Nearly a dozen management firms expressed an interest in operating Red Wing, Minnesota’s 36-hole golf complex, but only one of them has taken the trouble to respond to the city’s request for proposals.
City officials, who’d hoped to have an operator in place this month, expressed “shock and disappointment” at the lack of interest, according to the Rochester Post-Bulletin. “I don’t know what to make of that,” a councilmember said. “Maybe that the golf business is not good.”
Mississippi National Golf Links has been closed since late 2012, when its operator, Wendell Pittenger, gave up his lease due to financial trouble. His unexpected departure led the city to file a lawsuit that may have scared off some potential operators, although the parties recently settled their differences.
The lone response to the city’s RFP came from a local non-profit group that’s been trying to get control of Mississippi National since 2010. The city has so far resisted the group’s advances, but at this point it doesn’t have any other viable options.