Members buy club at Bonita Bay’s Mediterra

COURTESY PHOTO The Tom Fazio-designed golf course at Mediterra. The Mediterra Members’ Advisory Board and Bonita Bay Group agreed for the members of the New Club at Mediterra to purchase the combined club assets for $6.8 million in cash and assume the $15 million Community Development District debt. The agreement received support from the residents and members of Mediterra with 95 percent of former members and an additional 150 residents, who were not previously members, joining the New Club as golf, sports or social members.

The sales agreement includes The Club at Mediterra and its two Tom Fazio-designed championship golf courses, an 1,800-square-foot golf learning center with short-game practice area, a 25,000-square-foot clubhouse, and a Sports Club with five Har-Tru tennis courts, an outdoor pool, three spa rooms and a recently expanded fitness center. It also includes the private Mediterra Beach Club on the Gulf of Mexico with an elevated swimming pool, expansive sundeck and indoor and al fresco dining overlooking 200 feet of shoreline.

“(The) agreement represents a significant step toward resolving the financial challenges facing our company due to the global economic crisis and the dramatic downturn in the Southwest Florida real estate market,” said David Lucas, chairman of Bonita Bay Group.

Mr. Lucas said the agreement at Mediterra is consistent with the company’s restructuring plan and amended credit facility with its senior lending group. The company remains committed to continuing negotiations with the advisory boards of its other membership clubs in Southwest Florida to achieve mutually beneficial agreements.

Mediterra is a 1,697-acre community that has been named Community of the Year by the Collier Building Industry Association five times, received the Award of Excellence for Open Spaces from the Florida Chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects and has been honored with the Environmental Leaders in Golf Award from the Golf Course Superintendents Association of America and Golf Digest magazine in the private course category. 