Palm Beach County Courses Closing

[Cantankerish]

I live in Boca Raton, which is the southern tip of Palm Beach county.  I want to come out up front and acknowledge that I am aware that I am in something like golf nirvana, especially in winter when some of my northern brethren can only sigh at the idea of getting in a round.  This is not a whine.  I'm just interested.

 

Here in all of South Florida, land property values are on an uptick again.  And this time they are enough to convince several of the local courses to sell out. That is - the offers coming in on the land are high enough to convince the owners to sell the property to developers.   In fact, I can think of no fewer than six courses near me that have closed in the last decade - some to hurricanes, mind you.   And I am only aware of one new one.  Is this a typical progression?  Is it cyclical?  I am wondering if there are any members who are more knowledgeable about trends of this sort than I am.

[iacas]

Six in a decade? That's not a lot for an area with as many courses as Palm Beach County.

[Cantankerish]

I bet it is a lot more than that for the county.  I only have knowledge of my little corner. 

 

[Patch]

Developers in Clark County Nv are  closer to getting favorable decisions to buy and close city, and county owned courses. 

One course property owner in particlar had an iron clad, grand fathered in agreement with the city to stay a golf course forever This when he donated the course to said city several.decades ago. 

Once all the legal dust settles, the course will become  apartments, and strip malls. The city is in agreement with the closure/sale because no one from the original property owner's family is still living. 

[Cantankerish]

That is pretty disheartening.

On 2/7/2019 at 1:53 PM, Patch said:

Developers in Clark County Nv are  closer to getting favorable decisions to buy and close city, and county owned courses. 

One course property owner in particlar had an iron clad, grand fathered in agreement with the city to stay a golf course forever This when he donated the course to said city several.decades ago. 

Once all the legal dust settles, the course will become  apartments, and strip malls. The city is in agreement with the closure/sale because no one from the original property owner's family is still living. 

That is pretty disheartening.  It goes to my central concern if increasing land values are the natural enemy of golf course longevity.

 

Does that leave you without decent options to play?

[mcanadiens]

Six doesn't sound bad.If you consider the Dayton, OH area to include Springfield to the east and Middletown to the south, we've had eight shut in the last ten years. There are at least two more on the way out that I'm aware of.

Like a lot of places, golf courses got overbuilt in my home town. For the most part, its the more marginal ones that have closed. Land values are a factor in certain cases. Others involve municipalities not being able or willing to subsidize courses that are losing money. 

In fact, my home course is owned by the City of Dayton and we are waiting on consultants to make recommendations about how the city can save money.