Michael
Masgay and business partner Roland Lokre will close on the purchase of Deer Run golf course in February. Masgay is owner of the Masgay Group in Wausau and spoke to the Observer while traveling out of the country, describing the purchase as a “non-traditional
project” for his development company.
The
group, which owns several restaurants in the Wausau and Stevens Point area, is expanding into Door County this year with the purchase of the golf course and the Harbor View Grille in Egg Harbor. The rooftop restaurant is being renamed Mezzanine Rooftop and
will open in spring of 2022. Masgay said Deer Run was “a smaller project that came up fast. But it felt right.”
Masgay
lived on and off in northern Door when he was younger, attending Gibraltar high school and getting his start in the hospitality industry washing dishes. He says Dan and Trudy Schelitzche who have owned and operated Deer Run for 20 years “were excellent people
to work with…without them being so gracious, this wouldn’t have been possible.”
When
asked about his plans for the 50-acre property he says he wouldn’t expect Deer Run to change substantially and any property development will be small scale. It will remain a golf course, with some “strategic enhancement” of the rooms and buildings, as well
as adding a beer garden to the 3-acre front lawn.
Masgay
says “I do love the Island. It reminds me of the county when I grew up in the 80s and 90s…it hasn’t been overly curated.” He concedes there are more financially rewarding places to develop but says, “We only have so much time, all of us…I’ve reached the point
in my life where I can do projects that are creative and interesting versus ones that are entirely lucrative.”
Masgay
speaks to the Island’s charm and it’s “mood and feel” and says any long-term plans for the property will “aesthetically go well with the character and sense of place that’s very Washington Island.” He has reached out to the town about plans for the beer garden
and he says he wants “as much of the Island on our team as possible”.
Part
of Masgay’s projects on the mainland include the purchase of Bedrock Flats, an acre and a half group of houses located on County E between Egg Harbor and Bailey’s Harbor to renovate and develop workforce housing. “I’m very aware of the housing issue,” says
Masgay when asked if the firm has any plans to address the lack of affordable workforce housing in Door County. He says Deer Run has the potential for some staff housing and he plans to initially use the infrastructure he is building for Mezzanine to “strategically
operate and flex staff back and forth.”
Masgay’s
partner Lokre has extensive experience with residential development that he describes as “creative, interesting and fun.” Ideally he thinks the two companies can use that experience to work on “smaller footprint housing” that might help solve some of what local
leaders have called an affordable housing crisis. According to Masgay it starts with “talking to folks in the county, get ties in the county, catch the ears of the right people and get the municipalities to play ball.”
Getting municipalities to play ball is nothing new to Masgay, whose
company website states: “We
are committed to adding value to the communities we serve through unique concepts that step outside the realm of what’s expected from a typical hospitality group.”
In 2021 Masgay and Lokre purchased a vacant Shopko and worked with the village of Plover
to turn the building into “Artist and Fare” a multi-use, open market concept space where tenants include a
brewery, coffee roaster, hair salon and gym among others. At the end of the year they added another empty big box to their collection, with plans to develop an old Younkers into a similar multi-use space. The projects are credited by village leaders in the
revitalization of Plover’s downtown district.
