Developer tees up new event venue at site of former Bixby golf course

But people have begun rediscovering the place.

New owner Black Gold Group, a Tulsa-based private equity firm, last month opened Vinterra, a roughly $4 million, 10,000-square-foot events and entertainment venue on the property.

“We don’t want to be just another also-ran wedding venue,” said Black Gold CEO Kevin Jordan. “We certainly will do weddings, but we have a vision beyond that to concerts and dinner theater. We’re a little different in that we have a very large kitchen there that can do catering for 300 or 400 people.”

Vinterra, 14515 S. Yale Ave., will be able to host corporate, community, municipal and community events in the building, which incorporates an original slab and portion of a wall of a former structure but is largely new. The former White Hawk clubhouse, a separate building, has been expanded substantially and will include a smaller venue (roughly 6,000 square feet) with a fireplace and large deck that overlooks a pond.

That space will contain the expanded kitchen and an upscale restaurant expected to open in the spring.

“We’re envisioning bringing a band in and having two seatings at a fine-dining restaurant and then a concert or dance-type event,” Jordan said. “We looked at what we felt like was missing, and there didn’t appear to be a building that would seat this many people (300-plus) that had the rural feel that wasn’t a barn setting and had a couple of lakes there with fountains. … You’re looking for something that is unique and has grounds where people can walk around. We have some berms, so it’s kind of an enclosed feeling.”

Vinterra is the first Black Gold development on the 160-acre grounds. Room remains for additional commercial buildings, as well as future residential development and a gated community south of Vinterra.

“We look at the world and different opportunities with redemptive eyes and kind of with a stubborn hope for renewal,” said Jonathan Wedel, Black Gold executive vice president and general counsel. “This was an opportunity that kind of met that, where we could bring new life into an area and bring some revitalization and something that is a destination or attraction.”

Some of Black Gold’s more recent acquisitions and projects include the revamping of a small retail strip in Tulsa, an industrial development called South County Crossing in Jenks and a residential development named South Shore at Grand Lake.

Vinterra will work to accommodate a host’s vision or style for an event, Wedel said.

“We’re also proudly Tulsan and proudly local,” he said. “We’re intentional about building something that we will be proud of 25 years from now, something we can go back, look at and say ‘We’ve contributed to the Tulsa ecosystem.'”