A local ownership group fronted by former Grand Harbor tennis director Christophe Delavaut has signed a contract to purchase The Boulevard Tennis Club with hopes of reviving a struggling, 12-year-old venture that never realized its potential.
Delavaut, who is already giving lessons on the premises and working as a private contractor to lure new members, refused to divulge the selling price.
Sources familiar with other recent attempts to purchase the club said The Boulevard’s owners, Susan and Walter Rodman, seriously considered offers ranging from $1.4 million to $1.6 million for the business and property, which includes the 13 tennis courts, clubhouse, fitness center and swimming pool.
Two sources with knowledge of the current deal, who agreed to speak only on the condition of anonymity, said Delavaut’s group put down a refundable $50,000 deposit and plans to complete the purchase with three installments across the next two years.
Delavaut said his financial backers, longtime Grand Harbor residents Tony Randazzo and Ed Friedman, see the purchase as an investment in a club they believe has been underutilized.
“They saw that the community is growing and that there’s a demand for an all-inclusive tennis facility,” Delavaut said, adding that he known his partners for more than a decade. “They like the facility and see its full potential.”
The sale contract was signed Nov. 4 and the buyers have embarked on a 60-day, due-diligence process. In the meantime, the club’s founding documents require the Rodmans to give the membership right of first refusal before selling to an outside party.
The Rodmans, who could not be reached for comment, notified members of the impending sale of the club in a Nov. 8 email in which they wrote: “Owning and operating the club for the past 12 years has been our pleasure, but we have decided that it is time for us to pursue other interests.”
The Rodmans’ decision to sell the club came one month after tennis director Joe Snailum, who spent one year there, resigned to accept the same position at The Colony Golf & Country Club in Bonita Springs.
Delavaut, who would serve as the new owners’ managing partner and run the club’s operations, said he expects to take control in early January.
“My first order of business is to change the culture of the club and make it a place where people want to come for more than just tennis,” said Delavaut, who spent 20 years at Grand Harbor before leaving for undisclosed reasons last spring.
“I want to make the club more social,” he added. “If you come to play tennis, we want you to want to hang around, have something to eat and drink, watch your friends play, maybe use the pool.
“Too many people come here to play tennis, then leave.”
The Boulevard, which was built amid great fanfare and marketed nationally as the mecca of tennis in Vero Beach, had been losing members – often to Quail Valley – for the past three years.
Many of those who left cited lack of service, absence of social activity and unresponsive ownership. Some said they would return only if the Rodmans severed their connection to the club.
The degree to which the ownership had frustrated members and driven some away was apparent Friday night, when, enthused by word of the sale, an unusually large gathering of more than 50 members attended a rare, club-sponsored party.
The festive affair attracted several former members who, as news of the ownership change spread throughout the Vero Beach tennis community, decided last week to rejoin the club.
“Having a leader who’s passionate about the place,” Delavaut said, “makes a difference.”
Delavaut said the club has more than 100 members – about 60 who live in the associated Boulevard Village condominiums and townhouses and 50 who don’t live there. He said he hopes to add at least 50 more non-residential members and expects many of them to come from other local clubs, especially the barrier island’s country clubs.
Some, he predicted, would be former members who choose to return to The Boulevard.
“The way we’re priced, this is the perfect place for people who already belong to a club and want to add a second membership,” Delavaut said, adding that the existing price of annual memberships – $2,100 for a family, $1,750 for an individual – won’t change this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, 2017.
“We’ll pro-rate the price for anyone who joins now, then we’ll see where we are at the end of the year,” he said. “We’ll definitely be looking into different types of membership for next year.”
In the meantime, Delavaut plans to make improvements to the facility – the courts are top priority – and expand the club’s offerings.
He plans to upgrade the restaurant and bar areas of the clubhouse, and he’s looking to lease the food-and-beverage service to an outside vendor. He also wants to convert the vacant room across from the pro shop into a studio for yoga and Pilates classes, and possibly massages.
The existing reciprocal agreements with Pointe West, Sea Oaks, the Indian River Club and Vero Beach Country Club will remain intact through the end of the fiscal year. The three courts at the rear of the complex will continue to be leased by the Lozano & Osorio Tennis Academy.
“I think we can co-exist,” Delavaut said of the junior academy run by Marco Osorio, who has been managing the club since Snailum’s departure and will continue to do so until the sale is closed.
Also on Delavaut’s to-do list are: installation of an online court-reservation system; creation of more club-organized tennis and social events; pursuit of a USTA Pro Circuit Futures women’s tournament; and the formation of a tennis committee.
“We want to keep our finger on the pulse of what people want and don’t want,” Delavaut said. “It’s going to take time to get everything in place, but our goal is to make this club all that it was meant to be.”
Delavaut, who has been teaching tennis and managing clubs for 25 years, said he eventually plans to hire a full-time manager, pro shop attendant and assistant pro.
He said he has been trying to put together a deal to buy The Boulevard for two years. In fact, three previous attempts failed. This current ownership group, which was formed in April, is the fourth he has assembled.
“Getting a job somewhere else would’ve been the easy way,” Delavaut said of his options after leaving Grand Harbor. “I also could’ve gone up north for the summer and taught. But Vero Beach is my home and getting this place has been my No. 1 goal. I felt I needed to be here to make that happen.”
Delavaut spent the past six months giving lessons at Twin Oaks, where he leased a court from his longtime friend, Alain Mignolet. He also was recruiting investors, putting together deals and working with his partners to buy The Boulevard.
And if this deal had been rejected?
“I would’ve kept trying,” he said.