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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Golf club community planned for Bonita
Date: Wednesday, July 06, 2011
Golf club community planned for Bonita
Developer sees promise in today's marketplace
Developers are planning to build a golf community at the end of Bonita Beach Road in the eastern part of Bonita Springs. The project is located on the south side of the road. / MARC BEAUDIN/news-press.com
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A national real estate investment company is betting that it's time to end the long drought in new golf club communities in Southwest Florida.
RPL is partnering with Naples-based Ronto Group to begin pre-development work this year on two parcels totaling 626 acres at the end of Bonita Beach Road that Boston-based RPL bought recently for $18 million.
That's not written in stone, said RPL president Garrett Solomon. "It all depends on how the market is and how quickly we find stabilization and some improvement."
But he likes the way the numbers fall out for the project in today's golf market: Buying the land for a fraction of its cost during the boom will provide a competitive advantage.
The project is competitive with the existing inventory of golf community homes even "based on very little improvement over the market today," he said.
RPL plans for a bundled golf community of relatively low-priced homes in which buyers get membership in the golf club included in the price of a house.
"What we're contemplating doing here is not a high-end, luxury golf course," Solomon said. "We know people can't afford to pay $12,000 to $15,000 a year. There'll be no initiation fee and the cost will be $3,000 to $5,000 a year. It will be a challenging course but a playable course, a fun course." Not everybody is sure the time is right for a new golf community, however low the land price.
"There's a trend away from developing golf course communities," Naples-based commercial real estate broker Ross McIntosh said, noting that Hacienda Lakes, Sabal Bay and Naples Reserve in Miami "are now being replanned extracting the golf course."
Still, he said, "Over time, particularly if we reduce the supply of prospective golf courses, demand will develop for another golf course. The question is what kind of golf club is sustainable under the new normal. And the answer may very well be bundled golf."
Joe Mazurkiewicz, a Cape Coral-based land-use consultant, said the recent history of financial problems for non-bundled golf communities will likely make buyers skittish for years about joining a club.
That makes bundled golf more attractive, Mazurkiewicz said, although "I think it's a market that'll run a very skinny market in 2012" before coming back in earnest in 2013 or '14.
But Randy Thibaut, owner of Fort Myers-based Land Solutions, which specializes in the buying and selling of land, said there are indications the market for golf is already turning.
Thibaut, who represented BB Road LLC when it sold the Bonita Beach Road property to RPL, noted that TwinEagles, Treviso Bay and Tuscany Reserve in Collier County aren't abandoning golf - but their owners are reworking them to accommodate a sales plan based on more affordable prices.
"They're adjusting to the market," he said. "The market's different than it was in 2006 when people were buying million-dollar homes like they were candy."
Solomon said he knows there's skepticism about golf in Southwest Florida but that the numbers will prove him right.
"This market is one that a lot of people don't understand," he said. "It's often thought of as the hotbed of the country, along with Las Vegas, for foreclosures."
But there was much less distress in the Bonita Springs/Naples area than in Fort Myers/Cape Coral, he said. "We're focused on value, on how we can deliver that value."
That makes bundled golf more attractive, Mazurkiewicz said, although "I think it's a market that'll run a very skinny market in 2012" before coming back in earnest in 2013 or '14.
But Randy Thibaut, owner of Fort Myers-based Land Solutions, which specializes in the buying and selling of land, said there are indications the market for golf is already turning.
Thibaut, who represented BB Road LLC when it sold the Bonita Beach Road property to RPL, noted that TwinEagles, Treviso Bay and Tuscany Reserve in Collier County aren't abandoning golf - but their owners are reworking them to accommodate a sales plan based on more affordable prices.
"They're adjusting to the market," he said. "The market's different than it was in 2006 when people were buying million-dollar homes like they were candy."
Solomon said he knows there's skepticism about golf in Southwest Florida but that the numbers will prove him right.
"This market is one that a lot of people don't understand," he said. "It's often thought of as the hotbed of the country, along with Las Vegas, for foreclosures."
But there was much less distress in the Bonita Springs/Naples area than in Fort Myers/Cape Coral, he said. "We're focused on value, on how we can deliver that value."
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