Deal signed to buy Saugatuck area dunes property after donors step up to fill $1.1 million gap By Monica Scott The Grand Rapids Press December 11, 2009, 12:43AM SAUGATUCK TOWNSHIP -- A $19 million Land Conservancy of West Michigan agreement to acquire 171 acres of Lake Michigan dunes property for a natural area south of the mouth of Kalamazoo River is a done deal.

The Grand Rapids-based conservancy's board approved the agreement Wednesday to buy property for the Saugatuck Harbor Natural Area from Aubrey McClendon, the CEO of Oklahoma-based Chesapeake Energy Co., officials announced Thursday.

The land is south of the river. The project's cost is an estimated $22.1 million, with $4.5 million still to be raised for associated matters including repaying interim financing and a maintenance endowment.

Helping complete the deal after secured funding -- including a $10.5 million Michigan Natural Resources Trust Fund grant -- was $1.1 million short of the renegotiated purchase price were pledged donations "from a number of key individuals who pledged support to this project this week," said Peter Homeyer, the conservancy's executive director.

The donors stepping up included John A. Woollam and Todd and Liz Warnock.

Todd Warnock is board chairman for the Ox-Bow School of Arts and Artists' Residency, an Art Institute of Chicago-affiliated campus adjacent to the property. He and his wife, Liz, live in Winnetka, Ill.

"The reason we came forward was out of thankfulness to those who had been leading the project to ensure the land stayed preserved," said Warnock, who grew up in East Grand Rapids. "Ox-Bow is a tranquil place and that piece of land is across the lagoon from us.

"If it were developed, the essence would change."

Woollam is a University of Nebraska electrical engineering and physics professor. His expertise in ellipsometry, a sensitive optical technique for determining properties of surfaces and films, translated into the now 22-year-old commercial venture J.A. Woollam Co. Inc., with its products used in telecommunications equipment and space shuttles.

His family owned a Pretty Lake cottage near Kalamazoo and he has been part of the efforts to protect the Saugatuck dunes, which he has often visited and long had an affinity for.

Woollam's Lincoln, Neb.-based foundation, the J.A. Woollam Foundation, joined with The Frey Foundation, Fred and Lena Meijer and James W. Brooks and his Holland family to contribute $6 million for the project.

"Many people have grown up enjoying this area and now it will be available and accessible for years to come," said Helen Taylor, The Nature Conservancy's Michigan state director. "Shorelines like this are why people come to Michigan and are a key part of economic development.

"We have to protect them."

The Nature Conservancy, in cooperation with the Land Conservancy and Saugatuck, in September reached a $20.1 million purchase agreement with McClendon's Singapore Dunes, LLC, to buy the southern portion of 412 acres formerly known as the Denison property.

But when the state grant came up short of the initial $12.6 million requested, the Land Conservancy and McClendon renegotiated the purchase price.

Closing on the property is now expected to be completed by Dec. 31, Homeyer said.

"That commitment (from the latest donors) coupled with McClendon's lower purchase price was crucial in helping bridge the funding gap," he said.

The Land Conservancy will lease the property to Saugatuck, selling it in thirds to the city as the state grant funnels in over a three-year period.

McClendon bought the Denison property from the Saugatuck family for $39.5 million in June 2006.

Singapore Dunes is requesting zoning changes from Saugatuck Township to allow more homes per acre, multifamily homes, lodging, a marina and commercial buildings on 318 acres of undeveloped land now zoned residential.

E-mail Monica Scott: mscott@grpress.com