Tom Clark, general partner with the Honolulu- and L.A.-based development company. “The city of Los Angeles is one of the most under served per capita for golf, with basically great weather, and we thought it would be a nice amenity for the business park.” Also affecting the decision were community groups who were concerned about the density of the industrial park in an area bordering the Angeles National Forest. “They took a homeowner’s association that was probably not pro-development and turned it to their side,” said Greg Barsamian, broker with CB Richard Ellis Inc., which is representing Royal Clark on the development. Royal Clark has begun construction on an 18-hole golf course, complete with club house, driving range and restaurant. The company hired Bob Cupp, an Atlanta based course designer, who also designed Pumpkin Ridge in Portland, and International Golf Group, a Marina del Rey company, to manage the course. Royal Clark expects the course to open next June. Though details are not yet completed, Clark expects that the public course will charge greens fees “in the $50 range” weekdays and somewhat higher on weekends. Though the course, which will be accessible through the same entrance used for the industrial park, will be open to the public, the company also will be able to help tenants with tee times and in organizing company tournaments, Clark said. The park’s current tenants include Frito-Lay Co., which last year acquired a site and built a 70,000-square-foot distribution facility; MS Aerospace, which has leased a 40,000-square-foot building; and Sears, Roebuck & Co., the development’s newest tenant, which has just leased a 90,000-square-foot building for a distribution center. The company also has begun construction on a 122,000-square-foot speculative building on the property. So far, the tenants at the park have not expressed any particular interest in the golf course, but the developer and broker expect that it will emerge as a selling point. Indeed, with municipal-owned golf courses getting maximum use, and few public courses in the immediate area, Clark believes the course will be a sure-fire hit, even if the industrial park tenants do not make use of it. “Our motive going into it was based on the business. Like anybody else, we intend to make a profit,” Clark said. Can this solution be the wave of the future as community groups become more active in development projects? Other developers point out that there are few projects of the size of the Cascades, and many industrial parks currently under construction simply wouldn’t have the space to include a golf course. On the other hand, it does offer a way to turn the open space requirements often placed on developers into income-producing ventures, and developers applaud the creative use of the land. “I’m all for it,” said Jerry Katell of Katell Properties. “As a developer, you always need to be thinking outside the box, so this is a good example.”