Chapter 11 Bankruptcy has led a beloved local Golf Club in Riverside to close it’s doors.
From the Press-Enterprise, online:
“The Riverside Golf Club closed for good Wednesday, still owing the city more than $300,000 and holding thousands more belonging to a couple who had poured their life savings into a wedding they had planned there for Saturday.
The closure of the club, at least a half-century old, also sent other patrons scrambling to find alternate links to play and conference rooms to meet in.
Howsmith Corporation, which leases the property from Riverside Public Utilities, has been in arrears since November 2006 and owes $334,000, said City Councilman Mike Gardner, whose Ward 1 includes the club. “I’m surprised,” he said. “I had no idea this was coming.”
Howsmith filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Aug. 14, according to the bankruptcy document. A Web site lists Jacklyn Smith as the president of the Riverside company founded in 1979. No one answered at the phone number listed at the same address as the Riverside Golf Club.
Wednesday, John Lee Brown and Dimitra Kelly stood outside the locked gates of the parking lot of the shuttered clubhouse and banquet hall at 1011 N. Orange St.
They’d invited 100 guests to their wedding Saturday.
“This is a tragedy,” said Kelly, 40, who said they’d sunk $8,000 into the kaput celebration. “We had our rehearsal dinner there last Friday. They just faxed me the seating arrangement yesterday.”
Christopher R. Barclay, a trustee for Howsmith Corporation, was on the premises Wednesday. He refused to comment and ordered a reporter to leave. Rancho Cucamonga-based Dennis Baranowski, the corporation’s attorney, could not be reached.
“It’s a shame it’s closing,” said Jerry Seinturier, 56, who remembers the golf course from the 1950s. He plays in the golf league at Bourns Inc. where he works, but learned Wednesday morning that their evening round and banquet had been canceled. The greens had withered to browns over the past two years, he said, but the price was right: $10 for walkers, $15 for riders. “I have no idea where we’ll play now,” Seinturier said.
That leaves only one other 18-hole municipal golf course in Riverside, Sky Links at Van Buren Boulevard. The other city-owned course, at Fairmount Park, is nine holes.
Ken Truelock was shocked to learn that the golf clubhouse was closed for Wednesday’s noon meeting of the Magnolia Center Exchange Club, a service group. “We had a board meeting here yesterday,” he said. “I’m disappointed.”
But Kelly and Brown, who’ve been together eight years and have four children, were crushed. They paid the $837 balance several days ago on the $3,000 owed for the rental hall and appetizers.
Plus, they’ve shelled out another $5,000 for the disc jockey, photographer, flowers, minister, decorations, wedding gown, tuxedo and bridesmaids’ jewelry.
Kelly and Brown said Barclay told them to file a claim.
“We’re depleted,” said Kelly, tears running down her cheeks. “I’m extremely upset and embarrassed. We’ve got all this out-of-state family coming.”
