- April 18, 2024
-
-
Loading
Loading
When Palm Coast bought the Palm Harbor Golf Course in 2008, one important element was missing: The driving range.
"This is probably the city’s best holiday gift that I can remember in a very long time. ... Not only is it a good deal, it is about as near and dear to us as anything could be."
— DAVID ALFIN, Palm Coast mayor
The course's former owner, Centex Destination Properties, had retained that portion of the property and was proposing to build homes on it.
That would have degraded the functionality of the range. But a new owner, JDI Palm Coast LLC, bought the land from Centex in 2016, and has now agreed to donate it to the city of Palm Coast, protecting the driving range.
"This is probably the city’s best holiday gift that I can remember in a very long time," Mayor David Alfin said at a Dec. 7 City Council meeting shortly before the council voted unanimously to accept the donation.
Alfin said that 52,463 rounds of golf were played at the Palm Harbor Harbor Golf Course last year — a course record — and that the course is on track to surpass that number this year. In the 2021 fiscal year, he added, the course brought in $1,404,882 of revenue.
"That's a significant number for a revenue-producing amenity," Alfin said. "We just celebrated the 50th anniversary of the Palm Harbor Golf Course, which make it significantly older than the incorporated city of Palm Coast. So not only is it a good deal, it is about as near and dear to us as anything could be."
City Councilman Eddie Branquinho said he'd met repeatedly with the course's owners and had lost many night of sleep over the property's future.
"This golf course basically is useless without that driving range. ... We had an expert come here, coming up with ideas just in case we couldn't get that range," Branquinho said. Now that the city will acquire the range, he said, "My heart is full of joy, and I think this is going to be some Christmas present to the city."
The Palm Harbor course was Palm Coast's first, designed by Bill Amick for ITT Corporation and opened in 1973, decades before Palm Coast's incorporation as a city.
It was the the home course of Hall of Fame golfer Nancy Lopez. Centex bought it in 2005 and approached Nicklaus Design about reconstructing the course, but abandoned those plans and closed the course during the economic downturn.
The city bought about 144 acres of the 160-acre course in 2008, leaving Centex with the 16 acres that included the driving range and leading to years of back and forth between the city and Centex, and later JDI, over the property's future.
The city renovated the course and reopened it in 2009. Then JDI bought the land that includes the driving range in 2016. The city has been working with them since, and, this year, JDI decided to donate the remainder of the property to the city for federal tax relief.
Alfin noted that city staff, and particularly Palm Coast Chief Development Officer Jason DeLorenzo, have been working on trying to protect the driving range for years.
"Projects like this are in fact going on behind the scenes — there is a machine running all the time, and this is the kind of thing that our city staff is able to bring to conclusion, cross the finish line, to the benefit of all of us in the city," Alfin said.
