Financial woes are mounting for the beleaguered owner of the Club West Golf Course as the clubhouse restaurant closed by health inspectors and more than five dozen golfers are demanding the return of thousands of dollars in membership fees.
Those problems come atop an investor’s efforts to determine how $350,000 of his money was spent by course owner Richard Breuninger, who bought the course in December after signing a $1.3 million note held by previous owner Wilson Gee.
And they are in addition to more than $200,000 that Breuning and his company, Club West Golf Management, owe the Phoenix Water Services Department for delinquent water bills.
Meanwhile, a lawyer for Club West Golf Management invited all creditors to a meeting March 20, although the precise reasons for it were not known.
Inspectors for the Maricopa County Environmental Health Services Division shut down Biscuits Restaurant in the clubhouse last week for violating health code requirements that require eateries to obtain water from an approved source and forbid “hauled or transported water for continuity of the supply” except in an emergency declared by the department.
“Maricopa County policy requires suspension of the operating permit of businesses with serious conditions constituting an imminent public health threat,” a report given Biscuits owner Lloyd Melton stated. “Your permit is hereby suspended.”
“When violations are corrected, call this office for a reinspection to reinstate your operating permit. If violations are not corrected or if a hearing is not requested within 25 days, your operating permit will be revoked,” it also said.
Although a man identifying himself as the clubhouse eatery manager posted on Facebook March 14 that the restaurant would be open by March 16, it remained closed as of Tuesday. Melton did not return calls from AFN.
Water to the course, including the clubhouse, was shut off Feb. 22 and up until health inspectors issued the order March 13, Biscuits was relying on a portable tank that had been brought on site.
Meanwhile, 62 residents are wondering what happened to the fees they paid Breuninger and Club West Golf Management to belong to a semi-private club formed shortly after he assumed ownership of the course.
The fees – averaging around $3,600 for one person and $4,800 per couple – entitled members to preferred tee times and the use of a lounge and cigar and wine bars that were to be installed in the clubhouse. Neither the lounge nor the bars have been completed despite assurances from Breuninger that they would be opened early this year.
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