Although Baymeadows Golf Club owner Michael Miraglia said the possible sale of the course for residential development doesn't signify a trend, other golf course general managers and owners on the First Coast see it as exactly that.
If Baymeadows is sold to D.R. Horton Inc., which plans to build about 1,400 single-family homes and condominiums on the 170-acre site, it would be the second course within two years to be sold for that purpose. The Ponce de Leon course in St. Augustine was purchased in November of 2002 by Chester Stokes, who's building homes on that site.
Many course owners and operators have said the marketplace has gotten too crowded, with more than 100 courses in South Georgia and the Northern Chapter PGA. Many of those courses had been built since the late 1980s, when it became a standard marketing tool to attract home buyers with a golf course.
"I don't think we've seen the end of it," said Windsor Parke general manager Mike Lynch, the immediate past president of the Northern Chapter PGA. "A lot of courses are on the periphery of what happened to the Ponce and what may happen to Baymeadows. And I guarantee you there are developers that are looking at this and saying to themselves, 'This is something we ought to look into.' "
Jacksonville Beach head professional and past chapter president Boots Farley, who played high school golf matches at Baymeadows while at Wolfson, agreed that simple economics may drive the demise of more courses.
"We have overbuilt in this area, and they're still building more," Farley said about new courses under construction or planned on the Westside and in St. Johns County. "While that's happening, there are other courses that may have to bite the bullet and make a decision to sell, because no one's getting real rich around here."
Although Baymeadows was built in 1969 as a private golf-course community, it had been sold several times to various golf management companies, once land surrounding the course had been "built out" with homes and condominiums.
Miraglia, the president of Manassas, Va.,-based Fore Golf Partners, said his company wasn't selling Baymeadows because it wasn't making money or because he believed the marketplace had too many courses. He said the nature of his business is to buy struggling courses, make improvements, then sell them at a profit.
"Baymeadows was doing well," said Miraglia, who claimed that rounds played were more than 50,000 annually since his company sank more than $1 million in improvements after buying it in 2001. "We're in the business of buying, fixing and selling golf courses. The supply and demand in the Jacksonville area might be an interesting dynamic, and in general, the golf-course industry has more supply than demand. But that had nothing to do with our decision."
Even if Miraglia said his reason for selling Baymeadows was not because the course was struggling, Farley said Horton wasn't planning to keep the course operating.
"The buyer obviously thinks it's a smarter business decision to develop the land, rather than keep operating it as a golf course," he said.
Miraglia said the contract with Horton had a non-disclosure clause concerning the sale price. Duval County's appraised value of the course is almost $3.9 million.
"We won't be selling at a loss," Miraglia said.
The city will have to approve a plan by Horton to deal with the increased traffic created by new homeowners.
Miraglia said the course has 36 full- and part-time employees who will be affected if the sale is final.
The mood at Baymeadows on Wednesday among employees and longtime members and players was generally somber.
"This course was the most convenient course in town for myself and a lot of regular players," said Bob Ford, who said he has been playing Baymeadows for eight years. "It was very close to I-95 and people stop off on the way home from work and practice or play nine holes all the time."
Don Podany, who has played at Baymeadows since 1990, said it would hard to imagine what kind of traffic plan could accommodate the increase in homeowners.
"It's hard enough to get around out there now," he said. "And the golf traffic trickles in. . . . Throw 1,400 homeowners trying to get onto Baymeadows Road or Southside Boulevard in the morning, and it's going to be impossible."
Source: Florida Times-Union (Jacksonville)