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Country club sees green in land sales

The St. Petersburg Country Club seeks money to add amenities and members.

By PAUL SWIDER
Published April 1, 2007

ST. PETERSBURG - Looking to leverage its land assets to improve facilities, the St. Petersburg Country Club is selling the first of dozens of golf course lots for new homes.

"We've got a significant amount of excess land," said Philip Powell, president of the 80-year-old club that was once named for the Lakewood neighborhood it occupies south of Lake Maggiore. "We're looking for a method of providing capital for improvements, and this is the low-hanging fruit."

The club is in negotiations with two unnamed developers that bid on five lots along the golf course. Those developers are also vying for a chance to develop another potential 40 lots carved out of more land around the course.

The five lots include three at Columbus Way and Cortez Way and two at Columbus and Madrid ways. Powell said another 30 to 40 lots are possible from land throughout the course, but surveyors are still determining where and how many.

All the lots would meet existing zoning and be at least 10,000 square feet, Powell said. He said he didn't expect to have to redesign the golf course to generate the lots, but that it is a possibility.

Powell said starting bids for the lots had to be at least $100,000 for each, but he expected the final sales price to be closer to $150,000. Only single-family homes can be built on the land.

City zoning also requires lots in this neighborhood have at least 80 feet of street frontage, something neighbors say they will watch closely as these parcels are developed.

"We're going to be adamant about that," said Judy Ellis, the president of the Lakewood Estates Civic Association. "We don't want to see any crowding. We don't want to become another Levittown."

Ellis said the spacious suburban enclave contains mostly resident-owned homes, but there are a few "real eyesores" that are rented. She said increasing the density in the area would make matters worse. Residents would also like the area to remain as open and natural as it can be, nestled, as it is, next to Boyd Hill Nature Park along the lake shore.

"If we had our druthers, nobody would build so much as another doghouse here," Ellis said, but added that neighbors are open to positive development. "We know that our continued well-being is dependant on the country club, and vice versa."

Powell said that as the country club improves, the neighborhood will as well.

"Look what happened to the Old Northeast," said Powell, the principal of Powell Holding and Development. "It was kind of a dump when the golf course up there was the Sunset Golf Club. But when Vinoy redid the course, the whole neighborhood picked up."

Powell said the goal is to take the proceeds from the land sales and roll them into "high-end facilities" at the country club to attract more and younger members.

Among the improvements would be a new, larger swimming pool, tiki bar, day care facility, new gym, new pro shops for golf and tennis, and new locker rooms. He said the club's membership is declining so the enhancements are designed to draw more young families to join.

"Everyone would love to see improvements, but no one wants to pay for them," Powell said. "The question is how do we do that without putting a burden on the membership."

The club kicked the idea around a few years ago, Powell said, but never acted. He said the neighbors were supportive in the past so he doesn't expect any conflict now.

The lots are not yet legally platted, but city officials said that process is routine. Forty-five new homes in Lakewood would not significantly affect the city's ability to provide services.

"As long as the lots meet all the requirements, platting is a paperwork thing," said Julie Weston, director of the city's development services department.

Paul Swider can be reached at 892-2271 or pswider@sptimes.com or by participating in itsyourtimes.com.

[Last modified March 31, 2007, 20:35:27]