Club Med Sandpiper Bay in Port St. Lucie to close in September, nixing 226 jobs
PORT ST. LUCIE — Club Med's riverfront resort is shuttering in two months, according to a letter the company sent to city and state officials.
The letter, issued to Port St. Lucie Mayor Shannon Martin and the state Department of Economic Opportunity, said the acreage along the St. Lucie River, is being sold and that Club Med will close on or near Sept. 5.
The Sandpiper Bay resort is the only Club Med property in the United States, according to its website. Club Med itself Friday would not confirm other details about the sale.
"At this time details of a potential sale of Club Med Sandpiper Bay remain confidential," the resort chain wrote in a statement.
However, city officials identified Altitude International Holdings as the buyer of the 213-acre property in a statement released Friday. City officials produced an April 25 contract for the purchase of $55 million, with a June 30 closing date.
"We look forward to welcoming the new owners, Altitude International Holdings, Inc., which has a 40-year history of developing performance academies and operating in hospitality," the mayor said in the statement.
Martin, too, said it was "heartbreaking to see Club Med moving its operations out of Port St. Lucie.
"Our hearts go out to its employees," she said. "Club Med Sandpiper Bay's all-inclusive resort was a one-of-a-kind family destination, and we are proud Club Med called Port St. Lucie home for so long."
Club Med has operated its resort there for more than 30 years.
Records show Altitude International Holdings, which owns a youth soccer network and owns the existing youth sports training facility at Club Med Sandpiper Bay, as a corporation with an address at 4500 Southeast Pine Valley St., which matches the Club Med address.
One of the features at the resort has been Club Med Academies, which is now known as Altitude Academies. The academy, offering sports training to all ages, is a subsidiary of Altitude International, which also owns a water-purifying system.
Altitude CEO Gregory Breunich could not be reached for comment Friday.
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The closure of the resort eliminates 226 jobs at Club Med, the letter states.
The document was sent as required by the state's Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act, which says employers must "provide notice 60 days in advance of covered plant closings and covered mass layoffs.”
Property history
Before being transformed into a luxury all-inclusive Club Med resort in 1986, the 213 acres of land that holds the resort and its golf course was home to Port St. Lucie's first country club, which was built and owned by the city's initial developer, General Development Corp., according to TCPalm archives.
The location has played host to celebrity golf tournaments in the 1960s and events like former President Jimmy Carter's charity weekend in 2008.
The country club hosted the first Perry Como Invitational in 1961 at the opening of its Sinners golf course. It brought in golf greats like Jack Nicklaus, Sam Snead and Lee Trevino. Other famous faces seen on the putting green included crooner Como, baseball Hall of Famers Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams, comedian Jerry Lewis and former Vice President Spiro Agnew.
Celebrities including Dinah Shore, Lee Majors and Leslie Nielsen made stops at the country club, according to a TCPalm archived article in 2011.
GDC bought the land in 1958 along the North Fork of the St. Lucie River in the southern portion of St. Lucie County, known today as Sandpiper Bay, to build a country club and a host of rental villas as a vacation spot and to attract potential buyers of residential lots along the golf courses and waterways.
The Port St. Lucie Country Club started much like Club Med's concept of offering two- to three-bedroom villas vacationers could rent for a week, month or season. The 250 villas lined Morningside Boulevard and Monte Vista Street.
By 1970, the resort had changed its layout, sold off its villas, and redesigned the facility to include five separate buildings of hotel rooms and a conference center.
GDC sold the naming rights to the country club and resort to hotel conglomerate Hilton in 1973 hoping to attract a new set of tourists to the area. During its time as the St. Lucie Hilton Inn and Country Club, the resort introduced its first 225-seat restaurant, boutique and the nine-hole Wilderness golf course.
With profits falling short of expectations, GDC bought out of its contract with the Hilton company in May 1976 and the resort was renamed the Sandpiper Bay resort.
GDC sold the resort to New York-hotelier Tollman-Hundley in 1982 for $16.8 million.
Shortly after, Club Med showed interest in the property and entered into a $40 million, 20-year lease with the hotel owner until the luxury resort chain eventually bought the property in 1986 for more than $32 million.
Since acquiring the property, Club Med Sandpiper, located at the southern end of Southeast Pine Valley Street, has undergone several renovations to its 335-room facility, 60-slip marina, 18-hole golf course, tennis courts and conference centers.
In 2001, Port St. Lucie purchased the Saints Golf Course from Club Med for $3.6 million.
Staff writer Melissa E. Holsman contributed to this report.
Lamaur Stancil is the Treasure Coast regional economy reporter covering business and industries, including retail, tourism and hospitality. Contact him at 321-987-7179 or lamaur.stancil@tcpalm.com and follow him at Lamaur Stancil on Facebook and @TCPalmLStancil on Twitter.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: Club Med in Port St. Lucie to close in September
