Mattamy Homes acquired a Lake Worth Beach golf course that the company intends to redevelop into a 450-unit residential community.
Canada’s largest homebuilder is proposing Forest Oaks, a development consisting of 100 single-family houses and 350 townhomes within the Lucerne Lakes master-planned community in Lake Worth Beach.
Last year, the Palm Beach County Commission approved the project, which is named after the 51-year-old Forest Oask Golf Club that Mattamy is redeveloping, according to published reports.
Mattamy, a Toronto-based firm led by CEO Peter Gilgan, paid $10 million for the 115-acre site, records and Vizzda show. The seller, Lake Worth Beach-based Grillo Golf Management, paid $759,000 in 2014.
Forest Oaks pre-construction homes starting in the $400,000s range are already being marketed on Mattamy’s website. Under the current zoning, Mattamy could have built up to 900 units and reduced its initial 2018 site plan submission for 600 units. Mattamy is also setting aside 36 acres of the golf course for open space.
Despite scaling down the Forest Oaks project, some existing Lucerne Lakes homeowners objected to Mattamy’s plans during the county commission meeting last year. They alleged Mattamy was in violation of a homeowners association declaration and agreement with a previous developer to maintain the golf course as a recreational space, published reports state.
In the past year, developers have picked up a handful of South Florida golf courses to convert into housing. In June, Toll Brothers won a government bid to build 52 homes on a 21-acre, city-owned golf course in Parkland.
A month earlier, CC Homes – a partnership between developers Armando Codina and Jim Carr – paid $12.3 million for a golf course in Sunrise. The joint venture is proposing Solterra, a project consisting of 300 to 400 single-family homes and 500 to 600 townhouses.
And in March, the Tamarac City Commission approved plans by Miami-based 13th Floor Investments to redevelop the shuttered Woodlands Country Club into 335 homes on 165 acres.