Redstone retains Houston flavor

Golf Course News, Jun 2002 by Rice, Derek

HOUSTON - Two years ago, if you asked Evan Johansen, the new CEO of Redstone Golf Management, where his company would be today, he probably would have told you Redstone would be a national golf course management company. Today, however, that goal is much different, with the company hoping to keep its management contracts close to its Houston home base.

Aside from the five-course Bear Trace, a track of Jack Nicklaus-designed courses in Tennessee, all of the 13 courses the company owns or manages are within a few miles of headquarters, Johansen said.

"We just decided we don't want to be absentee managers and owners," Johansen said. "We're 20 minutes from all our projects - with the exception of the Tennessee properties - so if something comes up and we need to go out and take a look at a green, our guys can be there in a short period of time. We just feel at this time this is our best strategy."

That strategy appears to be paying off for Redstone, which recently signed a 10-- year agreement to host a PGA event, the Shell Houston Open. That opportunity came almost by accident, Johnansen said. The PGA and the Houston Golf Association wanted to move the event out of The Woodlands and into the city itself, and had targeted the city-owned Memorial Park. That didn't sit too well with some in the community, who were unwilling to give up their park for the few weeks the tournament would have required.

"As that deal fell through, it became an option for us to host that tournament on one of our courses," Johansen said. "Redstone Golf Club (formerly El Dorado) is where we will host the tournament in 2003 and 2004."

For the remainder of the 10-- year agreement, Johansen said, the tournament will be held on a new Rees Jones-designed course that will begin construction in early 2003.

"We've got some mitigation issues to sort out between now and then," Johansen said. "There are a few nice wet-- lands on the property that we need to make sure we're taking care of."

When completed, the facility will also include a par-three course for junior golf, also designed by Jones.

Johansen said he sees one reason Redstone can afford to remain local is that the Houston golf marketplace presents many opportunities, mainly because of heavy development in recent years.

"There's been an awful lot of golf developed in Houston over the last four or five years," Johansen said. "It was clearly underdeveloped five years ago, when we started our courses, and it's probably been a little bit overdeveloped."

With the exception of the Jones-designed course, Johansen said, Redstone will probably not be doing any development in the near term, although that is something the company may look to in the future.

"Certainly if there's some distressed properties or some third-party management contracts that become available, that's where we see our growth coming from in the next couple of years," he said. "We would love to get back into the development at some point because we enjoy that part of it and we enjoy the relationships we have with some of the architects."

Johansen said, ideally, Redstone will add six to eight courses to its portfolio in the next four or five years. Whether Redstone will take on these courses in an ownership capacity or as a third-- party maintenance company remains to be seen, although the company is equally equipped for both, he added.