Friday March 19, 2010 Mr. Eddie Gibbs, the new owner of the now named Shangri La Country Club held an informational meeting regarding the club at the Vista Towers on Monkey Island at Grand Lake. About 200 people were in attendance and all were thrilled at the new ownership of the jewel of Monkey Island. The Peninsula Resort and Mr. Pete Boylan is gone and from the crowd’s reaction last night, no one seems to be missing them. In fairness to Mr. Boylan, many of his plans were great but timing was awful. He also needed a PR person as he managed to make all the old members feel unwanted. Mr. Gibbs wants the old members back as well as new ones.

Mr. Gibbs reported the following:

New 8000 square foot 2 story clubhouse will be built just north of the water tower on holes 2/3 of the golf course. The two displaced holes will be moved to the now practice range. This is on the premier Blue Course.

The old pro shop that was formerly home to Shangri La Realty will be torn down.

A grill, bar, and fittness center will be on the second level of the club house with the grill open about 2/3 of the year from 7-3. Club house should be finished by end of 2010 with Mike Long in charge of construction.

Mr. Gibbs does not want to be in hotel business but did not rule out a future lease or sale of the old hotel site or perhaps giving in and doing a 110 room hotel himself.

Future plans would be to have a second 9 holes along highway on west side of road coming in on the old Gold Course.

The old west  or Gold  Course that was shut down last year will be mowed at a 4-5″ height. The area in front of Shangri La Place and The Villas will also be maintained this way. He will honor the no build easement in front of these last two subdivisions.

He will keep the marina permit in place by the Shangri La Marina but has no plans at this time to build a marina but if need is there will work with Shangril La Marina’s owner, Mike to put in more slips. He will not develope the Davis Cove Marina as previously purposed by the Boylan group.

They have about 110 members now and need minimum of 220 to break even. Mr. Gibbs says project will be debt free and he expects to lose money first 3 years but after that if not paying he will dump it. At one time the club had over 300 members and he feels it can again. It will be an open course unless membership gets to 400+. You can get nightly rental lodging at World Mark-Trend West time share lodging at the south end of the course. They can be reached at 800 867-2095.

The new owners expect to have 7.5-8 million invested in property purchase, new club house, practice facility, new golf holes, and course renovations.

Membership can be purchased at no cost for a short window of time. Before club house is finished he will go to a fee of $5-7000 to join and will not announce the cut off date of no fee. Monthly dues will be $299 for Executive Membership, $246 month for Senior Membership over 70 years of age, and $239 per month for Junior Membership.

Jason Sheffield will be the General Manager. Dale Forest of United Golf will be in charge of renovations of golf course. Mark Thomas of Architects Collective will be the designer of the new Club House. A golf pro will not be hired until early next year. The grand opening celebration will be in March 2011.

There will be a social membership announced later. At this time there are no plans for a swimming pool. They do plan to provide a family atmosphere.

They welcome comments and will soon have a new comment email address but for now you can send comments to Stephanie Gragg, customer relations at 918 257-4204 or email her at stephanie.gragg@shangrilaok.com

Not one bad comment was heard from the huge crowd last night. The Monkey Island and Grand Lake home owners and guest to the area are very grateful for Mr. Gibbs investment in the Shangri La Country Club.

Now for my comment, if you have been thinking about a lake home, now offers many positive reasons to buy including

1. Prices are at the lowest in 3 years due to the economy problems we have had. With strength showing in the economy and national real estate we expect the 5-10% loss of home value to be gained back soon.

2. Interest rates will not stay this low very long.

3. The new Shangri La Country Club will enhance real estate values on Monkey Island and in particular the subdivisions closest to golf course including The Chateaus, The Shangri La Estates, Shangri La Place, Point Marin, The Villas, Vista Towers, St Andrews, and again all other communities on Monkey Island.

To search for property on Grand Lake and the entire Grand Lake MLS go to the search button above. In the featured listings you will find many of our favorite listings including MLS number 10-441, a condo in Shangri La Esates which is along the golf course and this waterfront  home has an ocean like view. You can own it now for $335,000,

Call the Grand Lake Team at RE/MAX Grand Lake for information on Grand Lake real estate. Aaron Hughes at 918 801-5645 or aaronhughes@remax.net or Joe Neill at 918 640-3300 or jneill@remax.net We hope to hear from you soon.