Wed, Nov 19 2008
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Published March 21, 2008 09:54 pm - The sale of Loma Linda Country Club to Downstream Casino Resort closed on Friday, according to John Berrey, business chairman for the casino and the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma. Sale of Loma Linda Country Club to Downstream Casino Resort complete By Roger McKinney
rmckinney@joplinglobe.com The sale of Loma Linda Country Club to Downstream Casino Resort closed on Friday, according to John Berrey, business chairman for the casino and the Quapaw Tribe of Oklahoma. No purchase price was released. Downstream purchased the 36-hole golf course from the family of Joe Blau in Scarsdale, N.Y. Berrey said Friday that Downstream initially had planned to offer golf to its guests through a partnership arrangement with Loma Linda. The country club is less than a mile from the casino and hotel the tribe is building just off Interstate 44 where Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri intersect. Berrey said officials decided buying the course was a better idea. “The more we looked at it and thought about how to make it work well for our customers, the more we realized we should just make it a permanent part of our amenities,” Berrey said. Rumors were circulating even as the tribe held a celebratory groundbreaking event for the casino and hotel on July 31, 2007, that a plan to purchase the country club was in the works. Berrey and others at the event dismissed the idea when a reporter posed the question. Berrey said Downstream will make improvements to the two golf courses, club house, cart paths, pool and pool house. “Loma Linda has the potential to be a very nice golf facility, so we want to do some things that will put it on par with the rest of our upscale destination resort,” Berrey said, asking to be excused for the “par” pun. “That means we will also look to reposition the country club, as far as marketing, since it is now part of Downstream Casino Resort.” Brent Burney, head professional at the country club, said recently that it now will be called Eagle Creek Golf Club at Downstream Casino Resort. The country club will be called Bald Eagle Golf Course. The new name of Loma Linda South is Golden Eagle Golf Course. Berrey said there would be no interruption to Loma Linda’s golf business. The country club also is the location of Downstream’s employment and training center. The casino and resort plan to hire as many as 1,200 full-time employees by the end of the year. Bobby Landis, a Joplin property developer, said he had a licensing agreement with the Blau family and would not have owned the golf course until he made the final payment on it. Landis said the sale is good for him, the Blau family, the Quapaw Tribe and the club’s members. “There aren’t many business deals that are good for everybody involved,” Landis said. Brad Belk, executive director of the Joplin Museum Complex, said Joe Blau and the late Ted Hoffman developed Loma Linda Country Club in the mid- to late-1970s on land that previously was a ranch. A second 18-hole course, called Loma Linda South, opened in 1992, according to Globe files. 
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