City to run contested Coral Gables Country Club itself

After an initial deal fell through with proposer BTW Investments, the Coral Gables Country Club will be run by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

On Tuesday, commissioners voted for the city to become new operator of the country club at 997 N Greenway Drive after current tenant Grand Coral’s lease expires April 30.

“There will be a smooth transition with somebody who I have incredible faith and confidence in his department, as you can see by the work that they’re doing at the parks lately over the last few years and the upgrades and everything they’ve done with the literacy festival, expansion of the farmers market, and I can only say good things about your department, the good things that you’re doing,” Mayor Vince Lago said of Parks & Recreation Director Fred Couceyro.

“I have extreme faith and competence along with this commission that the transition will be smooth – maybe a little bumpy, but you know we’re going to get it,” the mayor said.

The idea is to return to a country club atmosphere and adapt the proposal by establishing the pool, tennis courts, a gym and the café in place, said City Manager Peter Iglesias.

The initial BTW Investments proposal had a deal to put roughly $5 million upfront through a partnership, which will no longer happen. “We do not get the $4 million to $5 million upfront, but we have to budget for now over the next few years,” Mayor Lago said.

In April 2021, the city’s Procurement Division requested proposals, to which BTW Investments was the only respondent, for tenancy and operation of the country club through which any proposer would make initial improvements of no less than $4.5 million, agree to a base rent of $360,000 per year, escalating 3% for each leasing year thereafter, and propose percentage rent participation based on gross revenues. The city would consider an initial 15-year lease, with two additional five-year options.

In July, city staff determined that BTW Investments’ proposal was nonresponsive because it did not meet the minimum requirements.
So far, the city has already spent around $2.4 million on the building’s roof and the air conditioning, the city manager added. “I am working with the finance director to budget as much as we can,” he said.

“I think this is exactly what the community needs for us as a city to go in the right direction. Clearly, the country club is a community jewel, just like the youth center, just like the Venetian Pool,” said Commissioner Kirk R. Menendez. “I trust our community recreation team. They really are doing a great job like the mayor said, and their hearts are in the right place.”

In March 2021, the city decided to cut ties with Coral Gables Country Club’s current operator Coral Grand after only 10 years.

Coral Grand operators were notified that the city would not renew its tenth-year lease agreement to operate the club due to failure to pay rent for April 2020 and to pay percentage rent from October 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018, and Oct. 1, 2018, through Sept. 30, 2019, which violates the initial lease, according to a nonrenewal letter the city sent to the club’s operators.

In January 2021, the city commission approved a deferred payment plan under which Coral Grand would pay rent in full for August and September 2020 and 50% for October, November and December, totaling $95,650.31. Operators acknowledged being in default for failure to pay rent due Aug. 1, 2020, saying they were impacted significantly by the pandemic, which was another violation of the lease agreement.

After numerous conversations with Coral Grand, which included its submittal of a March proposal, the tenant engaged legal counsel. In June, the city and the tenant’s attorneys reached a settlement to conclude an extended operator period effective through April 30.

“We can recapture the essence of what the country club was and should always be – the heart and soul of our community,” Commissioner Menendez said. “And it’s going to be in the best possible hands to protect and preserve what is important to all of us, and I think it’s a great day for the city commission to have this opportunity to do something special that will outlive us all.”