PGA of America bringing headquarters, tournaments to Texas
The PGA of America is moving its headquarters from Florida to Texas, with more than a few big-time tournaments coming with it. This will be a major upgrade not only for the offices, but the North Texas area as well.
The rumor about the PGA of America relocation is finally true. The trade association which connects 29,000 PGA of America members, primarily men and women who teach golf, run golf courses and work in sales, management and ownership of golf companies, is relocating from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas. Say goodbye to the PGA headquarters being in the middle of the Honda Classic, unless Honda decides to move its tournament to north central Texas, too.
There were many moving parts that had to come together for this kind of a change to take place, involving several developers, a large resort hotel company, a city, a school district, a state, real estate investors and the PGA. In other words, it took a village, literally.
While not on the scale of the new Amazon headquarters, the details are instructive for those to wonder how this kind of thing gets off the ground. Specifically, who gets what for the move to actually happen.
The development is 2500 acres in size. Approximately 600 acres of it will be devoted to a new PGA of America headquarters, a new resort hotel and conference center, new golf courses plus retail and office spaces. Assume much of the rest will be some form of housing, however, that has not been detailed. The reason for that assumption is that the golf courses will not take up more than 400 acres, so there’s plenty of room for other things.
Seth Waugh, new CEO of the PGA of America, called the move “ transcendent” for the organization.
Here’s how it shakes out in the real world of real estate development:
The PGA of America will invest $30 million to build a new 100,000 square foot headquarters and education facility where 100 staffers will be employed. In addition, the North Texas PGA section will move its headquarters to the facility.
If you have a hard time imagining 100,000 square feet, take the TPC Sawgrass or PGA West private clubhouse and add one-third more to one of them. They are both 77,000 square feet. Or take the Mission Hills CC clubhouse in Rancho Mirage, where the ANA Inspiration (formerly the Dinah Shore ) is held, and double it. It’s 55,000 square feet.
To sweeten the deal for Frisco and the state of Texas, the PGA of America has promised to bring a number of significant golf tournaments to the new golf courses, at least eventually. They have promised the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship for 2023. In the future, two PGA Championships, two KPMG Women’s PGA Championships and possibly a Ryder Cup will be held at the new resort. However, the PGA Championship and/or Ryder Cup would be more than 10 years in the future.
The Ryder Cup would not be before 2032 because U.S. sites before then have already been awarded. PGA Championships have also been chosen through 2031.
Omni Stillwater Woods, the name of the resort entity, will include two championship length,18-hole golf courses with an additional 9-hole short course plus a state-of-the-art practice facility and a golf clubhouse.
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The hotel will be a 500-room Omni resort with a 127,000-square-foot conference center. For comparison, The Hyatt Regency Orlando (which everyone in golf who goes to the PGA Merchandise Show still calls The Peabody) has 315,000 square feet.
In addition, there will be locations for retail stores and office buildings.
The courses will be owned by the City of Frisco. The City of Frisco will also benefit in room taxes, food and beverage sales taxes, property taxes and some additional taxes for a 20-year period which they estimate to be worth between $52 and $74 million. The state of Texas will contribute all of the hotel taxes and sales taxes for 10 years.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he believed one reason for the relocation was the pro-business environment in the state.
In addition, funds from local development corporations will go toward the building of the entire development. The City of Frisco will pitch in with $13.3 million. The Frisco Economic Development Corp. will add $2.5 million. The Frisco Community Development Corp will add $13.3 million, and the school district will contribute $5.8 million.
The courses will be owned by the City of Frisco and will provide a facility for Frisco school district golfers.
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The resort name, Omni Stillwater Woods, was created from several of the entities involved: Omni Hotels and Resorts, Stillwater Capital, which is bringing significant financial and development resources along with Woods Capital, Fields Development, Hunt Realty and Karahan Companies.
It will take a couple of years for the move to actually happen because right now, it’s all empty ground. They expect the golf courses to open in 2022 and the hotel and convention center to open about six months after the golf courses. The development will be located near the junction of Route 380 and the Dallas North Parkway. The value of the overall project is estimated to be $520 million.