The wind was howling 40 miles per hour the day Ben Harris took a world-renowned golf course designer to see a stretch of Snake River shoreline and agricultural fields adjacent to Levey Park.

David McLay Kidd, who designed courses such as Oregon’s Bandon Dunes and the Castle Links at St. Andrews in Fife, Scotland, had already warned that he turns down four out of five design proposals. For him to take on a project, it has to be truly special.

“We stopped and got out of the truck and he looked and said, ‘You’ve got a unicorn,’” Harris recently told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business.

Permits are in progress and work already underway to remove old cherry orchards on the property northeast of Pasco. Harris and his business partners, including builder and Kennewick city councilman Brad Beauchamp and members of the Tiegs family, have plans for an 18-hole golf course at the site.

The goal is to have a soft opening as early as the summer of 2027. Estimated costs for the project were not disclosed.

What else could follow is still unclear but with golf as the anchor, Harris said he and his partners envision a development that could add as much as $200 million to Franklin County’s tax base.

Views and water for miles

Harris and Beauchamp, as Mid-Columbia natives, spent a lot of their youth on the Snake near where it enters the Columbia River. That led them to hatch the idea to approach the Army Corps of Engineers through their company, North 44 River Resort LLC, about reopening Levey Park and putting in a marina and boat slips and some cabins or cottages for weekend getaways.

The Corps-owned park closed amid federal cost cutting measures in spring 2025. It was not disclosed whether the developers pitched their idea to the Corps about their initial plans.

“We just thought that was the best water in the Tri-Cities,” Harris said, noting that the pool is deep with low current and the shore has a sandy beach.

Last year, parcels belonging to  Gordon Brothers Wine Estates just above the park came up for auction as part of the winery’s bankruptcy proceedings.

Harris and Beauchamp ran into challenges having their bid for those properties considered and it was suggested they team up with another bidder, Baker Produce Inc., which was pursuing other parts of the property. Baker Produce is owned by members of the Tiegs family and among one of the largest property owners in Benton and Franklin counties.

In the end, North 44 and Baker Produce paid $9.2 million for more than 300 acres. It was after the sale closed when the idea that it could make for a destination golf course came up.

“We all walked the property and just realized how dramatic and unique it is,” Harris said. They’ve since formed a new company, Land River Sky, to pursue the venture.

Demand for golf

Golf has seen significant growth since the Covid-19 pandemic, nationally and locally.

Momentum across the recreational side of the U.S. golf industry remained broadly positive in 2024, and future indicators point to sustainability when it comes to participation and play.

Green grass golf participation topped 28 million in 2024, a seventh consecutive annual increase, according to the National Golf Foundation. Total golf participation – which includes on- and off-course play with ball and club and a full swing – reached 47.2 million golfers in the U.S., an increase of 5% compared to 2023 and a 38% jump since 2019.

“Last year’s net increase of approximately 1.5 million golfers was the biggest single-year jump since 2000, when Tiger Woods was at his peak and spurring golf participation to new heights,” the foundation said in an early 2025 report.

More golfers from outside the Tri-Cities region also are coming to Kennewick with more frequency. For example, public courses in Spokane weren’t open this year until April 1 so a number of golfers from the area have traveled to play Canyon Lakes Golf Course instead.

Harris said McLay Kidd, in addition to being impressed by the view from the property, told the new owners that it offers numerous other benefits for a course:

• The climate means players can hit the links 10 or more months out of the year.
• Being about 20 minutes from a large population center and airport makes for easy accessibility and a ready pool of patrons.
• The abundance of natural sand deposits will lower construction costs as it can be used for developing the course.

A complex process

Transforming the former orchards, vineyards and wildland into a world-class golf course will be a complex process.

The most immediate needs include a grading permit to begin moving earth followed by a special-use permit for the golf course proper. Those two permits will take a couple weeks to a couple months to get lined up, said Wes McCart, Franklin County planning director.

The bigger hurdle is the developer’s request for an amendment to the county’s comprehensive plan so that it can be designated a master planned resort project. That designation would permit development that is typically only allowed within urban growth boundaries.

Maps and documents filed with the county for the comprehensive plan update indicate other possibilities, including dozens of single-family homes, a boutique hotel, event center and more. The goal is to create a new opportunity to draw tourism to the region, along with subsequent visitor spending.

“As Franklin County grows in population, so must the economy develop,” according to a letter from LDC Corp., a surveying and engineering firm, in the comprehensive plan update request. “This includes diversifying the economy from the mainly locally produced agricultural economy to being a more vibrant economy (and) is an important aspect as outlined in the Franklin County Comprehensive Plan.”

Additionally, the proposed site boundary for a resort overlay covers a much broader area than the parcels held by Land River Sky. It also includes property held by three other private property owners as well as federal and state lands. That would ease future efforts to develop similar resort-style projects in the future.

Updating the comprehensive plan isn’t a quick process. The procedural requirements mean the prospective update wouldn’t be complete until the end of 2026, McCart said. But other aspects of the project can move forward in the meantime, such as the special-use permit for the golf course, so that the developers can be ready to move once next steps are completed.

Harris said he and his partners are focused on developing the golf course and the standard amenities that accompany it, such as a pro shop and restaurant, and maybe a village of cottages for those traveling to play the course.

Master plan resort

The county still needs to follow due diligence to ensure the project is viable and complies with the county’s comprehensive plan goals.

The location of “a master planned resort must not only be consistent with the existing rural character, intensity of use, and respective mitigation requirements but also the limitations of expanding a (limited area of more intensive rural development),” according to Franklin County’s current comprehensive plan.

The project has the attention of county officials.

“I see it as a huge opportunity to do a master plan resort,” McCart said. “From a conceptual standpoint, absolutely we think it’s a great idea.”

Harris said more details about the project will be shared in the coming months, including the layout of the course and its official name. Those decisions and those yet to come will all be in service of putting the project – and the region – on the map.

“We’re shooting for top course in the Pacific Northwest,” Harris said.