- April 24, 2024
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Estimates for the 2011 tax year show that the housing market isn’t the only sector under stress from declining values. Collectively, the area’s 10 golf courses have lost 71.4% of their 2008 value.
It’s a tough time to be in the golf course business. The cost of maintaining a golf facility is relatively fixed: The courses must be maintained regardless of how many rounds are played.
But revenue is driven by discretionary income, which is in short supply lately.
Changing demographics could also be a factor. Aging golfers are not being replaced with young ones in sufficient numbers, and most industry sources feel that the industry is about 15% overbuilt.
Buyer’s market
The four local courses (plus three others in Florida and Georgia) owned by Crescent Resources are currently for sale. They have been under contract multiple times, but the sales never closed. The courses were relisted most recently on June 1, after the latest contract failed to complete.
The decline in assessed value of Palm Coast’s local courses mirrors the decline of the industry.
The golf course owners are not the only ones to suffer. Property taxes paid by the local courses are also down. In 2008, 10 local courses chipped in more than $1.8 million to local taxing districts. That number fell to slightly more than $652,000 in 2010.
The 2011 millage rates have not been determined, but the preliminary 2011 roll of assessed values for local courses totals only $24.6 million, down from $34.0 million last year and from $86.1 million in 2008.
Unlike the last two years at this time, the taxes for Crescent Resources’ four golf courses (Pines, Matanzas, Cypress and Grand Haven) are not delinquent. Crescent Resources, parent of LandMar, emerged from bankruptcy last year.
