Cottage industry for big cottages: Clubhouse renovation in vogue

May 26--PALM BEACH GARDENS -- If there were any question the real estate and construction industries were emerging from years of winter, Palm Beach County's clubhouse scene provides the answer.

The county's elite golf and country club communities are pouring tens of millions of dollars into updates and expansions of clubhouses and other amenities for the rich and richer.

In some cases the projects are so expansive -- and expensive -- they trigger animosity among neighbors. But the projects keep rolling out as the communities compete for home buyers, retool for demographic change and seek the best possible lifestyle for members.

"There's a lot of people that live in the golf country clubs, who, on top of the monthly mortgage and insurance and everything else, pay quite a bit of money for their membership and they utilize the club -- that's their lifestyle," says Barb Kozlow, president of the Realtors Association of the Palm Beaches. "It's not for the weak of wallet."

Just last month, Mirasol members in Palm Beach Gardens narrowly approved a $40 million project that will add a tennis center and covered viewing patio; an esplanade building with a covered drop-off area; an outdoor "spa garden with hot tub;" a family aquatics area with cabanas and bathhouse; and expansions of restaurants and ballroom. And Mirasol, which dates to 2002, is one of the county's newer country club communities.

But it is hardly alone in attention to layering luxurious detail on top of an already high-end property. Among the others with major projects recently completed or in progress: BallenIsles in Palm Beach Gardens; St. Andrews and Polo Club, in Boca Raton; Admiral's Cove and Jupiter Country Club, in Jupiter; and Ibis in West Palm Beach.

Ibis' members took over from the developer three years ago and soon turned their attention to the future of the 22-year-old community, which has 1,450 members in 33 neighborhoods.

Their $33 million project has two goals, said Peter Miller, president of the Ibis board of directors: to enhance "the Ibis experience" for current members; and second, to attract the next, younger generation.

The new features center on a "sports village," and a 22,000-square-foot extension on the back of the 52,000-square-foot clubhouse. The sports village is designed to be a new destination for fun and health at Ibis, Miller said. There'll be two-story fitness centers overlooking a resort pool, and a spa in a serene setting for manicures, pedicures and other treatments, he said. "You can lounge at the pool, work out, have meals at different settings overlooking the pool, and it's adjacent to the tennis courts, so the new restaurants have seating facing the pool and the tennis courts, so if we have tournaments for tennis, we would have those high-level matches right there."

The clubhouse expansion allows other restaurants to move upstairs, to overlook one of Ibis' three Nicklaus golf courses, and includes a chef's table area in a new kitchen, "so people will be able to enjoy a fabulous meal while they are in the midst of watching the chef prepare his high-end dining experience," Miller said.

At http://ibisgolf.com, viewers can see a 90-second video of what the project will look like. Then they can click to watch the project taking shape live, through construction-site cameras.

Nearby BallenIsles, original home of the PGA National Golf Club, spent $40 million on updates in 2008 and 2009, and then another $5.2 million this past year.

"Everybody's doing something," General Manager Derrick Barnett said, rattling off a half-dozen names of clubs. "Palm Beach County is wildly competitive in country clubs. You really have to stay on top of everything so that you are up to date."

St. Andrews, a Boca Club that prides itself on food and security, is heading into the third phase of a $17 million project begun in 2012. The first phase saw the locker rooms and card rooms redone; Phase 2 this past summer saw a complete renovation of the 125,000-square-foot clubhouse, as well as a new pool and recreation center. The club went from two dining venues to four, and got a full bar in its main clubhouse.

In Phase 3, just underway, the community is overhauling its freestanding casual restaurant, to be able to handle the high volume of traffic it attracts, said Kristen Pfeifer, director of communications. "In Boca, food is king, and it certainly is at St. Andrews," she said.

Being treated royally doesn't come cheap. At St. Andrews, a full membership comes with a nonrefundable initiation fee of $95,000. Then add $34,000 in annual dues and all-in fees.

Add to numbers of that magnitude the assessments required to pay for renovations, and member concerns can hit the boiling point.

Focus groups and other meetings to seek input and inform residents are essential to winning approval for multimillion-dollar projects, BallenIsles' Barnett said. "You can't ask people for $20 million and not tell them what it's for. It is politics. It is a mini-government after all."

Ibis and Mirasol officials boast that they did those things, too. But some Ibis residents still harbor concerns that the $159 a month assessments will scare off the younger homebuyers the renovations are supposed to attract. "My friends bought in at $500,000 and can't get a nibble at $250,000," one Ibis woman said.

At Mirasol, whose board hosted 39 sessions to gain input, the temperature remains unseasonably warm, with some members contemplating legal action over the project and how the votes were counted.

The official tally came in at 595 votes for the project and 408 against, according to the board. But some residents note that non-votes were to count as "no's," meaning the project actually passed by roughly 30 votes or fewer -- hardly the ringing endorsement the board would have wanted, and divisive enough that some residents blasted others for speaking out about their opposition.

While some say renovation costs at country club communities place a heavier burden on those who don't live in the developments' million-dollar-plus homes, Realtor Kozlow said that's the deal going in. "If I can afford to be in a $750,000 home and I know what my club fees and everything are, and somebody else can afford to be in a $7.5 million home, that's part of what you take on when you go into a club like that," she said.

Do renovation costs scare off buyers?

"You just get a different buyer," she said. "You have to keep up with the times."

John Herring, general manager of The Club at Admiral's Cove, said the community's new youth activity center and fitness facilities, completed in 2012, have been extremely popular within Admiral's Cove.

As interest in golf has waned among younger families, interest in fitness has taken off, he said. The community's children's activity center includes such extras as a tutoring center, where staff as well as high school and college students help members' children with homework after school. The inventory of unsold homes went from 120 before the $14 million project to 46 afterward, he said.

"It's nothing but a big plus," he said. "Tell all these people to stop worrying."

___

(c)2014 The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.)

Visit The Palm Beach Post (West Palm Beach, Fla.) at www.palmbeachpost.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services