Big golf names want to design Boca National

A few big names in the golf industry — including Greg Norman, Jack Nicklaus Design, Robert Trent Jones and Arnold Palmer’s design company — want to partner with Boca Raton’s park district to design a 27-hole course it will buy for $24 million.

The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District sent out a request seeking architects to transform the dilapidated Ocean Breeze Golf Club in the city’s north end into a world-class golf destination.

Fifteen firms submitted requests to design the 214-acre course. Many of the proposals include plans for an on-site golf school.

“We have probably the finest group of golf course designers who (have sent proposals for) this project that one can ever anticipate receiving,” said Arthur Koski, director of the beach and park district.

The public golf course will be renovated and rebranded “Boca National Golf Club.”

The Greater Boca Raton Beach and Park District, which owns and operates several parks in the city and its suburbs, is under contract to buy the 27-hole course, clubhouse and hotel for $24 million.

The course is primed to become a local golf destination, as the city decided recently to shut down and sell its municipal golf course on Glades Road near Florida’s Turnpike to a homebuilder for $65 million.

Boca National Golf Club will be one two public courses in the city. The other is the nine-hole oceanfront course at Red Reef Park.

Buying and operating a public course also bucks a wider trend of selling golf course land to developers for top dollar. The Fountains Country Club near Lake Worth, the President Country Club in West Palm Beach and Polo Trace near Delray Beach all have sold at least part of their golf course greens to real estate developers the past few years.

But the Boca park district and the city both resolved to keep public golf in Boca Raton, when discussion of selling the municipal golf course was brought up.

The prominence of the firms proposing to partner with the district to design Boca National Golf Club and operate a golf school proves the value of a golf course in Boca Raton, Koski said.

“Almost every one of the proposers has a résumé that would elevate this golf facility,” he said. “They’ve designed some of the best golf courses in the country.”

The district discussed the proposals on Dec. 26, and will select an architect this month.

It could cost up to $14 million to redesign and renovate the nowclosed course. And the district likely will spend about $500,000 a year to maintain the course.

The 27-hole course and clubhouse will be rebuilt, but the hotel will not. That land will be reserved for public use.