The Club at Ravenna: Looking Ahead to 2020
With Christmas approaching and the new year just around the corner, I want to recap where our club has been, explain plans for The Club in 2020 and highlight the progress we’ve made on several important initiatives critical to our continued success and growth.
Since December 2014, approximately $19 million has been invested to improve the member experience. These funds have gone toward several initiatives including:
- Golf course renovations and improvements including removing 80,000 square feet of bunkers, designing and expanding the size of the 3rd green, a complete rebuilding of the 9th & 18th greens and several tee box additions, leveling and improvements.
- Practice tee improvements expanding the size of hitting area on the tee box and building a target green for shots 25-75 yards.
- Expanded practice putting green making in 1/3 larger in puttable surface.
- Planned, designed and constructed a short game area on the west side of the driving range where members can practice pitching, chipping and bunker shots.
- Major investment to upgrade state-of-the-art golf course maintenance equipment to provide better playing conditions, totaling over $1m. We also invested in Greensight technology for daily 3D thermal digital imaging of the golf course so we can better manage irrigation and EZ Locator for pin locations.
- Converted from gas to electric cart fleet and planned, designed and constructed a cart storage area for The Club’s cart fleet and bag storage for members golf clubs.
- Completed planning, design and construction of The Raphael Grill at the #10 tee.
- Purchased new equipment for the kitchen and restaurant expanding its size, adding new dining room furniture and indoor & outdoor lighting.
- Completed the planning & design phase for the site improvement plan through Douglas County (this took 16 months to get approved).
- Planned, redesigned and constructed men’s and ladies tee boxes on hole #1 including adding an emergency fire access road in front of driving range tee so fire department can access the west side of community, Roxborough and emergency access to west side of clubhouse.
- Completed the infrastructure on construction site so The Club could build the Clubhouse & La Bella Vita. The site includes the wall between La Bella Vita and the putting green that provides a beautiful and natural barrier.
- Completed construction on La Bella Vita, a first-class fitness facility equipped with elite equipment, pool, kitchen, fire pit, sunset terrace and locker rooms.
- Built the foundation for clubhouse.
At the same time, we’ve accomplished our five-year plan to improve golf course playability, add amenities and acquire new members:
- Grew the membership from 47 in 2014 to 275 in 2019.
- Increased number of golf rounds from approximately 6,000 to approximately 15,000 in 2019 -- but it’s still easy to get a tee time!
- In 2019, moved up in the Golfweek ratings as the #8 best private golf course in Colorado. Golf Digest ranked Ravenna as #11 Best in the State of Colorado, a jump of five spots from last year’s ranking which was the biggest jump of any course on the list.
- Recognized by Colorado AvidGolfer as Best Colorado Golf Community among other “CAGGY” awards.
Adding to the member experience, we have also invested in a superb staff. In December of 2014 we hired George Kahrhoff as Director of Golf and he has built a solid golf staff adding two full-time professionals - Seth Zacks and Dan Augustine - and seasonal professionals Cody Kent, Neil Tillman and Logan Thomas.
We are lucky to have Steve Datwyler as Golf Course Superintendent. Along with Tomas Alcala we have added to their team a full-time second Assistant Superintendent Casey Burrow, a full-time Mechanic Mike Talbert and our course maintenance crew now has 10 full-time technicians. Additional to the course maintenance, we have added a full-time Horticulturist with Sheila Boehm along with a support team during the season that takes care of the floral, gardening, landscaping beds, event preparation and various care within The Club and Ravenna community.
In La Bella Vita you are greeted early in the morning by Garrett McJunkin and can be personally trained by Christopher Willis, Will Manuel and Patience Hooks. Several other certified group training instructors make up our robust group fitness schedule including Leigh Reece, Nico Shanstrom, Stephanie Driskell, Lindsay Bazz, Wendy Bradshaw, Mandy Coates, Jenna Goode and Macy Graham.
In 2018, we hired Executive Chef David Lazarus who created the dining experience at The Golf Club at Castle Pines from its inception. He inherited Sous Chef Connor Brodeur and cooks Michaela Elliot and Kyle Fischer - and has brought on additional culinary staff Heather Wenke, Osborn Kreckow, Brennan Hooks, Yulminez Yusaf and of course "Tuddie" at the Raphael Grille. Chef David has mentored and molded them to ensure tremendous food quality and dining options for a diverse membership. Of course, you can be assured that the cuisine prepared by Chef will be exceptional and contain the finest ingredients.
We recently reorganized the front of the house staff with the hiring of Justin Thompson as our Dining Room Manager and Annette Kuchera as our Bar Manager. Justin has numerous years of experience as a hospitality and customer service professional with prior experience at other local private clubs and serving politicians at the exclusive Governors Club in Tallahassee, Florida. Annette also has significant hospitality experience in customer service and training. With Justin and Annette, along with our core servers Jeff Wergeles and Tyler Hartman, you will see a well-trained service team providing an enhanced dining experience at The Club.
We’ve added several member social events to our calendar as well as custom private events with our Events & Hospitality Manager Michelle Totte ensuring that every detail matters. These have ranged from kids and family events, holiday socials, high-end wine dinners and of course our annual Ravenna Invitational supporting Infinite Hero.
As you can see we have built the business from the ground up over the last five years now with fifty full time employees adding the seasonal part time summer help the Club employs close to 100. The Club is fortunate to have built a solid team that is committed to delivering a remarkable member experience at Ravenna. We stand ready to provide club services to our members from all areas and look forward to our future health and growth. Delivering that experience is a two-way street and we welcome, as always, your comments and ideas.
IMPORTANT UPDATES
We’ve recently passed an important milestone for continued growth, improvements and long-term success for The Club at Ravenna.
As most of you know, I have been engaged in multi-year litigation with the previous developer that took a great amount of my time and energy while creating a significant amount of uncertainty. The trial concluded in July and we're pleased to report that lawsuit has been substantially resolved, mostly in our favor. Although we have a few lingering issues that we are still working to resolve, I would like to personally thank all the members who attended the hearings or testified on my behalf. The overwhelming support you provided me reaffirmed my commitment to The Club and the community. I can now better balance my time between development, real estate, club operations and the new clubhouse construction, adding membership value and elevating The Club at Ravenna to a club with a nationally-renowned reputation for excellence.
THE CLUBHOUSE: The final piece of the puzzle
I realize that the timing of The Clubhouse construction is a hot topic and important to you and all of our Club members. Trust me, no one wants the new clubhouse to be completed more than I do. I appreciate the membership’s good will and patience. I know many of you have stuck with us for a long time and we want to reward you for your loyalty to The Club. The Clubhouse foundation is in the ground and substantially complete. I have been working with Mesa construction to finalize the estimate. This has been a lengthy process that our lending partner is requiring The Club to update because the economy has changed the landscape of the construction industry, which has resulted in increased construction costs, labor costs, commodities, tariffs, etc. I am thrilled to be working through the details with an outstanding financial institution so we can start building and going vertical in 2020. As we all know project timelines can vary, but once I have everything buttoned up we will provide you a progress update and estimated timelines. The new Ravenna Clubhouse will be a tremendous addition to the well-received La Bella Vita. If the timing does not meet your expectations, please contact me and I am happy to meet in person with you to address any concerns and questions.
We want to make membership in The Club at Ravenna a good experience and we will try to do so in every way possible. Our vision at Ravenna:
As a boutique private club we aspire to provide an elegant casual experience as residents, members, and guests escape within our community.
It is equally important that members support The Club by regularly dining, playing golf and using the fitness facility. We have a professional staff to service members on a daily basis and your usage of the club helps to support and maintain our operations.
I look forward to keeping you apprised about all the exciting developments coming to Ravenna in 2020 and beyond. Again, please don’t hesitate to contact me with questions or concerns.
We wish you and your families a happy and healthy holiday season heading into the new year.
Kevin R. Collins,
Managing Partner
[email protected]
303.552.0432
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