Monday start date for Kingask development

The Citizen, 3 September 1999

Work on the new £50 million golf resort development at Kingask, on the outskirts of St Andrews, is due to start on Monday.

In recent weeks, engineers have been on site preparing the layout of the major buildings which will complete the St Andrews Bay golf resort, spa and conference centre.

Detailed plans for the two 18-hole golf courses which will cover the bulk of the 520-acre site are likely to be finalised in a matter of weeks and the developers have now prepared their time schedule for the works.

While major earthmoving works are due to begin on Monday there is likely to be little or no effect of these on St Andrews itself.

A spokesman for the developers said that all soil removed from foundations would be retained for use on the site, and there will be no convoys of lorries driving through the town.

Following months of dispute over the development and its possible effect on the town, the project team are now delighted that work is about to begin in earnest.

Stage is set for £50m Kingask development to begin

With months of dispute, controversy and harsh words now behind, the St Andrews Bay Development Company is set to break ground on their £50 million Kingask development.

Behind all the arguments over planning and claims and counter-claims over the effects of traffic on St Andrews, the project has had the full backing of tourism and business leaders who see it as a unique opportunity in Scotland to create a high-quality leisure, resort and conference destination with a reputation for excellent service.

Project leaders see the development as a major benefit for the local and Fife-wide economy and they are already setting out to dispel some of the myths that have grown up around the project in the last 18 months.

The local project team are doing everything possible to ensure that local people and businesses benefit from the St Andrews Bay development both during the construction phases and beyond.

Discussions are already being planned with other hotels and services in the area, as once complete the conference facilities at the resort are likely to create more business and accommodation needs than can be handled on site.

Taking a brief look at some of the elements of the project to date -

The Project

With more than 18 months down the road in the planning process, the developers behind the new St Andrews Bay Resort and Conference Centre project have set a target of two years to be up and running.

With heavy work starting on site next week, the aim now is to have the 208 bedroomed hotel, conference centre arid leisure facilities up and running by April 2001 with the golf courses to follow in the Autumn of the same year.

Operations director lain MacKinnon explained that by the Millennium Open in St Andrews next July they hoped to have the major part of the hotel building complete. But, they will not be open for business then.

Completion of the golf courses will be dictated by the weather, but the natural contours of the Kingask site mean that major changes to the landscape will not be necessary.

The site

Only a few keen ramblers, fortunate farmers and lucky farm workers have to date been able to take-in and appreciate the spectacular views commanded from the Kingask site.

St Andrews and its grey spires form only a fraction of the panorama across the Tay Estuary to Carnoustie and further north the Grampians.

Below the cliff-top setting, St Andrews fishermen tend their creels and on a clear day the Bell Rock lighthouse breaks the horizon to the east.

Kittock’s Den, itself a site of special scientific interest, is one of the principal features of the area, though again one little seen by the general public, and impassable to most of them.

Extensive discussions on rights of way across the site and on the coastal path have already taken place between the developers, Boarhills Community Council, the Rights of way Society, Scottish Natural Heritage and the Fife Coastal Paths Initiative and a selection of routes have been made available to them.

First spied as a golf course site almost ten years ago, the setting makes it easy to understand the bounding enthusiasm and determination of the development team from Don and Nancy Panoz to the golf course designers - Sam Torrance, Bruce Devlin and the late Gene Sarazen whose ideas and notes have been incorporated in the final design.

Landing firmly on the doorstep of Boarhills, rather than St Andrews, the whole site extends west from Kingask House and at its most western point skirts Boarhills village.

Using all the natural contours of the 500 plus acre site, the hotel, conference centre, clubhouse and resort facilities will be barely visible from the main St Andrews/Crail Road. And, of the total 520 acres only two per cent will be built on!

The jobs

The developers have gone further down the road than any other to ensure that wherever possible jobs and contracts will go to locals.

In a unique partnership with Fife Council’s Economic Development Department, Fife Enterprise and the Education authorities in Fife, a new scheme has already been started which will see up to a dozen people spending a year training in the United States.

Mr MacKinnon explained that the education authorities in Fife were already well geared-up up for training in hospitality, catering, tourism and even golf course maintenance.

Under the new scheme the education authorities will select a number of candidates who will spend a year at one of the Panoz resorts in America learning how the company operates with considerable emphasis being put on the service side of the business.

They will return to Fife to train the necessary staff. “These people will form the junior/middle management of the St Andrews development,” added Mr MacKinnon.

Once completed the development is likely to have in the region of 275 employees.

Already millions of pounds have been spent locally on the Kingask project which employs local architects and planners, accountants and lawyers. The main contractors for the project, HBC Management, have been given instructions to parcel parts of the contract in a size suitable for local firms, some of which have already been invited to tender for work.

Up to 500 people are likely to be employed in the construction phases of the project, and estimates are that up to £14 million in services and salaries will be injected into the Fife economy in the first year of operation.

The People

Call it the ‘American Dream’ as they do, you will also find a lot of hard work, determination and vision behind Don and Nancy Panoz’s successes to date.

Taking a closer look behind the couple who are putting their name to the St Andrews Bay development you find them openly taking more reward from their five children and ten grandchildren than any of the multi-million dollar businesses they have created.

Don and Nancy first met in West Virginia where Don was attending military academy. They both went on to serve their country in Japan, Don as an Army Intelligence Officer and Nancy as a Counter Intelligence Secretary.

Returning to the States, Nancy worked while raising their five children and Don studied business as Duquesne University. Creativity and a shared love of business soon led them to buying and running two drug stores in Pittsburgh.

Soon after followed Mylan Pharmaceuticals, a drug packaging company founded by the couple. As the youngest President of a Pharmaceutical company in the United States, Don took on industry giants in the difficult but lucrative gelatin capsule market. In doing so, Don established Mylan Laboratories as an innovative leader in the field of pharmaceutical delivery.

In the late 1960s the Panoz family moved to Ireland where Don and Nancy formed the Elan corporation which became the industry leader in drug delivery products and technology. Elan’s success led to it becoming the first Irish company to hold a public offering in the US market.

Elan is listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange and is responsible for the development of four of the top 100 products in the pharmaceutical industry. Elan holds more than 100 patents for drug delivery products, possibly the best known being the nicotine patch.

Don and Nancy first moved into the hospitality industry through wines. They visited Georgia frequently to an Elan research laboratory there and took a keen interest in the local wine industry. Ten year later they founded Chateau Elan.

Chateau Elan is a 3,500 acre winery and resort in the hills of North Georgia and is regarded as one of the most elegant destinations in the United States attracting business from corporate leaders worldwide. Its wines have won hundreds of national and international awards.

Chateau Elan laid the foundation for the Panoz move into the hospitality/conference business which has been extended in the United States and now to St Andrews.

Both Don and Nancy hold office with a number of outside interests from hospitals in Ireland and the States to the Irish Americas Cup and the University of Georgia.