Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System fund leases property

Two golf courses owned by the Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System and one of them, in the center of the massive natural gas-filled Haynesville Shale, could bring the pension fund tens of millions of dollars years from now.

According to a natural gas lease purchase report, MPERS signed a lease with Twin Cities Development, LLC in late October to explore for natural gas under the Golf Club at StoneBridge in Bossier City.

Twin Cities Development, a broker for Chesapeake Oil and Gas Co., has agreed to pay MPERS $2.4 million up front and will give the pension fund a 25 percent royalty from any gas found on the property.

Although the lease has been signed, MPERS has not yet received the $2.4 million check, MPERS attorney Randy Zinna said.

Zinna said, in retrospect, it was fortunate that MPERS didn’t sell the Bossier City golf course.

The discovery of the Haynesville Shale, earlier this year, has turned farmers and others into millionaires as companies lease land for drilling.

Zinna said golf course operations at StoneBridge will not be affected and drilling will occur nearby.