WINTER BEACH — The county goals to start revitalizing Sandridge Golf Membership this 12 months, and plans are to begin quickly for the important thing part, a brand new clubhouse.
The prevailing clubhouse is to get replaced with one about triple the scale, in keeping with director Bela Nagy, who mentioned the area feels crammed now, even throughout 140-person occasions. The brand new 18,000-square-foot clubhouse — which would come with a banquet corridor, kitchens, a restaurant and bar — might price as much as $9 million, however the self-sustaining operation pays for it from its personal income, he mentioned.
“We have form of outgrown the power over time,” Nagy mentioned. “We have been open since 1987. At the moment, it was only a trailer, after which we moved into this present clubhouse in ’92.”
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Sandridge has two 18-hole programs: the Dunes Course, which opened in 1987, and the Lakes Course, which opened in 1992, in keeping with its web site. Though it is owned by Indian River County, the golf membership requires no working subsidy, in keeping with Nagy.
“All of our consumer charges pay for all of our bills, so we do not take any taxpayer {dollars} or cash,” he mentioned.
A brand new clubhouse has been mentioned for about six years, however rising demand — and up to date payoff of debt taken on to open the place initially — made it really feel like now’s the precise time to drag the set off, he mentioned. All that regardless of the undertaking’s hefty price ticket, which has regularly risen from its authentic $6.5 million estimate.
“It is not going to actually do a complete lot to the golf course financially, as a result of we have been doing fairly nicely for the previous couple of years,” Nagy mentioned. “And COVID had a surge in golf within the final three years.”
Final fiscal 12 months, the membership hosted 119,000 rounds of golf, in comparison with a earlier common of 95,000-97,000 rounds per 12 months, he mentioned. Working bills hover round $3 million a 12 months, and final 12 months it introduced in $4.5 million, in keeping with Nagy.
He is anticipating hitting $5 million this 12 months.
The objective of the renovation is to raise Sandridge, present occasion area and even only a informal place to hang around, he mentioned. The brand new clubhouse would have indoor/out of doors bar that may host about 140 folks, whereas the banquet corridor would accommodate 200 folks and an outside area would maintain 180.
“The one factor we have been missing from {the golfing} expertise is coming off the golf course and having a extremely cool place to hang around afterwards,” he mentioned. “Have a beer, speak about a spherical or simply come out for dinner.”
The present clubhouse will stay open as the brand new one is constructed, and when it is full, the previous one will probably be demolished and changed by an area to retailer golf carts, he mentioned.
The county employed Jupiter structure agency Sparcdesign for $478,000 to design the clubhouse, in keeping with county information. As soon as plans are accredited, the county possible will start searching for building bids subsequent month, county spokesperson Kathy Copeland mentioned.
Nagy anticipates building will start this summer season and be full by fall 2024.
Thomas Weber is TCPalm’s Indian River County authorities watchdog reporter. You may attain him at thomas.weber@tcpalm.com or 813-545-9113. Comply with him on Fb and Twitter.
