A Lakeland developer who bought the former Grenelefe Golf and Tennis Club in Haines City wants to build new homes and apartments on the former resort and golf course, according to a report in GrowthSpotter.
The resort in northeast Polk County sprawls across 1,273 acres and once had three thriving golf courses, 22 tennis courts, a convention center, three restaurants, four swimming pools, a planned marina on Lake Marion and 417 resort-owned rental condominiums. Timeshare giant Westgate Resorts bought the property in 2004 and operated it for nearly two decades.
Westgate had been trying to unload it for years and in early 2022, the company found two buyers: Alya Grenelefe LLC paid $31.5 million for 417 condominiums, and Grenelefe Resort Development LLC, led by Ronin Assets founder Scott House, paid $3.1 million for the golf and tennis facilities, 15 lake loft condos and the private utility that services the entire community.
House will meet with Polk County’s Development Review Committee this week to unveil his ambitious plan to redevelop the property with nearly 1,900 homes, townhomes, duplexes and apartments on the 536.6 acres.
Grenelefe is the latest in a growing trend of infill housing being built on failed golf courses. In Kissimmee, Miami-based Wolfson Development Group is currently building two BTR townhouse communities on the former Buenaventura Lakes golf course.
In Orlando, Westside Capital Group received PD zoning in 2021 to redevelop the former Lake Orlando golf course in the city’s Rosemont neighborhood into a 6,000-unit mixed-use development called the RoseArts District with 350,000 square feet of commercial and retail space. The project is split into three phases, and Westside received development plan approvals for phase 1 but has not broken ground yet.
At Grenelefe, House split the resort into two primary sections with Kokomo Road as the dividing line. His Grenelefe East Concept spans 350 acres and includes the former convention center and tennis facility, which would all be razed and replaced with single-family homes. The master plan creates four pods of single-family homes with a mix of 50-foot and 60-foot lots and total of 651 homesites.
It also has two townhouse parcels with 88 and 114 units, respectively, and a small multifamily community with 80 units. The land that included a proposed marina on Lake Marion is shown as a self-contained 84-unit duplex community east of Lake Marion Road.
House is proposing a new clubhouse and swimming pool near the northeast entrance to the community from C.R. 544 E. It would overlook the driving range, which would be retained, and a portion of the east golf course would become a nine-hole executive course. There’s also a pocket of tennis or pickleball courts shown in the northwest corner of the plan.
The Grenelefe West Concept includes redevelopment of about 186 acres of former golf course property west of Kokomo Road with another 866 residential units. The proposed master plan calls for 488 single-family homes on 50- and 60-foot lots and a townhouse community with 100 units at the corner of Kokomo and C.R. 544 E.
News Source: Orlando Sentinel.