Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 23, 1995 TAG: 9504210077
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: F1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: HOT SPRINGS LENGTH: Long
The historic resort was facing bankruptcy and in need of a face lift when Club Resorts bought the property in October 1993. Through the first half of this year, Club Resorts will have spent nearly $10 million of a proposed $27-million, five-year renovation.
"We're working very hard to bring this beautiful resort back to its grandeur," spokeswoman Mary Sanders said.
This spring, The Homestead has been busy completing changes to The Homestead Course, one of three golf courses owned by the 229-year-old Bath County resort.
The former Casino restaurant, just a few dozen yards away from The Homestead Course's first tee, has been converted to a golf and tennis shop. In a room to the side of the shop, a new restaurant-bar caters especially to golfers and tennis players.
Outside the sports shop, sod has been laid for a new putting green. Nearby, what formerly was The Homestead Course's 18th hole has been reworked into a driving range and location for The Homestead Golf Advantage School, which opens May 11. The school is patterned after an award-winning instructional program at Pinehurst, a Club Resorts property in North Carolina.
A new 18th hole was designed by Rees Jones, one of the country's top golf-course architects, who was hired to renovate The Homestead Course. Jones is the son of the legendary course architect Robert Trent Jones and the brother of Robert Trent Jones Jr., who designed The Homestead's Lower Cascades Course.
The first tee on The Homestead Course, the oldest first tee in continuous use on any U.S. golf course, has not changed during the renovation. The tee sits at the back of the hotel near U.S. 220 as the highway heads toward Highland County.
But the first hole itself has been lengthened and combined with the second hole to make it a par five. A new ninth hole has been built to make up for the loss of the second, and all the other holes have been renumbered. Work on The Homestead Course will be completed by the middle of next month.
\ The public has responded to the changes Club Resorts has made at The Homestead, said Gary K. Rosenberg, the resort's president and chief operating officer. Business from corporate and other conference customers, as well as social guests, has been good; and occupancy rates are up. He declined to give room occupancy or revenue figures.
The resort has put a lot of emphasis on group business, one of The Homestead's traditional strengths. The resort is drawing from both Club Resorts' loyal customer base and from The Homestead's longtime customers, Rosenberg said.
"The marketplace has responded very well to the new era at The Homestead," he said.
Geoff Kirkland, chairman of Horwath Hospitality Consulting in Charlotte, N.C., said he wasn't familiar with the specifics of The Homestead's situation, but he noted when Club Resorts took over the Pinehurst Resort a few years ago, it had "a major positive impact" on the resort's financial results.
Since assuming ownership and operations of The Homestead, Club Resorts has had a "very aggressive" marketing plan for the resort, including hosting special events and golf tournaments, Rosenberg said. The resort has advertised in golfing magazines as well as regionally in the Washington, D.C., and Richmond markets.
The hotel also has been targeting families, Rosenberg said, putting in things like a new playground and a pond where kids can fish.
The new owners undertook efforts to cut costs at The Homestead when it took over. "Expenses have been out of control," Rosenberg said at the time.
"Over the past 18 months we have certainly been able to get our arms around the expenses," he said. "We have been able to manage the process and run The Homestead like a business.
One way the resort has done that is by focusing on its core resort business and spinning off unrelated operations, Rosenberg said. Among those cost-saving measures are:
Turning over the operation of Ingalls Field, a private airport west of Hot Springs, to the county government.
Shutting down the Hot Springs Special Police Force, which was staffed by resort employees, and turning its law enforcement duties over to the county Sheriff's Department.
Closing an employee clinic in the hotel, which was staffed with full-time physicians, and turning over those responsibilities to the Bath County Hospital.
The resort cut back its staff initially, but has since been adding back workers, Rosenberg said. The resort has about 800 employees. Rosenberg added that an effort was made to provide local residents with jobs on the renovation projects.
The reopening of a renovated Hotel Roanoke and its new conference center don't pose a threat to The Homestead, because the two properties serve different functions, Rosenberg said. He said he's glad the Hotel Roanoke has reopened and thinks it will be successful "in its own right."
Last year, the resort renovated 86 guest rooms on four floors of the hotel's east wing. This year, it has completely redone corridors on four floors of the west wing. Throughout the hotel, corridors have been recarpeted, Sanders said. In all, the hotel has 521 guest rooms, including 81 parlor suites.
This year the hotel will add three new Club Resorts-owned shops. A shop selling clothing and other items bearing The Homestead logo already has opened. A gourmet kitchen shop will open June 1 and an upscale men's store July 1.
The main entrance court to the hotel has been redesigned with brick paving and what Rosenberg called "a new landscaping statement." Inside the entrance at the north end of the hotel's Greek-columned great hall, a large window is being replaced with a door that opens onto wide steps leading down to the Casino sports shop.
The spa, with its warm mineral springs on which The Homestead's resort history is based, is slated for a $5 million renovation. The spa building , built in 1892, is getting new tile. Elsewhere in the spa, there will be a new fitness center and a new beauty salon.
Besides the major work at the resort, there are the little touches. For instance, a small space off the main dining room that once was used as a children's dining room has been converted into a climate-controlled wine room, with racks for 4,000 bottles. And down one hallway, leading off the grand entrance hall, former hotel publicist Johnny Gazzola has overseen construction of a library full of The Homestead memorabilia and pictures of some of the hotel's famous guests.
In one of his first interviews after assuming management of The Homestead in 1993, Rosenberg spoke of the need to strengthen the resort's reputation among golfers and to get more play out of its three courses, which were being used only one-third of the time. And while the emphasis is on golf, Rosenberg said last week that the resort's other attractions such as skiing, the spa and the hotel itself also are getting attention in the renovation.
To help raise The Homestead's profile among the golfing public, the resort is sponsoring pro golfer Lanny Wadkins, a Virginia native and the 1995 Ryder Cup captain, on the PGA Tour.
The Cascades Golf Course, whose clubhouse sits just below U.S. 220 about two miles west of Hot Springs, is the best-rated of The Homestead's three courses. Golf Digest magazine has ranked the Cascades as the nation's 39th-best golf course, and USA Today ranks it fourth in the country among courses accessible to the public, behind Pebble Beach and Spyglass Hill in California and Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina, another Club Resorts course.
The Cascades hosted the U.S. Women's Amateur Championship last year and the Men's U.S. Amateur in 1988. The course's longtime operating professional, Herman Perry, has retired and has been replaced by Barry Carpenter.
Although the Cascades course does not require the major renovation that the hotel course has undergone, it is getting some improvements, such as new tee boxes and bunkers.
The Lower Cascades course, farther down Cascades Creek, also will see some improvements to the course's "character," Rosenberg said.
In addition to golf, tennis and the spa, The Homestead, which owns 15,000 acres, offers skiing, ice skating, skeet shooting, sporting clays, bicycling, hiking, swimming, horseback riding and bowling.
Dallas-based Club Resorts describes itself as the nation's largest privately held golf and conference resort owner and operator. Other company properties include Barton Creek, Austin, Texas; Ocean Reef Club, Key Largo, Fla.; Quail Hollow, Concord, Ohio; Shanty Creek Resort, Bellaire, Mich..; Shangri-La Resort, Grand Lake O' the Cherokees, Okla.; and Mont-Sainte-Anne, Beaupre, Quebec.
Club Resorts is a subsidiary of Club Corporation International, which had $1.2 billion in sales last year. Another Club Corp. subsidiary operates 200 private clubs, including Roanoke's Jefferson Club.
by CNB