Broken Sound Club's $40 million renovation

Where and what is Broken Sound?

Broken Sound Club is a mandatory resident membership country club (CC) located on a massive real estate footprint that starts on the southeast corner of Clint Moore and Jog Road and stretches for at least two miles east, stretching in places a couple of miles south until it meets Yamato Road (the next east-to-west thoroughfare). It even incorporates a section on Clint Moore's northside known as The Banyans. We're talking about 1,600 SF estates, villas, townhouses, and condos spread over twenty-seven villages on a thousand acres (plus) of spectacular rolling fairways (eighteen of the New Course on the community's campus). Notably, the championship-grade Old Course is a short distance away, with no home to be seen on the landscape (a genuinely unique CC feature).

The description above doesn't do justice to the breathtaking vistas and outlooks residents enjoy from their backyards, living spaces, and trails in the complex. These take in sparkling free-form lagoons, undulating peninsulas, and mature, immaculately maintained tropical foliage, embracing numerous indigenous trees (including tall palms) that add to the stress-releasing theme of Broken Sound CC. Developers first broke ground in 1986 to establish a sustainable luxury-perfect lifestyle with extraordinary amenities and nature-centric benefits.  

What CC enhancements does $40 million buy you in 2023?

However, as Garden-of-Eden-like as the painted description sounds, the question is, does seismic remodeling and upgrading leave other prestigious CC options in the dust? So, a fast-forward look at the latest developments indicates that Broken Sound members are trying their best to do precisely that. 

A mind-blowing reconstruction and renovation project saw the emergence of their main clubhouse expanded to 100,000 square feet (i.e., a structure covering two acres) with multiple indoor and outdoor dining options (from casual to fine-dining and exotic themes in between). It also features an eye-popping pool setup that rivals any 5-star international resort with heated swimming, lap training, aquatics instruction, and kid's splash facilities on 84,000 square feet of dedicated fully-serviced outdoor space. The surrounding sundeck with shade spaces and gazebos is something to behold. 

While golf is a signature activity, resulting in course restructuring from the first to the eighteenth tee every four years or so, remember the tennis and growing pickleball fanatics who live here. For them, full-pro guidance to leagues, private and group coaching, and social events is on daily around twenty-three tennis and four pickleball courts (many night-lit), thus addressing every need and want in the arena. 

Then, no less focused, the construction resulted in a revamped 38,000-square foot, LEED Certified Moonstone Spa & Fitness Center converging on cardio and weight-training high-tech apparatus guided by personal trainers (if required), physical therapy, and separate exercise studios catering to every vertical one can imagine (e.g., Yoga, Pilates, Zumba, Tai Chi, Spin classes, etc.) 

The $7 million, 13,100-square-foot spa is immensely impressive, providing qualified spa professionals conducting programs aligned with American Leisure, one of the country's top fitness, lifestyle, and spa management/consulting organizations. These leverage a complete spa facility bolstered by six treatment rooms & couples suites, gender-centric locker rooms, relaxation lounges, designer lighting & scents, steam rooms and hot tubs, and nutrition catering (teas, fruit water, and other supplements). In addition, members seeking treatment can choose from options such as deep tissue or relaxation massages with aromatherapy, deep cleaning, hydrating & rejuvenation facials, eye and lip treatments, hot stone therapy, teen facials, men's and women's hair salon services ( including manicures and pedicures).

Phew! That's quite something. But of course, all the above doesn't come cheaply, including the privilege of watertight 24/7 security at both entrances + roving patrols. Members pay substantial initiation fees, significant annual dues, and special assessments. For more details on this and the golf or social membership options, go to our write up on Broken Sound Homes For Sale.

So, Broken Sound must be streets ahead of the CC pack, right?

Wrong, dear reader. If that's what you're thinking, you couldn't be more wrong! Now, to be fair, it hasn't pulled them backward. However, all the CC has achieved with its original $30 million budget (which rumor has it is, in reality, $40 million), aside from spectacular members' luxury acceleration, is treading water. That's right. Everything you read above is true for recent mega-budget reconstruction projects at Woodfield Country Club, Addison Reserve, Polo Club, Boca West, and St Andrews. There may be slight differences here and there, but the trend is as clear as daylight: The premium CCs spare no cost and take no shortcuts to grab bragging rights left, right, and center. Look at the links above and see the CC management claiming this award, ranking, or recognition from several prestigious lifestyle, health, and travel organizations. Even if they’re ranked seventh, they say it!

One questions how much members need these extra luxury standards, restaurants, valet, and concierge services. If we look at CC promotions decades back, the same CCs always claimed to offer the ultimate luxury lifestyle. So, why do those days-gone-by setups mean little or nothing today? Truth be told, they were not too shabby, to begin with. 

Our read on this is that there's a membership culture in these CCs that has no tolerance for falling behind what others within a two-mile radius are doing, which seems like there’s "no limit to where it can go." Obviously, well-heeled memberships want and support it that way and have been doing so for years.

A stealth competitor threatens to gatecrash the CC party.

It seems to us that the CC members and management are so involved in outpacing each other that another category threatens their longstanding collective stature. Not a 100% fit, but close enough. Indeed, the recent emergence of round-the-clock-secure resort-style projects on magnificently manicured spacious campuses with aqua-centric and garden-like environments provide almost all the benefits and amenities CCs offer minus:

• Golf on the campus.
• Some or all restaurants.
• Valet services.

Developments like GL Homes' Seven Bridges, Boca Bridges, Lotus, Lotus Palm, and Toll Brothers Royal Palm Polo offer tennis, fitness, cutting-edge kids' entertainment, and clubhouse programs that compete with any top CC (in many cases better). The trade-off for the "minuses" one sees above is around $3,000 less monthly dues (only HOA fees payable of +- $1,000 monthly) and no initiation fees that CCs charge from $100,000 and up (non-refundable). 

Best of all, there's no indication that homeowners in the resort compounds have the mindset to outdo their neighbors by reconstructing and getting on that "hamster" wheel. Moreover, the homes are from 2015 to 2023 vintage - spectacular modern, and contemporary - not Old Florida pre-2000 like most CCs. Finally, you won't find multifamily creeping in, a mixture that drags on real estate values in CCs in many of those mentioned above (Addison Reserve and St Andrews being the exception). This is another discussion for another article. 

So, if the CC luxury lifestyle appeals to you without the high costs, and you’re okay playing golf at one of the scores of courses outside your community, contact the ZFC team. We'll show you these exciting options or find the best value CC homes if on-campus golf is a must-have. We cover all of them, plus others like Hunters Run (Boynton Beach), Delaire CC, and Gleneagles CC that have somehow avoided the rush to upgrade already robust luxuries with lower fees as a benefit.