New members are flocking to the Boulevard Tennis Club, as new owners plan major upgrades and GHO Homes prepares to build luxury townhomes in the community.
GHO Homes president Bill Handler confirmed on Monday that his company has purchased the vacant lots along the east side of the townhome section of the tennis community and plans to build 17 “single-family attached villas.”
As is the case with all Boulevard Village homeowners, buyers will be required to become members of the club, further boosting club numbers.
“Every unit that sells adds a new member,” said Tony Randazzo, a Grand Harbor resident who partnered with neighbor Ed Friedman to buy the tennis club, which will be run by longtime local teaching pro Christophe Delavaut.
GHO plans to build two- and three-bedroom units, both with a den and two-car garages, ranging from 1,950 to 2,295 square feet.
The one-story villas, which will sell from the high $300,000s, will be built in attached, three- or four-unit structures with common walls. Seven of the homes will back up to a lake.
Handler said sales signs announcing the new construction will be posted Feb. 1, and he hopes to break ground in April or May. GHO is currently building and selling 53 homes in Lily’s Cay, the gated community immediately south of The Boulevard.
“We’ve made sure the look of the villas will blend in nicely with The Boulevard’s existing townhomes, condos and the club,” Handler said. “The original plans there were for 24 townhome units, but we decided to go with fewer units that were a little larger.”
Just as Randazzo said the new homes will add members and revenue to the club – in addition to hiring a chef, the new owners are bringing in a massage therapist and personal trainer – Handler said the club’s amenities will make the new homes more attractive to buyers.
In fact, Handler said he has been surprised by the buzz he’s hearing about his planned construction at The Boulevard, located on the southwest corner of the intersection of Indian River Boulevard and 45th Street.
“There’s not usually a lot of local interest in these projects until you start building, but I’ve heard from a lot of people asking what we’re going to do there,” Handler said.
Delavaut, who spent 20 years as the tennis director at Grand Harbor before leaving for undisclosed reasons last spring, brought Randazzo and Friedman together in April, believing the right ownership and management could revive The Boulevard Tennis Club, which had never realized its potential and was glaringly under-utilized.
The partnership purchased the property from Walter and Sue Rodman, who opened The Boulevard Village & Tennis Club amid great fanfare 12 years ago, for $1.3 million, though interest payments could raise the price to nearly $1.5 million. Club facilities include 13 Har-Tru tennis courts, a clubhouse, fitness center and swimming pool.
Randazzo said the club has “125 to 130 members,” including a number who joined in the weeks since news of the impending sale began spreading throughout the Vero Beach tennis community.
“Almost every day, we’re getting two or three new members signing up, and we’re getting more people calling and asking for applications,” he said.
Though Delavaut will run the club, the new owners have hired a general manager, Pam Turner, who will oversee off-court operations.
“This is a tremendous facility, but the club needs to become more than a place where you play tennis for an hour or two and leave,” Randazzo said. “The best way to make that happen is to listen to our members and react to what they tell us.
