Landscapes Unlimited selected to run Sioux Falls public golf courses

Landscapes Unlimited is next in line to run Sioux Falls' municipal golf course, officials announced Wednesday.

After 23 years of contracting with Dakota Golf Management, Parks Director Don Kearney during a morning press conference said that a selection committee is recommending  the Lincoln, Nebraska-based company to take over operations at Prairie Green, Elmwood and Kuehn Park golf courses.

“Landscapes Unlimited really offered us a complete package in their proposal," Kearney said. "They have a track record of maintaining impeccable courses and focusing on top-notch customer service."

Kearney said Landscapes Unlimited's large portfolio of courses throughout the region played in their favor. They manage 46 properties across 16 states, including 16 municipal or daily fee golf courses.

Landscapes Unlimited President Tom Everett said they will get city courses "back to a level of profitability" through a variety of methods, including the purchasing power and agronomic practices it's developed since being founded in 1976.

And the company isn't unfamiliar to Sioux Falls, having helped the city perform renovation work at Prairie Green in 1991 and assisting in the landscape upgrades at Elmwood Golf Course in recent years.

Everett said Landscapes Unlimited will attempt to retain Dakota Golf Management staff and tap into its knowledge of the Sioux Falls golf market.

"We value the relationships that (Dakota Golf Management) have built in the community," he said. "We would like to come alongside them to bolster their efforts with our service training, technology, buying power, agronomic practices, and our supporting regional and national team members to create a remarkably enhanced experience for the golfers of Sioux Falls."

Landscapes Unlimited was selected from a pool of five candidates, including local firms Dakota Golf Management and GreatLife, by a review committee made up of Sioux Falls city staff, City Councilor Marshall Selberg, Parks Board members Lorrea Lindquist and a pair of citizen golfers.

Tom Jansa, president of Dakota Golf, said his company is committed to ensuring a smooth hand off and is encouraged by Landscapes Unlimited's apparent willingness to continue a relationship with his company in the future.

But it's too soon to tell what that interaction might look like.

"They inherit one of the strongest municipal golf course systems in the country and we
trust that they will continue the great work that all of the employees at Dakota Golf have done over the past 23 years," Jansa said in a prepared statement following the press conference.

Great Life CEO Tom Walsh said he was in "a bit of shock" after learning his company wasn't selected. While the details of the winning proposal aren't known yet, Walsh said GreatLife proposed both a lease agreement and a management agreement. In the lease proposal, GreatLife offered to pay the city an annual fee of $150,000 and match all capital improvement costs up to $150,000.

"That way the city wouldn’t have to make any contribution to (the golf courses). And if it went well enough, we offered to do new infrastructure at Elmwood," Walsh said. "I hope Landscapes can do a good job and they're a good company, but I think it’s gonna be much of the same of whats its been for the last few years."

Kearney said now that a recommendation has been made, city finance will begin contract negotiations with Landscapes Unlimited with a goal of getting Parks Board and City Council approval by year's end.

City officials said they hope to have a contract in place by the end of the year. The request for proposals called for a five-year term with the option for a five-year extension.