U.S. Assets Group News
Links of Luxury
03/22/2004
Links of luxury
March 22, 2004
Section: BUSINESS WEEKLY
Page: 14
RICH SHOPES rich.shopes@heraldtribune.com
Correction: The following clarification was published on Saturday, March 27, 2004: Clarification: The Oaks golf club in Osprey charges membership fees of $42,500, which is believed to the highest in the Sarasota-Manatee counties region. A story published in Monday's Business Weekly said Lakewood Ranch Country Club charged the highest membership fees in the region. Unlike Lakewood Ranch homeowners, residents of The Oaks are required to become club members.
The genteel game of golf can sometimes divide people. It's easy to see why. With 85 golf courses from Palmetto to Englewood, competition for players is tight. Now it's heating up to new levels. Three more golf courses are in the works, two in eastern Manatee County and one in eastern Sarasota County. These aren't rip-it-and-run sites; they look to bring a level of elegance and style never before seen in the region's golf industry -- with top-notch club restaurants, exorbitant membership fees and no tee times, the kind that promise exclusivity. Two of the courses -- The Founders Club and The Concession -- will charge $75,000 in equity membership, or initiation, fees. The third course, to be operated by the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, hasn't disclosed its fee structure, but odds are it will be equally pricey. This gentrification of golf isn't quickly embraced by everyone. Take Linda Talbot, president of the "Big Summer Golf Card," a discount card that local golfers can buy to access 31 area country clubs. Talbot looks at the region's golf courses and sees an industry that's just concluded four of its worst years ever. And even specialized courses with well-heeled clientele can take a bite from local public courses, particularly in summer when everybody is scrambling for players. "While we might be turning a corner, it's too early to tell who's going to be left standing," said Talbot, who also is executive director of the Suncoast Golf Course Association. "Now they're bringing on three more golf courses." But real estate brokers and the backers behind the three courses say the timing of the projects couldn't be better, especially from a real estate perspective. Housing prices in the Sarasota metropolitan area -- Sarasota and Manatee counties -- are rising at a record-breaking clip. In the final three months of 2003, the median price of existing single-family homes here jumped 26.1 percent to $222,100, when compared with the same 2002 quarter. Only Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., posted a bigger gain in price. "It's just like everything else. There are a lot of golf courses, but there's always room at the top," says Michael Saunders, who's handling home sales at The Concession, one of the courses in eastern Manatee. "In a way, Sarasota and Manatee are behind the rest of the state, because upscale golf has been entrenched in other markets for years," she said. Now, more than ever, golf figures into real estate. Especially in Florida. The sport comes into play as a sales tool much the way lakeside and waterfront views help sell condominiums. The partnership The golf-real estate partnership, played out for a generation, is reciprocal, and offers potential for enduring financial rewards. Home buyers entering "the country club lifestyle" gain more than sweeping vistas of undulating fairways. They get a sales pitch from a country club trawling for prospective members. The lure is almost foolproof and examples abound, from Lakewood Ranch to University Park to Prestancia. "It comes down to lifestyle issues," says Jim Singerling, chief executive officer of the Alexandria, Va.-based Club Managers Association of America, an industry organization for country club managers. "Developers found if they priced the property around the courses high enough they could pay for the courses," Singerling said. There are noticeable differences in the proposals by the Ritz-Carlton, The Founders Club and The Concession -- in the prices charged, the exact financial relationship between the clubs and surrounding houses, and the courses' designs, which endeavor to conceal the houses from players. And, for the first time, the three proposals bring to Sarasota a kind of high-priced golf akin, in exclusivity, to luxury clubs in Naples, Palm Beach and Boca Raton. At $75,000, no other courses in Sarasota and Manatee counties come close in fees charged to new members. Lakewood Ranch Country Club charges $35,000 to its new members. That's the highest rate locally. Most clubs in the tri-county area run $10,000 to $25,000. Some view that as a positive. "Basically, this puts us at the midpoint of the market, instead at the highest end of it," said Rex Jensen, president of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch Inc., the developer of Lakewood Ranch. "Therefore, our golfing opportunities are very good." Two of the new courses -- The Ritz-Carlton course designed by Tom Fazio and The Concession designed by Jack Nicklaus -- will be next door to Lakewood Ranch in East Manatee. The Concession's main entry will be off University Parkway, about seven miles east of Interstate 75. The Ritz-Carlton course will be off Lorraine Road, just south of the Braden River. The Founders Club will be accessed off Fruitville Road, about three miles east of I-75 in Sarasota County. Tom Brown of U.S. Assets Group, developer of The Founders Club, says no golf course community in Sarasota will make exclusivity a focal point to the extent that his operation will. And the club's members will pay for it, too. In addition to the one-time equity fee, members would be charged annual dues of about $7,000. At The Concession, the dues will be higher, around $9,000. "It's never been done (in Sarasota), a very high-end, low-membership club," said Brown, who expects to open by the end of the year. The Ritz-Carlton is still working out the details. General Manager Jim McManemon said equity membership and daily fees will be announced the middle of next month, and that the project will break ground this summer with a completion slated for fall 2005. Residents of the Ritz-Carlton's condos will be offered a chance to buy equity memberships. Hotel guests will pay daily fees, possibly similar to those at other Ritz-Carlton courses, in the $200-$250 range. Comparables Country clubs like these exist close by in Naples. A 2000 study commissioned by Brown's company revealed 25 in Naples and its environs charging $75,000 and up for memberships. Golf is so exclusive there that some Sarasota golfers seeking a high-end golfing experience regularly venture to Naples. Kevin Daves sees opportunity, even amid the competition: He's the developer of The Concession and the president of Core Development Inc., which co-developed the Ritz-Carlton's new hotel in Sarasota. In a separate study he commissioned, Daves said he found that despite current price ceilings, there's a willing market in Sarasota-Bradenton for exclusive members-only golf that blows past the equity costs. "Naples is a golf destination. People made a decision to move there based on the quality of the golf," Daves said. In The Concession's case, golfers will glimpse only two of the 255 houses from the links, those owned by Nicklaus and fellow golfing great Tony Jacklin, winner of the British Open and U.S. Open. At The Founders course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., the 262 houses will be tucked back from the playing field and many will be out of sight. "It's going to look like it's been there a long time," said Brown of The Founders course. "It will have a lot of contouring, not the type of course that seems artificial." Houses will range from $700,000 to more than $3 million. At The Concession, houses will sell for $1.5 million to $7 million. The notion that no high-end, luxury golf courses exist in Sarasota-Manatee was one reason Brown pushed for five years to build The Founders, overcoming zoning differences as well as a zealous neighbor who unsuccessfully appealed the zoning board's approval. The delay means The Founders could soon face competition from The Concession and the Ritz-Carlton, but Brown says he's not worried. "I always had enough faith in (the project) and the success of it," said Brown, who labels his competitors "imitators." Daves first eyed the 1,240-acre Concession property in East Manatee two years ago. He said he was inspired by the old oaks, stands of pines and wetlands. "We want to keep the open spaces and the beauty of the site," he said. The land offered another big plus: Originally part of the Panther Ridge community, it has already been zoned for houses and a golf course. Construction is set to start in May and to be completed by next summer. Construction at The Founders Club started in January and will wrap up by the end of the year. More than half of the homes at the The Concession and The Founders Club developments are already sold, the developers say. But whether this means more upscale golf communities will come to Southwest Florida is debatable. Price gains in the housing market might exert pressure to build more, although interest rates, the economy and the availability of land all will be governing factors. Jim Demick, executive director of the Florida State Golf Association, is optimistic about the prospects for upscale golf courses. He sees it as a matter of supply and demand. So long as wealthy, golf-playing boomers continue to retire to Florida, developers will find ways to accommodate them. "When the cost of housing gets to be $1 million plus, people get less concerned about a $100,000 initiation fee," says Demick. "There is no doubt that there is a certain population that want the best and look at the price to determine the best. "We still have a lot of land in Florida. That's not going to slow us down."
Caption: (Front cover photo)
STAFF PHOTO / CHIP LITHERLAND
Developer Tom Brown of The Founders Club stands in the course's sales center in the Gateway business park in Sarasota. The Founders is one of several golf courses under development that will take the game to new levels of exclusivity and poshness in the region.
Above, a lone palm stands in a grassy patch amid graded dirt at the future site of The Founders Club golf course in east Sarasota County.
At right, workers dig around underground pipes at The Founders. The course is being built off Fruitville Road about three miles east of I-75.
STAFF MAP/ JACOB BENISON
1. The Founders Club
2. The Concession
3. Ritz-Carlton Sarasota
4. (Area of map of Sarasota and Bradenton counties)
March 22, 2004
Section: BUSINESS WEEKLY
Page: 14
RICH SHOPES rich.shopes@heraldtribune.com
Correction: The following clarification was published on Saturday, March 27, 2004: Clarification: The Oaks golf club in Osprey charges membership fees of $42,500, which is believed to the highest in the Sarasota-Manatee counties region. A story published in Monday's Business Weekly said Lakewood Ranch Country Club charged the highest membership fees in the region. Unlike Lakewood Ranch homeowners, residents of The Oaks are required to become club members.
The genteel game of golf can sometimes divide people. It's easy to see why. With 85 golf courses from Palmetto to Englewood, competition for players is tight. Now it's heating up to new levels. Three more golf courses are in the works, two in eastern Manatee County and one in eastern Sarasota County. These aren't rip-it-and-run sites; they look to bring a level of elegance and style never before seen in the region's golf industry -- with top-notch club restaurants, exorbitant membership fees and no tee times, the kind that promise exclusivity. Two of the courses -- The Founders Club and The Concession -- will charge $75,000 in equity membership, or initiation, fees. The third course, to be operated by the Ritz-Carlton Sarasota, hasn't disclosed its fee structure, but odds are it will be equally pricey. This gentrification of golf isn't quickly embraced by everyone. Take Linda Talbot, president of the "Big Summer Golf Card," a discount card that local golfers can buy to access 31 area country clubs. Talbot looks at the region's golf courses and sees an industry that's just concluded four of its worst years ever. And even specialized courses with well-heeled clientele can take a bite from local public courses, particularly in summer when everybody is scrambling for players. "While we might be turning a corner, it's too early to tell who's going to be left standing," said Talbot, who also is executive director of the Suncoast Golf Course Association. "Now they're bringing on three more golf courses." But real estate brokers and the backers behind the three courses say the timing of the projects couldn't be better, especially from a real estate perspective. Housing prices in the Sarasota metropolitan area -- Sarasota and Manatee counties -- are rising at a record-breaking clip. In the final three months of 2003, the median price of existing single-family homes here jumped 26.1 percent to $222,100, when compared with the same 2002 quarter. Only Riverside-San Bernardino, Calif., posted a bigger gain in price. "It's just like everything else. There are a lot of golf courses, but there's always room at the top," says Michael Saunders, who's handling home sales at The Concession, one of the courses in eastern Manatee. "In a way, Sarasota and Manatee are behind the rest of the state, because upscale golf has been entrenched in other markets for years," she said. Now, more than ever, golf figures into real estate. Especially in Florida. The sport comes into play as a sales tool much the way lakeside and waterfront views help sell condominiums. The partnership The golf-real estate partnership, played out for a generation, is reciprocal, and offers potential for enduring financial rewards. Home buyers entering "the country club lifestyle" gain more than sweeping vistas of undulating fairways. They get a sales pitch from a country club trawling for prospective members. The lure is almost foolproof and examples abound, from Lakewood Ranch to University Park to Prestancia. "It comes down to lifestyle issues," says Jim Singerling, chief executive officer of the Alexandria, Va.-based Club Managers Association of America, an industry organization for country club managers. "Developers found if they priced the property around the courses high enough they could pay for the courses," Singerling said. There are noticeable differences in the proposals by the Ritz-Carlton, The Founders Club and The Concession -- in the prices charged, the exact financial relationship between the clubs and surrounding houses, and the courses' designs, which endeavor to conceal the houses from players. And, for the first time, the three proposals bring to Sarasota a kind of high-priced golf akin, in exclusivity, to luxury clubs in Naples, Palm Beach and Boca Raton. At $75,000, no other courses in Sarasota and Manatee counties come close in fees charged to new members. Lakewood Ranch Country Club charges $35,000 to its new members. That's the highest rate locally. Most clubs in the tri-county area run $10,000 to $25,000. Some view that as a positive. "Basically, this puts us at the midpoint of the market, instead at the highest end of it," said Rex Jensen, president of Schroeder-Manatee Ranch Inc., the developer of Lakewood Ranch. "Therefore, our golfing opportunities are very good." Two of the new courses -- The Ritz-Carlton course designed by Tom Fazio and The Concession designed by Jack Nicklaus -- will be next door to Lakewood Ranch in East Manatee. The Concession's main entry will be off University Parkway, about seven miles east of Interstate 75. The Ritz-Carlton course will be off Lorraine Road, just south of the Braden River. The Founders Club will be accessed off Fruitville Road, about three miles east of I-75 in Sarasota County. Tom Brown of U.S. Assets Group, developer of The Founders Club, says no golf course community in Sarasota will make exclusivity a focal point to the extent that his operation will. And the club's members will pay for it, too. In addition to the one-time equity fee, members would be charged annual dues of about $7,000. At The Concession, the dues will be higher, around $9,000. "It's never been done (in Sarasota), a very high-end, low-membership club," said Brown, who expects to open by the end of the year. The Ritz-Carlton is still working out the details. General Manager Jim McManemon said equity membership and daily fees will be announced the middle of next month, and that the project will break ground this summer with a completion slated for fall 2005. Residents of the Ritz-Carlton's condos will be offered a chance to buy equity memberships. Hotel guests will pay daily fees, possibly similar to those at other Ritz-Carlton courses, in the $200-$250 range. Comparables Country clubs like these exist close by in Naples. A 2000 study commissioned by Brown's company revealed 25 in Naples and its environs charging $75,000 and up for memberships. Golf is so exclusive there that some Sarasota golfers seeking a high-end golfing experience regularly venture to Naples. Kevin Daves sees opportunity, even amid the competition: He's the developer of The Concession and the president of Core Development Inc., which co-developed the Ritz-Carlton's new hotel in Sarasota. In a separate study he commissioned, Daves said he found that despite current price ceilings, there's a willing market in Sarasota-Bradenton for exclusive members-only golf that blows past the equity costs. "Naples is a golf destination. People made a decision to move there based on the quality of the golf," Daves said. In The Concession's case, golfers will glimpse only two of the 255 houses from the links, those owned by Nicklaus and fellow golfing great Tony Jacklin, winner of the British Open and U.S. Open. At The Founders course, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., the 262 houses will be tucked back from the playing field and many will be out of sight. "It's going to look like it's been there a long time," said Brown of The Founders course. "It will have a lot of contouring, not the type of course that seems artificial." Houses will range from $700,000 to more than $3 million. At The Concession, houses will sell for $1.5 million to $7 million. The notion that no high-end, luxury golf courses exist in Sarasota-Manatee was one reason Brown pushed for five years to build The Founders, overcoming zoning differences as well as a zealous neighbor who unsuccessfully appealed the zoning board's approval. The delay means The Founders could soon face competition from The Concession and the Ritz-Carlton, but Brown says he's not worried. "I always had enough faith in (the project) and the success of it," said Brown, who labels his competitors "imitators." Daves first eyed the 1,240-acre Concession property in East Manatee two years ago. He said he was inspired by the old oaks, stands of pines and wetlands. "We want to keep the open spaces and the beauty of the site," he said. The land offered another big plus: Originally part of the Panther Ridge community, it has already been zoned for houses and a golf course. Construction is set to start in May and to be completed by next summer. Construction at The Founders Club started in January and will wrap up by the end of the year. More than half of the homes at the The Concession and The Founders Club developments are already sold, the developers say. But whether this means more upscale golf communities will come to Southwest Florida is debatable. Price gains in the housing market might exert pressure to build more, although interest rates, the economy and the availability of land all will be governing factors. Jim Demick, executive director of the Florida State Golf Association, is optimistic about the prospects for upscale golf courses. He sees it as a matter of supply and demand. So long as wealthy, golf-playing boomers continue to retire to Florida, developers will find ways to accommodate them. "When the cost of housing gets to be $1 million plus, people get less concerned about a $100,000 initiation fee," says Demick. "There is no doubt that there is a certain population that want the best and look at the price to determine the best. "We still have a lot of land in Florida. That's not going to slow us down."
Caption: (Front cover photo)
STAFF PHOTO / CHIP LITHERLAND
Developer Tom Brown of The Founders Club stands in the course's sales center in the Gateway business park in Sarasota. The Founders is one of several golf courses under development that will take the game to new levels of exclusivity and poshness in the region.
Above, a lone palm stands in a grassy patch amid graded dirt at the future site of The Founders Club golf course in east Sarasota County.
At right, workers dig around underground pipes at The Founders. The course is being built off Fruitville Road about three miles east of I-75.
STAFF MAP/ JACOB BENISON
1. The Founders Club
2. The Concession
3. Ritz-Carlton Sarasota
4. (Area of map of Sarasota and Bradenton counties)
