Shellharbour City Council says "significant progress" has been made implementing a business plan for the The Links, Shell Cove, golf course, however, another year in the red has been forecast for the facility.
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Last December Shellharbour councillors approved a $2.5 million internal loan to The Links, Shell Cove, to help fund works aimed at getting the golf course out of the rough.
Poker machines and selling off two greens and a fairway for housing were among the solutions in the approved business plan.
The council-owned and operated golf course has cost Shellharbour ratepayers $7 million over the past decade, and a three-year search for a new operator to take on the hotel and golf course lease ended last year without success.
The current business plan will see the course reconfigured to allow for a 42-lot battleaxe subdivision beside Dunmore Road, which it is hoped will make a profit of $5 million once development costs are taken into account.
The hotel will be upgraded to accommodate 10 poker machines.
In the 2013-14 financial year the golf course's operational loss was reported at $243,000, an improvement on the $510,000 loss reported in 2012-13.
A Shellharbour Council spokeswoman said the 2013-14 figure also included $97,000 of "abnormal EOI sale costs", so the true underlying operational result was $146,000.
"It is estimated that the 2014-15 result will be similar to last year's result," the spokeswoman said.
The council said design work was well under way for the internal refurbishment of the club house and hotel and the golf course reconfiguration, although construction work will not begin this financial year as had been planned.
The council's latest quarterly report said procurement of 10 gaming machine entitlements has "slowed significantly" with seeking out existing entitlements "difficult".
"With regard to the gaming machine licences, they are a commodity like any other commodity and they are a declining resource," the council spokeswoman said. "Council has appointed three brokers to act on our behalf. We have secured two licences and will continue to pursue other licences as they become available."
Deputy mayor Paul Rankin, who is on the project control group for the redevelopment works, said the difficulty in obtaining machines was the need to buy machines in blocks.
He said the redevelopment was moving along well. "We have some really good council staff working on it," Cr Rankin said.
aarnold@fairfaxmedia.com.au
