PROVIDENCE – The Board of Park Commissioners, one of two city panels that must approve the next 10-year management contract for Triggs Memorial Golf Course, voted Wednesday to accept the recommendation the city renew a 10-year contract to FCG Associates, the private limited partnership that has managed the course since 1990.
In the successive contract, FCG would pay the city $286,000 annually for the first five years, with payments rising incrementally for the duration of the lease, in addition to $1.5 million in capital improvements over the term of the contract.
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The 10-year lease, which begins on Jan. 1, 2023, still needs approval from the Board of Contract and Supply.
During a public meeting at the Roger Williams Park Botanical Center, the panel allowed for public input on the decision to award the bid to FCG. Multiple representatives from local nonprofits, including the Rhode Island Golf Association, one of the organizations that submitted a competing proposal, lobbied for RIGA, saying a change in management would increase partnership opportunities.
Instead, the board accepted a motion to move ahead with approval for FCG. Council President John J. Igliozzi, who serves on the parks commission, cast the sole dissenting vote, arguing the city had not done due diligence regarding the current state of Triggs, the city’s only municipally owned golf course designed in the 1930’s by famed course architect Donald Ross.
A study commissioned in 2019, which Igliozzi said had not been forwarded to the parks commission, found that Triggs required upwards of $1 million in capital improvements.
Parks Superintendent Wendy Nilsson pushed back against the notion, supported by supporters of the RIGA proposal, that city officials did not have a handle on the present condition of the golf course.
“There was no whitewashing,” she said. “We were aware of what the issues are.”
Igliozzi was unsuccessful in his bid to have the motion tabled so that the three applicants, which also include the Northeast Golf Co., could make more in-depth presentations on the merits of their bids at a later date.
A part of Wednesday’s discussion centered on weighing the consequences of sticking with FCG, a private profit-making partnership, rather than the nonprofit model offered by RIGA. While RIGA publicly proposed $8 million in long-term capital improvements were the lease renewed in 2033, their certified bid committed $1.27 million in capital expenditures over the initial 10-year term.
RIGA Executive Director Robert Ward said the nonprofit model would provide a “golden ticket for the city” to improved faculties and increased educational and recreational programming for city youth.
Mayor Jorge O. Elorza, the parks commission chairman, said he did not feel comfortable placing the vetting process of the minutia of golf course management at the feet of the board. “It’s extraordinarily complicated,” he said.
Deputy Parks Superintendent, Brian Byrnes, told the board that according to the criteria laid out in the RFP and subsequently used as the basis by a separate review committee for a point-system to determine the most appropriate bidder, FCG had won out among its competitors.
“It has been a successful operation for 30 years,” he said.
But Igliozzi pointed out that some of the criteria used was “subjective,” and FCG had let the course and facilities become deteriorated to an unacceptable degree.
“I don’t know what they are seeing, but I’m seeing something different,” he said. “[Triggs] is in pretty rough shape…conditions fell into disrepair under their watch. I always have a concern for rewarding folks for bad behavior.”
FCG Principal and Triggs General Manager Karl Augenstein agreed that capital improvements were required at the course, including a new parking lot and upgrades to the clubhouse. He said the partnership had invested heavily in upgrades over the course of their management and has weathered economic upheaval and a pre-pandemic decline in the sport’s popularity that has since rebounded, making FCG the most qualified candidate.
“[RIGA] does not nor have they ever operated a golf course,” he said. “They have no experience.”
State Sen. Frank A. Ciccone III, D-Providence, who has been publicly critical of renewing the lease for FCG, said Wednesday’s vote was a “farce” that “stinks worse than the landfill.”
“I once again urge Mayor Elorza to do the right thing and allow the incoming mayor and council to decide what’s best for Triggs and the people of Providence,” he said. “Ramming a sweetheart deal down our throats while he is on his way out the door is simply not in the best interests of the community.”
Igliozzi also doubled down on his opposition. In an official statement, he said he was “disappointed” in the commission for “reward[ing] the current operator with another lucrative long-term multi-million-dollar contract” despite “a laundry list of problems.”
“We received one side of the conversation at the expense of Providence taxpayers,” he said.
After the vote, Augenstein released a statement vowing to work with city departments “to provide a diverse, inclusive and affordable golf venue for Providence residents and area golfers,” including an expansion of existing community programs “to bring many more minority and disadvantaged Providence youths to this great sport of golf.”
(SUBS 10th paragraph to clarify amount RIGA committed to capital spending over the first 10 years.)
Christopher Allen is a PBN staff writer. You may contact him at Allen@PBN.com
