Racine weighs 50-year Shoop Park golf deal before final lease is public
Racine weighs 50-year Shoop Park golf deal before final lease is public
Racine officials could move toward a private operating agreement on Monday that would give Leipold Johnson Golf Group control of Shoop Park Golf Course for up to 50 years, even though the final lease has not yet been released publicly.
The proposal comes more than a century after Clarendon I. Shoop and Ida M. Shoop donated the land to the City of Racine for public park purposes. Shoop Park Golf Course sits in the Village of Wind Point, but Racine owns it. That makes the Racine Common Council — not the Wind Point Village Board — the body that would decide whether to authorize the long-term operating agreement.
In March, the city said Shoop Park materials were conceptual and that no agreement was before the Common Council. The July 13 Executive Committee agenda now lists proposed terms, staff memos, plans and the deed, marking a shift from presentation to possible action.
A July 13 agenda briefing from City Attorney Scott R. Letteney, sponsored by Mayor Cory Mason, lays out the proposed terms and recommends approval. It asks the Executive Committee to recommend that the Common Council authorize the mayor and city clerk to execute the agreement.
The proposal has advanced in steps. In January 2025, the Common Council authorized the city administration to negotiate an option to improve and operate the Shoop Park course, granting that option to Keiser Golf Group and Leipold Johnson Golf Group, according to the memo. The two groups presented potential improvements and a long-term lease to the council’s Committee of the Whole on March 10. Mayor Mason and city staff then negotiated the terms now before the committee.
The memo also points to the city’s existing operator agreement as the legal basis for the work. Troon Golf currently runs the Shoop Park course under a deal that lets the city make any capital improvements it “deems necessary or desirable” at any time, and the memo says the work proposed by Leipold Johnson Golf Group falls within that authority. The Troon agreement expires Dec. 31, 2027.
The committee meets at 5:45 p.m. or upon adjournment of the Finance and Personnel Committee in Room 205 at City Hall, 730 Washington Ave. Mayor Cory Mason said during the July 7 Common Council meeting that the full council could consider the agreement as soon as July 21 if it advances from committee.
“Just so the public knows, if that moves forward from there, the council could consider it as soon as its meeting on the 21st,” Mason said.
Read more about Shoop Park
A 10-year lease, renewable up to 50 years
Under the proposed terms, Leipold Johnson Golf Group would enter into a 10-year lease with the city. The agreement could then be renewed at the company’s option for four additional 10-year periods, for a total of up to 50 years.
Leipold Johnson Golf Group would pay the city a one-time $1.96 million payment and $25,000 annually, adjusted for inflation. The upfront payment would be designated for the Parks Department’s new King Center.
In exchange, the group would spend at least $10 million to redesign the course, install a new irrigation system, build a new clubhouse, purchase equipment, stabilize the bluff, and restore the course to what the proposed terms describe as a more environmentally friendly prairie-dune habitat.
Shoop Park would remain a nine-hole course and would be designed by Keiser Golf Group. The course would be known as Lighthouse Dunes at Shoop Park and would maintain the city’s logo and branding, according to the proposed terms.
The terms say the course would remain public and not become a private club. City of Racine residents would pay $24 for nine holes during the first two seasons. After that, their nine-hole green fees would be capped at the highest Johnson Park nine-hole rate then in effect, including cart.
Helen Johnson-Leipold, chair and CEO of Johnson Outdoors and a fifth-generation Johnson family business leader, spoke during public comment at the July 7 Common Council meeting on behalf of her husband, Craig Leipold, owner of the NHL’s Minnesota Wild. She said Leipold is leading the project and could not attend the meeting.
“There is no developer; it’s us. We have a consultant who’s helping us,” Johnson-Leipold said.
Johnson-Leipold said Shoop Park is already a golf course and said the family would not harm the property.
“We love this community. We love Shoop Park,” Johnson-Leipold said. “We would do nothing to make it less than it is today.”
The proposed terms do not explain why the upfront payment would go to the King Center instead of to Shoop Park-specific needs. They state only: “The one-time payment will be designated for the Parks Department for the new King Center.”
That designation stands out because city reports also identify existing needs at Shoop Park, including shoreline work, access road repairs, and aging buildings.
Leslie Flynn, the city’s communications director, said the King Center payment and the Shoop Park investment are separate, not a trade-off. The $1.96 million lease payment would go to the King Center, while Leipold Johnson Golf Group would separately spend at least $10 million on the Shoop Park property, she said. “It’s not either/or, it’s both,” Flynn said.
What remains unanswered
The proposed terms answer some questions that were not available when the item was referred on July 7. But the final lease language has not been finalized or publicly released, leaving major questions unresolved before Monday’s committee review.
Among them: whether the city could reject future 10-year renewals, who would own the clubhouse and course improvements if the lease ends, and who would pay for storm inspections, revetment repairs and long-term shoreline maintenance.
The documents also leave a pricing question. The PowerPoint presentation says the project would include “preferred pricing for Racine and Wind Point locals,” but the proposed terms say the $24 first-two-season rate would be available only to City of Racine residents.
It is also unclear from the proposed terms whether non-golf access — including beach walking, shoreline access, the clubhouse cafe, a trail, and a planned putting course — would remain free and open to non-golfers, or for how long portions of the course or shoreline could be closed during construction and grow-in.
Earlier public descriptions included a 12-hole course, a 70-car parking lot west of the Wind Point Lighthouse, preferred or “grandfathered” rates for Wind Point and Racine residents, and a shoreline dog-walking path. The July proposed terms now describe a nine-hole course and do not clearly say whether the Wind Point parking lot remains part of the project.
Racine County Eye asked the city Sunday about final lease language, renewal terms, deed review, public access, resident pricing, shoreline maintenance, permits, parking, possible construction closures, Keiser Golf Group’s role and the current Johnson Park nine-hole rate with cart.
Flynn provided initial answers to those questions Monday, saying the city attorney has reviewed the lease for compliance and pointing to the agenda briefing memorandum from the city attorney’s office. She said the remaining questions would be answered during Monday’s Executive Committee meeting.
Shoreline work drives part of the deal
City public works materials frame the shoreline work as a public infrastructure problem rather than merely a golf course upgrade.
Rooney’s report says preliminary plans for revetment and slope stabilization were prepared by TAMCOR Ltd. and reviewed by SmithGroup, which determined the storm analysis and plans were “sound engineering.” Final approval would rest with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The proposed revetment would run along roughly 3,000 feet of shoreline. DPW says the toe of the revetment would sit above Lake Michigan’s ordinary high-water mark, leaving a beach between the revetment and the shoreline for public walking.
DPW estimates the shoreline protection project at $1.2 million to $1.3 million, plus about $150,000 for engineering and permitting. The revetment’s useful life is estimated at 50 to 100 years, depending on wave conditions.
Rooney’s report also notes FEMA provided no funding after the city and SmithGroup applied for assistance following earlier shoreline damage. Repairs to the access road off the existing parking lot were estimated at $85,000 in 2020, and the road remains out of service.
The DPW report also says the existing clubhouse and service garage are in poor condition, with facility scores high enough that the city considers replacement or demolition.
Parks report emphasizes habitat and birding
A Parks Department summary prepared by Koepnick describes Wind Point and Shoop Park as a recognized birding area, with more than 270 bird species documented through regional birding records and eBird observations.
Koepnick’s summary says the shoreline and bluff work should be separated from the golf course redevelopment when evaluating environmental impacts.
“This discussion involves two separate projects,” the Parks summary says. “It is important to distinguish between: 1. Shoreline stabilization and bluff resiliency and 2. Golf course redevelopment.”
The summary says tree and shrub removal along the bluff would be tied to stabilization work, not simply vegetation removal.
“To stabilize the bluff and install shoreline protection measures, vegetation along the bluff edge would need to be removed to allow access and construction and to reduce ongoing destabilization,” the summary says.
The Parks summary does not describe a specific measurement plan for determining whether habitat restoration succeeds.
Public-access dispute goes back to the deed
The 1917 deed from Clarendon I. Shoop and Ida M. Shoop says the property was conveyed to the City of Racine and “shall forever be held, maintained and improved by the City of Racine for public park purposes,” except for a portion reserved for homes for aged men.
That language is at the center of the public-access dispute. Racine County Eye previously reported that about two dozen residents protested the redevelopment on April 19, the 109th anniversary of the Shoops’ donation. Critics have argued that a long-term private lease could conflict with the deed’s public-park language and price out residents who now use the course.
Wendy Sorenson, who has opposed the redevelopment in letters to Racine County Eye and public comments, said during the July 7 Common Council meeting that she is concerned about tree loss, wildlife impacts and private control of donated public parkland.
“I am also concerned about a private developer who is asking for a multi-decade lease to take over a beloved public park left to the people of Racine in 1917 by Dr. Clarendon Shoop and his wife Ida,” Sorenson said.
Michael Burke, president of the Hoy Audubon Society, asked the council during the July 7 meeting to pause and consider a “living shoreline” instead of a continuous rock revetment.
“I am not here to ask you, council members, to reject the entire development proposal,” Burke said, “but I am asking the city council to press pause and consider another alternative for the bluff, which is so critical to migrating birds.”
Burke said Shoop Park has drawn more than 280 bird species, including at least three state-threatened or endangered species, because of its location along a migratory route.
“Whichever path is chosen will be with us for a very, very long time,” Burke said.
Project materials describe public benefits
The project presentation describes the plan as a combination of “world-class golf,” “landscape restoration,” and “community.”
It says the rebuilt course would include new golf infrastructure, a walking-friendly layout, restored native dune habitat, repaired public beach access, a walkable trail along Lighthouse Drive, a public clubhouse cafe near Wind Point Lighthouse and a large public putting course.
Leipold Johnson Golf Group would also partner with the Caddie Academy to create a caddie program for Racine youth ages 14 to 16, according to the proposed terms. The terms say the program would make participants eligible for the Evans Scholarship, a full-tuition and housing scholarship.
The presentation lists a proposed schedule of golf course construction and shoreline work beginning in summer 2026; grow-in and soft opening in summer 2027; limited preview play for locals, possibly in late summer 2027; and grand opening in spring 2028.
What happens next
The Executive Committee can recommend action to the Common Council, which has the authority to authorize the mayor and city clerk to enter into the agreement.
The mayor and city clerk would sign the agreement if authorized by the council. The Wisconsin DNR and Army Corps of Engineers would still review required shoreline and water-related approvals. The City Planning, Heritage and Design Commission would review applicable planning, site, or design approvals.
Racine County Eye will update this story if the city responds after Monday’s Executive Committee meeting and when final lease language is released. Until final lease language is public, the enforceable details of renewal control, public access and long-term shoreline responsibility remain unresolved.
Editor’s note: This story was updated July 13, 2026, to add the City Attorney’s agenda briefing memorandum, additional background on how the proposal advanced, and a response from the mayor’s office.
https://racinecountyeye.com/2026/07/12/racine-shoop-park-golf-lease-50-years/
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