Uncertain revenues, expenses could complicate some plans

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

 

Monday, February 24 (8:30 a.m.): The GRF Planning Committee voted Thursday to recommend approval of the 2025 Capital Projects budget, at approximately $7.2 million, but it made sure to state that $600,000 toward replacing a golf course bridge over Tice Creek is contingent on sufficient funding being eventually assured.

GRF General Manager Jeff Matheson told the Planning Committee there are “still several things in play” with the capital budget, both in terms of expenses and in revenues, to recommend a more specific figure to the GRF Board. On the expense side, it isn’t known how much the planned pickleball facility – more than half of the capital projects budget – will cost.

The city of Walnut Creek could still add new requirements to the project, adding to the estimated $4 million cost and extending the timeline. “We’ve been frustrated, to say the least” about added requirements, Matheson told the Planning Committee.

In addition, tariffs proposed by the Trump Administration could make some building materials more expensive, Matheson said.

On the revenue side, GRF committees are still discussing whether to raise the Membership Transfer Fee, paid by new homebuyers into Rossmoor into the GRF Trust Estate Fund, from which capital projects are funded. (The Trust Estate Fund is not fed by money Rossmoor residents pay as part of their monthly coupon.) Discussion also continues about how many fees from home sales should be used for budgeting purposes; 375 and 400 sales have been suggested.

There are 14 other projects on the 2025 Capital Projects list expected to now go before the full GRF Board on Feb. 27 for “second reading” and a final vote. Ten were “carryovers,” projects initiated in previous budget years. Three others – the street pavement program ($900,000), three specific building maintenance/repair projects ($85,000) and skylight replacement at Tice Creek Fitness Center ($25,000) – are considered “ongoing” major maintenance projects. The two other “new” projects, beside pickleball, are work related to the ongoing Food and Beverage study ($20,000) and conversion of the lawn bowling greens from natural to artificial turf ($40,000).

The Planning Committee on Thursday voted to recommend that $100,000 to develop a new website to more pointedly promote and market Rossmoor to the world be incorporated into the $544,472 budgeted for launching the new NetSuite financial and property-management software; two days earlier, the Marketing Task Force deemed establishing such a marketing website a priority.

Other capital project funding recommendations to the GRF Board and the Finance Committee include:

• $176,110 for studying replacement of the MOD office building; \
• About $70,000 for continued permitting and related costs toward replacing the golf course bridges;
• $250,000 for replastering the Tice Creek Fitness Center swimming pools and spa;
• $152,340 for replacement of the golf course water pump;
• $50,000 for golf lake bottom liner replacement;
• $30,000 for an emergency generator for the Entry Control Facility (the main entry gate)

How to replace the MOD building …

The Planning Committee on Thursday didn’t take any formal action on how to best replace a worn-out, cramped 12,000-square-foot MOD office building at the top of Rockview Drive, but Matheson and committee members suggested that a more thorough financial analysis of whether to keep or sell the GRF-owned former John Muir Health clinic building near the Safeway store is needed before that decision can be made.

There are still three main options being considered, and two of them would likely require selling the former medical center:

• One is to renovate the existing MOD office building in its existing location and add 6,500 square feet of space for new resident amenities at Gateway Complex. Money from the sale of the medical center would help pay the estimated $12 million to $13 million price tag. This is the cheapest of the three alternatives.
• Renovate the existing medical center building and relocate MOD and GRF Administration offices there, creating a sort of “Rossmoor City Hall.” Under this proposal, existing space at Gateway could be renovated to host new Rossmoor resident meeting space and food-related amenities. This option would cost an estimated $19 million to $20 million.
• Building a new 30,000-square-foot administrative building on the MOD campus on Rockview Drive, relocating GRF Administration to the new building, and using former GRF Administration space at Gateway to host new Rossmoor resident amenities. Money from sale of the medical center property would offset part of the estimated $20 million to $23 million cost.

Among the concerns committee members hope an analysis would address are whether a medical center sale, and the loss of that collateral, would negatively impact three existing GRF capital loans or potential future loans.

After its lease of the 1220 Rossmoor Parkway building expired at the end of 2020, John Muir Health moved its operation there into the former CVS drug store space in Rossmoor Shopping Center a short distance away. The building was almost sold twice; in 2020, a prospective buyer who proposed turning the building into a residential care facility for seniors backed out, and a second buyer dropped out when it couldn’t line up funding.

At that point, the GRF Board took the medical center off the market and started studying whether it could practically be renovated and remodeled to fit GRF needs. It has been vacant ever since.

Transit study update

In discussion of the ongoing GRF transit study, Matheson said GRF now has five drivers (plus one on leave) and is looking for two more to resume weekend service. He said the resumption of weekend GRF service is dependent on filling those two driver spots, which has been a challenge.

The Go Go Grandparent service, and the Easy Rider weekend ride program paid for through 2025 by the Rossmoor Fund, have been lightly used but seem to be working well, Matheson said. Committee member Dwight Walker questioned whether GRF should be taking such a “charitable contribution” from the Rossmoor Fund; Matheson said GRF could reimburse the Fund, if it so chooses.

He said weekday ridership has “picked up significantly” since 2022. But Walker said he hopes that study will shed light on how to make the service more attractive.

“It’s not convenient right now,” Walker said.