After a seven-year effort to redevelop Woodlands Country Club in Tamarac, 13th Floor Homes bought the closed golf course and plans to start construction this year.
The firm paid $14 million for the roughly 270-acre golf course at 4600 Woodlands Boulevard from ClubLink US Corporation, a subsidiary of King City, Ontario-based TWC Enterprises, according to records and real estate database Vizzda.
Fort Lauderdale-based 13th Floor Homes, led by Michael Nunziata, plans a gated community with 335 single-family homes on the site of the course, according to the firm’s news release. The project, called The Woodlands, will offer three- to five-bedroom homes, with prices ranging from the $700,000s to more than $1 million. More than 160 acres of the site will be open space and the complex will have a five-mile recreation trail.
Construction is expected to start late this year, and the first homes are expected to be completed late next year, the release says.
13th Floor Homes, the homebuilding division of Arnaud Karsenti’s Miami-based 13th Floor Investments, has pushed to redevelop Woodlands since 2017, a company attorney told city officials last year. Following outreach meetings with neighbors, 13th Floor Homes revised its proposal over 100 times partly to appease concerns over the project’s density. 13th Floor slashed its proposal to 335 homes from its original plan to develop 315 houses and 480 townhouses and apartments.
Tamarac city commissioners gave the 335-home project final approval last year with a 3-2 vote.
ClubLink US had paid $4.2 million for Woodlands Country Club in 2011, according to records. The course closed in 2020 during the pandemic.
South Florida golf courses have been a prime target for developers looking for buildable sites.
Across the tri-county region, courses have been closing in recent years, reportedly due to the sport’s declining popularity, as well as an over-development of golf courses in Florida during the game’s heyday. As of late 2022, the Sunshine State had 1,238 golf courses, the most of any state, according to the National Golf Association.
13th Floor Homes has been among those that have seized on golf courses for new residential projects. In 2020, the firm dropped $5.6 million for 120 acres at the closed Villa Del Ray Golf Club at 6200 Via Delray Road in Delray Beach, with plans for a master-planned community with 436 single-family homes restricted for residents over 55.
Others betting on golf courses as development sites include Ari Pearl’s PPG Development, which plans 322 condos on a 37-acre portion of the The Club at Emerald Hills golf course at 4100 North Hills Drive in Hollywood.
Last year, CC Homes, led by developers Armando Codina and Jim Carr, paid $12.3 million for the closed Sunrise Country Club at 7400 Northwest 24th Place in Sunrise, with plans for a 900-home development.