What can you get for a million-dollar initiation fee in South Florida today? Scroll down to see photos of the new Shell Bay Club, located in Hallandale Beach (just north of Miami) in Florida.
Greg Norman has designed the private course at Shell Bay Club. The site was previously occupied by the layout of the Diplomat Golf Resort & Spa, which had been designed by Joe Lee. Witkoff Group, PPG Development and other developers were responsible for the $220 million project. The property includes Residences at Shell Bay which is a 108 Auberge managed condominium and penthouse unit with views of the Intracoastal Waterway and golf course.
A private yacht club and a high-end tennis center are just two of the many amenities available at this community. Soon, a 60-room boutique hotel will open.
In a press release to announce the opening of the course, Ari Pearl, the founder and president PPG Development said, “Shell Bay offers the best amenities of any luxury development in South Florida. There’s nothing else like it.” We are confident that Shell Bay’s vision will appeal to today’s luxury buyers.
The course is 7,254 yards long with lots of water. The club has a 12-acre high-tech practice facility, as well as a par-3 nine-hole course. The course is one of the hardest in Florida, with a slope rating of 148 and a course rating 76.1. The slope rating of a golf course can range from 113 to 155. The slope rating is a measure of how difficult a course will be for a player with a scratch-handicap compared to a non scratch-handicap.
Norman, the World Golf Hall of Famer and leader of LIV Golf who has designed courses all over the world as well as taking a leading role in LIV Golf, said in a media release that the course at Shell Bay would be “one of the most pure and unique golf experiences” he had ever created. The walkable layout, which is completely isolated from the surrounding area, will capture the essence of golf with its immaculately maintained fairways, Sandbelt-style sand bunkers, and contoured greens. This will be an area where you can immerse yourself into the game.
It’s true that $1 million is a high initiation fee. Although it’s difficult to know what the highest initiation fee is in the golf industry’s secretive private club market, no other U.S. club has ever published a $1 million initiation fee.
Shell Bay’s initiation fees are not a surprise in South Florida, where the market has boomed ever since COVID-19 was implemented. The state has also seen a large influx of wealthy residents. The penthouses in Shell Bay begin at $11,000,000 and condos at Shell Bay at $3,000,000.
The fees at other high-end golf clubs have also risen. For example, the three course Apogee Club, which is currently under construction just up Interstate 95 from Hobe Sound, offers memberships that start north of a half-million dollars.
In a media release, Alex Witkoff said, “Golf has been the most undersupplied commodity in the Miami market for 25 years. Shell Bay represents a unique opportunity to build the first private golf course in that area since then.” “A project such as this cannot be duplicated.”
