This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The rumors are true — Wingpointe is not dead.
It hasn't yet risen from the sand trap, but something is in the works that could save the 25-year-old golf course adjacent to Salt Lake City International Airport.
The greens are being maintained, confirmed Mayor Jackie Biskupski, in the event that the links could be used as an "economic development driver" for the remodeled airport.
Details remain cloudy, but such language could pave the way for an agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration that would keep the course operating.
Completion of the $1.82 billion makeover of the Salt Lake City airport is slated for 2020.
In 2015, the City Council voted to close the Jordan River Par 3, as well as Wingpointe. The council also was set to remake the Glendale Golf Course into a regional park contingent on funding. But a $150 million open-space bond that included $60 million for the Glendale makeover became a source of controversy and was pulled from voter consideration by former Mayor Ralph Becker.
The City Council decided to close the courses to stem the red ink flowing from the city's golf system and its golf enterprise fund. It is in debt at least $1 million and has racked up a $24 million deficit in deferred maintenance.
The enterprise fund was designed to be self-sustaining through green fees and cart rentals. It is not subsidized by the city's general fund.
The decision to close Wingpointe, which is not a money loser, was pushed by a 2012 decree by the FAA that the acreage be leased from the Salt Lake City Department of Airports to the city's golf system at fair-market value, with estimates ranging from $55,000 to $155,000.
The Department of Airports has its own budget that, like the golf enterprise fund, is separate from the city's general fund.
But now that the golf course is in the hands of the Department of Airports, the FAA should drop its demands for a lease at fair-market value, said Pat Shea.
Shea, who led the Airport Advisory Board when Wingpointe was conceived in 1987, said the Department of Airports — then called the Airport Authority — signed a 100-year lease with the city to operate the acreage as a golf course. The lease rate was $1 per year.
The links, he said, were crafted by the late Arthur Hills, a noted golf course designer. And Wingpointe, which opened in 1990, is often listed among the region's top courses.
The news to consider keeping Wingpointe open is an abrupt about-face by the Department of Airports and the mayor's office. Until recently, the "fair-market value" hurdle could not be overcome, officials said.
The FAA's market-rate determination was the catalyst for the City Council to transfer Wingpointe back to the Department of Airports on July 1, said Councilman Charlie Luke. His strategy was that if the airport operates the golf course, there would be no lease.
"It was a Hail Mary," he said of the transfer, "a last-ditch effort to keep the course open."
But neither Becker nor Maureen Riley, airport director, was interested in retaining Wingpointe, Luke said.
"With the new [Biskupski] administration," he said, "all that changes."
Luke explained, however, that because the links are a nonairport function, the Department of Airports would still have to reach an agreement with the FAA.
"At this point," he said, "I don't know why we don't open the course while negotiating with the FAA."