The transformation of the Shiloh Springs Golf Club in Platte City is under way, a little more than six months after it was sold to GreatLife Kansas City.
Jim Jamis, the regional manager for GreatLife Kansas City based out of Overland Park, Kan., noted there have already been a lot of changes to the former county-owned course.
More than $30,000 in repairs have been put into the irrigation pumps, while zoysia grass has been added to several areas on the 18-hole course.
The tee boxes on holes No. 2 and 9 were also replaced, as well as the fairway at No. 9.
GreatLife also purchased 20 new golf carts, bringing to total fleet to about 80.
Plans also call for a 24-hour fitness club, part of a major construction project for a clubhouse that opened 25 years ago. The demolition work on that is set to start today, Wednesday, Sept. 26.
That is just part of many changes that have been done or will be done by GreatLife, which was part of the contract agreed to in February.
The company that owns and operates more than 20 courses in the metro area bought Shiloh Springs for $610,000, far below the property value of $5.2 million. The deal included stipulations that the company would spend between $750,000 to $1 million in capital improvements over the next five years.
The course, as mentioned in previous articles in The Citizen, had been losing money in recent years. The Platte County commissioners voted unanimously in February to sell the property to GreatLife KC.
The early returns on the change to GreatLife has been a positive one for the company as there have been 70 new members added, bringing the total to 200. The goal by next year is to have 400, with a mix of fitness memberships and/or golf memberships.
GreatLife, which recently purchased the Moila Shrine Country Club, has 14 championship level courses in Kansas City and members can play at any of them.
“We have started plans to build a state-of-the-art fitness center that will have 24-hour access for our members,” Jamis said of Shiloh, now run by general manager Jill Daniels. “Along with this build, the plan is to have an updated golf shop and a deck along the outside.”
The fitness center will be going into where the current banquet room is now, but with a door on front, it will provide 24-hour access.
Moila, in St. Joseph, is currently undergoing a remodel that is similar with a fitness center being installed in the once-private club.
“We are a life company, not a golf company,” Jamis said.