Binks Forest GC Bounces Back from the Brink

In less than 20 years, this Florida course has gone from being one of the industry’s hottest layouts to a weed-bound poster property for the post-boom era—and now back again.

by Joe Barks (editor@clubandresortbusiness.com)
December 2007
 

Sometimes, that cycle is surprisingly short. In the case of Binks Forest Golf Club, in Wellington, Fla., in fact, it may take less than 20 years for the things to come full circle.

Binks Forest burst on the scene in 1990 and made an instant impact as not just a top new public course, but as one of the best daily-fee layouts in the country, new or old. After it hosted the 1990 PGA Tour Team Championship in its first year, the future for the course—which had drawn acclaim for how it uniquely captured a “Pinehurst-like” feel in South Florida—looked extremely bright.

Barely 10 years later, though, the Binks clubhouse, which in its first decade had already started to do some impressive F&B and pro shop business, was shuttered closed. And the golf course, originally designed by Johnny Miller and Gene Bates, was grown over with weeds. Overall, Binks Forest stood as one of the more prominent examples of how quickly and dramatically the industry had fallen from the Tiger-infused boom of the ‘90s to the post-9/11 doldrums.

The property continued to fall into disarray for another five years, to the point where Peninsula Property Holding Bank, which had foreclosed on the previous ownership, was facing code-violation fines and the growing wrath of the neighboring community, because of what an eyesore the course and original clubhouse had become.

This past May, however—after Peninsula had spent a year cleaning up enough of the course to make it saleable, and settled over $200,000 in code violation fines—the bank finally found a buyer: Aquila Property Company, a South Florida-based real estate investment and management firm that had lined up financing through Washington, D.C.-based Allied Capital Corp.

Passing the Tests
Binks Forest would represent Aquila’s first venture into the golf business—and upon taking ownership, the company started an aggressive PR campaign to spread the word about how it planned to not only restore the course to past glory, but also take it to new levels of distinction, at a total estimated cost in the $40 million range.

“Though Binks Forest has been closed for five years,” a company statement said, “Aquila plans to build on the club’s early success and re-establish its reputation by instituting a fresh vision, investing heavily in an exciting restoration, and assembling a first-rate management team.”

Aquila executives also made themselves available for a series of interviews designed to convince a skeptical public in South Florida—and an equally dubious golf and club industry—that they really did see promise in a property that had been abandoned so quickly, and for so long.

In an interview with the Palm Beach Post, Jordan Paul, Aquila’s CEO and one of its four founders, explained that he and his partners had first discovered Binks Forest as golf enthusiasts.

“We were first exposed to it as golfers when the course was doing well,” Paul said. “True golfers just love that course and appreciate [its] beauty.”

The Binks Forest course, once acclaimed for its “Pinehurst-like” feel, reopened for play this year.

But when Aquila’s founders then looked at the property with the same view they had used to convert unprofitable commercial real estate into successful assets, Paul added, they got enthused about its investment potential, too.
Every property needs the “4 Cs” to succeed, he explained—capital, commitment, competence and credibility. “Very often, when a project has failed, it’s lacking in one of those four Cs,” he added. “But if you look at Binks Forest, it hit on all four.”

Talking about potential and plans is one thing. Putting them into motion is what distinguishes true revivals from mere pep rallies. At the same time it was explaining its intentions, Aquila announced plans to renovate the course for a late fall opening, bringing back Gene Bates to direct the project. It also contracted with KemperSports Management to operate the 18-hole layout and clubhouse, which is scheduled to be fully operational by the middle of 2008.

KemperSports then announced that Paul Makris would come from Emerald Dunes Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he had been General Manager and Director of Food and Beverage for 15 years, to be Binks Forest’s new GM. Tim Haines—whose experience includes opening Gillette Ridge GC in Bloomfield, Conn. as well as head superintendent positions at The Osprey’s GC (Woodbridge, Va.) and Pine Forest CC (Summerville, S.C.)—was named Binks Forest’s new Superintendent, and Wheeler Stewart, a 28-year PGA professional who previously held head pro positions at the Links at Madison Green in Royal Palm Beach, Fla. and at the Wellington (Fla.) Golf & Country Club, was brought in to head its golf operations.

These prompt appointments of proven industry veterans further demonstrated that Aquila and KemperSports were serious about hitting the ground running and wasting little time getting things turned around. Makris, for example, had helped to establish Emerald Dunes as an award-winning, daily-fee property (it has since gone private); combining that experience with his previous expertise running upscale dining establishments in Palm Beach County attested to the emphasis that Aquila and KemperSports want to put on F&B at Binks Forest.

“The [new, 30,000-sq. ft. Binks Forest] clubhouse is going to be kind of an ‘event jewel,’ ” Makris told the local press after being named GM. “There is going to be nothing like it in this area—you have to go a long way to find a facility that can cater to the number of people and provide the quality of service we intend to provide.”

Haines, meanwhile, immediately set out to meet the challenges involved with getting the course ready for a series of openings in late fall, despite the water restrictions imposed by record-setting drought conditions that gripped South Florida throughout much of the summer.

Aquila and KemperSports rolled out all the trappings—beauty queens, keys to the property, ribbon-cuttings, and more—to help send out the word that Binks Forest was not only alive and well, but an integral part of the community again.

After the course opened nine holes to the public in late October, Stewart reported that it was being played by about 60 golfers a day, primarily from among its founding and annual members. (The course will market itself as a high-end daily fee but will also have a limited number of annual memberships, plus play from founding members who paid $50,000 for lifetime golf and unlimited access to the club and special events. Greg Schroeder, former General Manager of the John Prince Golf Center in Lake Worth, Fla. and founder of Mobile Golf Technology, is Binks Forest’s new Sales and Marketing Director).

To help further patch up once-frayed relations within the community, and make it clear that the club is back in even better form, Binks Forest management is putting a premium on finding ways to let local organizations use, and benefit from, the property’s revival. When all 18 holes of the course were ready for play in late November, the 26th Annual Wellington Boys & Girls Club Golf Classic, the longest-running golf tournament for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County, was shifted to Binks Forest and became the focus of a gala grand opening.

“Creating a long-term community asset was an integral part of our vision for the club,” Aquila’s CEO, Jordan Paul, said at that event. “The selection by the Boys & Girls Club of Wellington of Binks Forest to host its long-running charity event is a strong-testament to the hard work that Aquila and our partners in this project—course manager KemperSports and financial partner Allied Capital—have put forth to return Binks Forest to its rightful place as one of South Florida’s premier golf courses.”