PGA of America not poised to leave

Palm Beach County is still in play as site for headquarters, officials say

A report that The PGA of America is “poised” to leave Palm Beach Gardens and build a new home north of Dallas is incorrect, Palm Beach County’s top economic development official said Thursday.

Kelly Smallridge, president and CEO of the Business Development Board of Palm Beach County, said she was contacted Thursday morning by The PGA of America and told that no decision has been made.

The board has been assembling “five to seven” site proposals in its effort to persuade the organization to keep its operation and its 200 employees she said.

“Palm Beach County is still in play for the headquarters,” she said.

Golf.com on Wednesday quoted several unnamed PGA of America officials as saying a relocation to Frisco, Texas, 30 miles north of Dallas, was close to a done deal. The website said the organization considers its current 60,000 square-foot headquarters “outdated and out of space” and suggested an official announcement was imminent.

But on Thursday morning, PGA of America issued a statement saying nothing had been finalized.

“Last year we issued a request for proposal to a number of markets that are potentially well suited in Palm Beach County, and interested in developing a new headquarters campus for us,” the statement read. “The due diligence phase is ongoing and no decisions have been made.”

Smallridge said the organization told her about nine months ago it was looking for a new headquarters site to replace its Palm Beach Gardens facility and invited her to submit proposals for other sites in Palm Beach County. The development board assembled proposals involving sites in the central-west and central-northern sections of the county and has since been responding to PGA of America’s requests for more details about them, she said.

“The business development board put forward several real estate options to meet all of their needs and not have to relocate [PGA of America’s] 200 employees,” she said.

Smallridge said she could not reveal the site locations nor provide a precise count, as that information is confidential under state laws protecting ongoing negotiations for economic development projects involving public incentives.

All of the proposals involve “various partners with multiple things to offer, including buildings and not just [public financial] incentives,” she said.

She said officials told her a decision would not be made in the next month.

The Golf.com report said plans for the new Texas headquarters would include two new 18-hole, semi-public courses. One is expected to open by 2020, the report said.

The PGA of America owns no courses at its current Palm Beach Gardens site. A nearby golf resort, the PGA National Resort & Spa, is owned by private investors.

“One of the reasons we decided to move the PGA Championship to May is to be able to have our major at newly built courses or other courses in a new area,” PGA of America Chief Operations Officer Darrell Crall told Golf.com. “We are very excited to be able to do this.”

Frisco is accustomed to attracting professional sports franchises. Recently, the NFL’s Dallas Cowboys and the NHL’s Dallas Stars made it home for their headquarters and practice facilities. It is also home to professional soccer and minor league baseball teams.

The PGA of America is a separate organization from the PGA Tour, which is headquartered in Ponte Vedra Beach near Jacksonville. In January, the PGA Tour announced plans to build a new 187,000-square-foot global headquarters facility in Ponte Vedra Beach.