Warwick’s Harbor Lights links boating, golfing

IN THE CLUB: Joe Noel, president of Harbor Lights Marine & Country Club, is looking to tap the local boater-golfer market. His partners include his father, former Rhode Island Gov. Philip Noel, Leo Martin and Ted Wheeler. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT
IN THE CLUB: Joe Noel, president of Harbor Lights Marine & Country Club, is looking to tap the local boater-golfer market. His partners include his father, former Rhode Island Gov. Philip Noel, Leo Martin and Ted Wheeler. / PBN PHOTO/NATALJA KENT

Culturally and demographically, yachting and golf share much in common.
But perhaps due to the logistics involved, southern New England businesses have seldom tried to serve both pastimes at once.
Now Harbor Lights Marina & Country Club in Warwick hopes to tap the local boater-golfer market by rescuing a nine-hole course and joining it with an established marina.
The renovated and rebranded property, which held a grand opening last weekend, is owned by the father-son partnership of Philip and Joe Noel.
The former governor of Rhode Island who served two terms in the 1970s, Philip Noel was part of the group that owned the Harbor Light Marina on Warwick Neck for the last 30 years.
Along with partners Leo Martin and Ted Wheeler, Noel had eyed the Seaview Country Club next to the marina for years, but hadn’t found an opportunity to acquire it.
The previous owner, Providence-based Koffler Group, wanted to build condominiums on the 72-acre property, a plan that crumbled when the condominium market collapsed along with the housing bubble.
So in 2010, the property was put back on the market and the Noels bought it with the notion of joining it with their existing marina property.
“It had always been my dad’s dream to own Seaview Country Club,” said Joe Noel, Philip’s son and now president of the combined Harbor Lights Marina & Country Club.
An energy-sector entrepreneur who lives in Fort Worth, Texas, the younger Noel bought out Martin and Wheeler and helped finance a major renovation and capital improvement of the entire complex, which added an “s” to its name and became Harbor Lights.
The Geoffrey Cornish-designed golf course had fallen into poor shape and was totally refurbished and spruced up. Between the clubhouse and the marina, in an area where harbor silt from marina dredging used to be dumped, the group built a pool with patio and pool bar.
Then the group moved to the clubhouse-banquet hall, the lynchpin between the golf course and marina.
The clubhouse building was expanded from 7,000 square feet to 10,000 square feet. Instead of one kitchen, the clubhouse now has three.
The interior was redesigned and a new patio overlooking the golf course and driving range was built.
Noel declined to discuss how much has been invested in the property.
The new infinity pool and pool bar were the first of the new facilities to open, about a year ago.
A central idea behind combining the two properties is that the amenities will draw more people to each other than they would on their own.
The golf course, the pool and restaurants are all public.
Noel envisions boaters cruising around Narragansett Bay tying up to play a round, get some fuel, a bite to eat and have a swim.
“As far as I know this is the first high-end facility that has all these things and is open to the general public in southern New England,” Noel said.
When the whole facility gets rolling, Noel said the marina and function hall, which can host three weddings or events at a time, will be the primary revenue generators, with the golf course and pool expected to break even.
It’s a different kind of enterprise than Noel’s current energy business, EquipPM, which provides equipment and rig-maintenance services to the oil-drilling industry, and the other companies the serial entrepreneur has bought, sold or invested in over the years.
“This is one I would like to keep,” Noel said. •

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