Full-Service Resort Stays Above Par

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Coincidentally, Lee Zaczkowski fell into owning compact equipment kind of like how he stumbled upon purchasing Timberlane Resort in Park Rapids, Minn., and building its golf course.

It was nearly 20 years ago that Zaczkowski decided to leave the corporate world and try his hand at something new. At first he and his wife, Cathy, thought they might buy a fast-food franchise, but they soon realized that even as owners they still wouldn’t be calling all of the shots. Zaczkowski knew that if he was going to take this step into entrepreneurship, he wanted a company where he and his wife were the only decision-makers.

So the Zaczkowskis began exploring the possibility of owning a vacation resort similar to many where they had stayed before. “My wife and I were in Toronto, Canada, at the time and we wanted a change in our careers,” Zaczkowski says. “We always visited resorts in the Minnesota area and we really liked the management of them and that type of environment.”

After looking at about 60 vacation resort properties, Timberlane Resort was the last one they chose to consider. Lee Zaczkowski says he really liked the fact that it was a full-service resort that offered an indoor swimming pool, tennis courts and several other amenities. Unfortunately, when Zaczkowski and his wife first went to look at the resort, it wasn’t for sale.

But luck happened to be on the Zaczkowskis’ side. Because shortly thereafter, the resort went through a failed sale with its current owner, and the owner had to put the property back on the market. The list of prospective buyers was narrowed down to the Zaczkowskis and a banker from New York. In the end, the Zaczkowskis beat out the banker and took possession of the resort in 1988.

Since then, Lee Zaczkowski says they have made dramatic changes to the resort. They eliminated about half of the smaller 2- and 3-bedroom cabanas, replacing them with larger 3- and 4-bedroom villas. “People today want air conditioning; they want satellite or cable. And these are all modernized to have everything in them that anyone could want,” Zaczkowski says. The villas have become extremely popular, making up nearly 60 percent of the resort’s business. In all, Timberlane Resort features 22 units, including both the villas and cabanas.

In making changes to the resort, Zaczkowski has kept up with the evolving vacation resort market. Nowadays, he says it’s the children who decide where the family goes on vacation because parents want to make sure that wherever they go, their children are constantly entertained. So the resort has become more of a family-oriented vacation haven that’s equipped with tennis, basketball and volleyball courts and beach equipment such as paddleboats, kayaks and waterslides. Zaczkowski also hires a schoolteacher during the summer to provide camp counseling and other learning activities.

Bear’s Den Golf Course
Today, Timberlane Resort also has a brand-new championship golf course to offer customers. Bear’s Den Golf Course features a practice putting green, driving range and 225-yard practice hole. Ironically, the story behind how the course originated is similar to how Lee and Cathy Zaczkowski came to own the resort — let’s just say there was a little luck involved.

Not long after buying the resort, Lee Zaczkowski says he and his wife were cleaning out a closet when they came across a golf course design plan for the resort that dated back to 1969. “We kind of got a chuckle out of it. But through the years, we never paid any attention to it,” he says.

Then in 1999, a forester approached Zaczkowski about purchasing some of the towering Norway pines that surround the resort, which is located on 1,500 feet of Long Lake’s beautiful shoreline. Before clearing the trees, the forester asked if there were any that Zaczkowski wanted to keep. Zaczkowski decided to follow the old design plan for the golf course, leaving the trees he would need if he ever decided to build it. It didn’t take long for Zaczkowski to reach that decision. Because not long after the trees were cleared, Zaczkowski says a man stopped by one day and said, “Hey, I build golf courses and it looks like you’re clearing for a course. Do you have somebody building it?” The man made an offer to build the course and about four years later it opened for its first round.

To help build the golf course, Zaczkowski says he used his Bobcat® 763 skid-steer loader, which he originally purchased to complete various maintenance tasks around the resort. He says he used the 763 skid-steer loader with a grapple attachment to remove debris, wood and branches from the golf course. He also rented a soil conditioner attachment, which he used throughout the entire construction process to smooth the fairways and roughs.

“I used the 763 myself for the odds and ends, such as picking up debris with the grapple where the contractors were grooming and digging up stumps. And when I didn’t need it, the contractor used it for planing the fairways with the soil conditioner,” he says. “We just worked together that way.”

The Bobcat 763 isn’t the first piece of compact equipment that Zaczkowski purchased. Prior to it, he owned a Bobcat 843 skid-steer loader. He bought the 843 skid-steer loader in the mid-1990s after a contractor suggested that it would be useful around the resort. During the first few years of owning the resort, Zaczkowski always subcontracted general maintenance tasks. But with the 843, Zaczkowski found that he could accomplish more with the machine than he ever imagined.

“There wasn’t anything that skid-steer loader couldn’t do,” he says. “I’d knock down old buildings and use it around the resort for clearing driveways and roadways and other general cleanup in the area. It was a machine that you couldn’t work hard enough.”

After owning the 843 skid-steer loader for about four years, Zaczkowski decided to sell it and purchase a newer loader model — the Bobcat 763. In order to maximize the machines’ versatility, Zaczkowski began investing in several attachments. “I kept buying attachments,” he says. “You know, the guy who has the most toys wins.” At one time, Zaczkowski had nearly a dozen attachments, including a bucket, snowblower, stump grinder, Brushcat® rotary cutter, grader, soil conditioner, landplane, angle blade, spreader, tree spade, sprayer and mower.

Right-Hand Machines
Once the golf course was complete and opened for business in 2004, Zaczkowski made another compact equipment switch. Because of the course’s sensitive turf, he wanted a piece of equipment that had all-wheel steering capabilities. So he traded in his 763 skid-steer loader for the Toolcat™ 5600 utility work machine also manufactured by Bobcat Company. The unique machine combines all the best features of a utility loader, pickup truck and attachment carrier while minimizing ground disturbance. “The reason I purchased the Toolcat 5600 was because I could do the same work with all of the attachments I owned and it had the same lift capacity as my loader,” Zaczkowski says.

The superintendents at Bear’s Den Golf Course use the 5600 every day. If they’re not using the 90-inch mower attachment to cut grass on the roughs, then they’re using the spreader and sprayer attachments to apply fertilizer and pesticides. Zaczkowski says his workers also like that they can attach and power rear-mounted implements such as aerators because of the utility work machine’s power take-off (PTO) kit.

“The Toolcat 5600 and all the other equipment and attachments that I have are good quality. I think that’s what impresses most people,” he says. “I’m not a very good mechanic, so I don’t need breakdowns. I can’t afford breakdowns.”

The equipment’s reliability is the main reason Zaczkowski chose the Bobcat brand again when he was looking for a utility vehicle. In 2003, he bought a Bobcat 2100 utility vehicle, which he now refers to as his right-hand man. “It’s a real gopher. And it’s really great for traveling around the resort and picking up garbage and debris,” he says. “I can’t speak highly enough about it.”

To better get around the golf course and further prevent turf damage, Zaczkowski equipped both the 5600 and 2100 with turf tires. This type of tire is a familiar sight on golf courses because it treads gently across grass and other sensitive surfaces, minimizing — if not eliminating — any surface repairs when working on golf courses. “I’m able to go anyplace out there now … on the greens or wherever it may be,” Zaczkowski says. “The turf tires on the 2100 especially come in handy when I’m using a top-dresser on the greens.”

Now after two years of operation, Zaczkowski doesn’t know how he’d maintain the championship golf course without the 5600 and 2100. Without the machines, he knows he would need a lot more hired hands. And as the course becomes more popular every year, the need for compact equipment will increase.

“They’re just all-around good vehicles. They take the place of manual labor for sure,” he says.