- July 10, 2025
The Palm Coast City Council could be looking to sell Palm Harbor Golf Course, if it can guarantee the property would remain a golf course.
“This property should always remain a golf course,” Councilman Charles Gambaro said. “My question is, as we look at efficiencies, cost savings and efficiencies, is it worth the time to take a look to see if a private entity would do a better job in running it?”
Gambaro suggested the city send out a request for proposal, or RFP, to see what the city’s options are.
“I don’t think it hurts to pursue an RFP,” he said. “We can decide not to do anything at all.”
The city-owned golf course has been operating at a six-figure loss for the last several years, according to data presented to the council on April 22. It lost $168,274 in fiscal year 2023-2024 and $435,128 in the 2022-2023 fiscal year, after the city needed to purchase several replacement golf carts.
The city has made changes to its operational costs over the last year to attempt to reach cost recovery with golf course expenses, including increasing certain fees and group rates and going down to seven full-time staff members, Parks and Recreation Director James Hirst said.
Based on last year’s sales, Palm Harbor is estimated to recover 99.8% of its operational costs for this year because of the operational cost changes. But that is just the operational costs - it does not include any revenue for future upgrades or replacement items, Hirst said.
Council member Ty Miller pointed out that just looking at operational costs is not true cost recovery. He said the city needs to be able to save for future improvement projects.
“I want to make sure that cost recovery is actually cost recovery,” Miller said.
Vice Mayor Theresa Carli Pontieri agreed that the cost of capital improvement projects needed to be considered as part of the bottom line.
“If you’re not putting aside for these things,” she said, “we could look great on the bottom line in years one through four and then really eat it in year five because we have to invest in these capital projects.”
With the exception of Mayor Mike Norris - who was absent from the April 22 workshop meeting - the rest of the council members agreed to send out an RFP, but only if the city can ensure the property won't be developed if it is sold.
“There’s no intent here for it to ever be anything other than a golf course," Miller said.
Gambaro also said that if the city sold the golf course, that would give the city more business tax revenue.
"It'll give us an immediate opportunity to potentially diversify the tax base," he said.
The council gave direction to staff to put out an RFP - which will be reviewed by the council at a later meeting for approval before it is released - as well as appraise the property and begin reviewing legal avenues to ensure the property remains a golf course.
