Article Courtesy of Spectrum
News 13
By Asher Wildman
Published August 8, 2021
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ORANGE COUNTY — There are new concerns over the future Stoneybrook West Golf
Club in Winter Garden .
The golf course in Winter Garden, which closed in 2018, was recently purchased
by the City and is expected to be sold to the Stoneybrook West Home Owners
Association.
Some homeowners are
now upset about added assessments to HOA dues.
When the the golf course was purchased, the understanding
from the Stoneybrook West community was that its future
would be up to them after they purchased it from the city.
The options were to keep it as green space or try to find a
way to reopen the course. A potential deal is in the works
for a golf company to come in, but some of the details have
homeowners concerned.
In 2015, Mark Harvey was a potential homebuyer, and a drive
into the Stoneybrook West community instantly sold him.
“While it wasn’t the best golf course, it was a decent
course,” he said. “We enjoyed the fact we were right there
on the 7th green. |
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The views to the course remain and the tee sheet is still closed, but green
fees are adding up.
“Right now that is all I have seen in the last few years, is my HOA fees going
up and up and up,” Harvey said.
Part of the increase is due to an additional $365 a year per homeowner to go
towards the maintenance of the course.
“That generates around $450,000 a year for us,” Stoneybrook West HOA President
Dennis Armstrong said. “That is the funds the HOA would utilize to maintain the
property, trim the trees, to do everything else.”
The HOA is now on the verge of reaching an agreement to lease the course and
clubhouse to KemperSports, a golf course management company that has expressed
interest in investing nearly $5 million into refurbishing the course.
Part of the deal includes the golf maintenance fee from the HOA to go toward
KemperSports bills to maintain the course.
“The agreement we worked out is we would help them with this money and that they
would share their gross revenues with us as part of the agreement,” Armstrong
said.
It is an agreement some residents feel in the dark about, wondering where their
money will end up going.
“We are not voting green space, or golf course,” Harvey said. “We are voting
green space or KemperSports.”
If the deal with KemperSports falls through, then the nearly $450,000 a year
from the community will go to maintaining the course, which would remain closed
and unused.
According to Armstrong, if the deal with KemperSports goes through, then the
community would pay that $450,000 a year for 10 years to help with maintenance
costs until the next contract could be renegotiated.
What You Need To Know
- Stoneybrook West Golf Club was recently
purchased by the city of Winter Garden
- The course, which closed in 2018, will
next be sold to the Stoneybrook West Home Owners Association
- Members of the HOA have not decided yet if
the course will remain green space or if it will reopen for golf
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