GULF SHORES GOLF CLUB

Do-it-yourself developers
Sunday, July 02, 2006
By KATHY JUMPER
Real Estate Editor

The members of the Gulf Shores Golf Club figured the best way to pay for $5 million in renovations to the 42-year-old golf course was to build condominiums on the course.

And, to do it themselves, according to Palmer Dent, president of the club's board of directors.

So the 280-member group hired an engineering firm, architects and are talking with contractors to build 168 units on the club's 10.7 acres off Clubhouse Drive in downtown Gulf Shores.

So far, 59 of the 80 units in the first phase are reserved, according to Cham Johnston of Realty South in Orange Beach. Forty of those units are reserved by existing club members.

The units will be priced at $300 per square foot, he said. The units will range from 1,100 square feet to 3,300 square feet.

"The condos will be way below the cost of gulffront condos," Johnston said.

A Gulf-front, two-bedroom, two-bath condo unit that is in good condition and in a good location sells for an average $550,000 to $625,000, according to agents. A 1,100-square-foot unit at the golf club would average $330,000.

Construction could start by early fall, depending on presales, according to Dent.

There were "some naysayers" among the membership about building the condos themselves, said Dent, a resident of Fort Morgan. Many of the members are retirees, over 60, and some were cautious about developing condos, according to Dent.

"But it became apparent to everyone that we had to do something and had to do it quickly," he said.
The reconstruction of the golf course started last January and was under way when a developer who had planned to build the condo units dropped out of the project, Dent said. The contract "was done in good faith," he said. "Then along came a couple more storms, the market went to hell and the developer got cold feet."

"It was a mutual parting of the ways," said Phil Martin, a real estate developer based on Ono Island. "They may have done me a favor the way the market is now. I'd be sitting there nervous with another 18 months of construction left on the condos."

The golf course reconstruction cost about $5 million, but a new clubhouse and main entrance brought the total investment to about $8 million, according to Rea Schuessler, head pro and club manager.

The golf course will reopen in November as a private course, and the entire community will be gated, he said. The new clubhouse will feature a fitness center, new locker rooms, steam and sauna facilities and a new pool.

The father-son golf course design team of Jay and Carter Morrish of Dallas renovated the course. Jay Morrish worked on Jack Nicklaus' design team for 10 years and later with Tom Weiskopf before starting his own business.

"It needed a face lift," said Carter Morrish.

The course will have a new drainage system, new cart paths and all the lakes were redone. The greens will be planted with Miniverde, an ultra dwarf bermuda grass that is popular on putting surfaces, according to Carter Morrish. Gulf Shores Golf Club will be the only course in the area with Miniverde greens, he said.

The last greens renovations were done in 1992, according to Rea Schuessler, but those were not major. "The Morrish name was renowned in golf design," he said. "Everybody that has toured the golf course has been very complimentary."

The course lost 300 trees in Hurricane Ivan in September 2004, but there were no flooding problems from Ivan or Hurricane Katrina last August, Schuessler said.

The course construction work is being done by Eagle View of Montgomery, Texas, which has worked with the Morrish team on numerous golf courses.
WHL Architecture & Interiors in Fairhope designed the four, six-story condo buildings with parking on the ground level that feature views of the greens.

"The response has been unbelievable," Johnston said. "The people who want to live here love golf. It's on a champion-caliber golf course and less than 10 minutes from the beach."

The club hopes to sell memberships to most of the condo buyers and could accommodate as many as 600 members, Schuessler said.

Longtime Gulf Shores Golf Club member Patrick Daily is rooting for the project to succeed.

"It comes down to commitments versus hard contracts," said Daily, owner of REMAX of Orange Beach. "They will end up with a beautiful golf course and a couple of buildings to sell as the market needs them.

Daily said he was comfortable with the fact that some of the members are experienced developers and attorneys who helped put the condo package together.

"Do I think owners should get into development?" he said. "My answer is no."

The board talked to several developers and the city about possibly buying the property before deciding to develop it on their own, Dent said.

"We think we have a unique product and that our golf course community will be the pearl of the Gulf Coast," Dent said.

Ralph Holliman, a club member since 1993, was touring the new course this past week. "I will be 82 soon, and if I was 30 years younger, I'd buy a condo as an investment," he said.

This architect's rendering shows the planned 168-unit condominium project on 10.7 acres of the Gulf Shores Golf Club in downtown Gulf Shores. Club members are acting as their own developers.