[graciegirl]

Originally Posted by Choro&Swing

I noticed this morning that the Hacienda Hills Country Club restaurant and pool are now closed and that demolition may begin today. Links led me to the information that the Tierra del Sol restaurant and pool were due to be demolished in 2013, but I hear that it was rebuilt instead. Also Chula Vista, Silver Lake, and other clubs, I hear, were changed. (Excuse me if any of this info is wrong.) Will this continue? The reason seems to be that they aren’t getting enough business and/or that they need expensive repairs. Buildings are being town down when they are fifteen years old, and we are told that they are at the end of their life expectancy.

I understand how economics work and that there are costs that have to be covered. I’m sure the Developer’s staff has run the numbers and knows that these restaurants are (were) costing more to run than they are (were) bringing in. That doesn’t make good business sense. I suppose the availability of many restaurants on the outskirts of The Villages have hurt business at the country clubs. Many people want to spend less on meals or like eating at chain restaurants, and those restaurants also bring in more business from outside The Villages, which is crucial to making a profit.

What do you think? Will ALL of the country club restaurants and pools eventually close? Will “Country Club” just mean golf courses and various other sports? Will the southern country clubs be built without restaurants and pools? Will it no longer be possible to go from the golf or tennis court to the bar or restaurant for a drink or lunch? Will players have to get into their cars or carts and drive twenty minutes or more to some restaurant where they and their pals will hope they can sit together? That certainly changes the usual idea and ideal of a country club. Perhaps the ones with the least business will be closed until the busiest get even busier and eventually make a decent profit.

Also, what is with this idea that a building is ready to be torn down in fifteen years? My home is stick-built, like the country clubs, and it is twenty-two years old. I think it is in great condition. What makes the difference? Will my house need to be torn down soon? Were the country clubs built from the beginning with a lower quality of construction than the houses?

Would it work for the country club restaurants to be leased to popular chain restaurants, or would that bring in too many outsiders and again change the idea of the more exclusive country club?

The first populated areas in The Villages probably has the most older inhabitants. Many of us have no idea why we got older and would rather stay home and eat and many don't play golf as much and many either drink a lot more or have quit.

I think that the developers are doing what they can with their form of "urban renewal" by buying well priced modular homes in the historic areas, removing them and then building site built homes on their lot and selling them for reasonable prices.

I don't think anyone can stop the march of time and changes but I believe that The Villages is the least touched by urban dinge that comes with time. We seem to have attracted a lot of people who enjoy and take pride in their homes and yards and either personally see to it that it stays nice or hires someone to keep it nice.

The Country Clubs and restaurants, owned and rented out by the developers must depend on patrons to spend their money. Some restaurants aren't very well patronized for a lot of reasons and that is how the free market works. It is a tough business to maintain a restaurant with three months of high population and nine months of far less population. What do you do with staff in the off season?

Not an easy dilemma for all of Florida's restaurants and made worse by the justifiable fear brought by the pandemic.

I have watched as restaurants changed renters and some are not as good as they once were and many are run by just a couple of owners. I don't know, but we as a group are careful critics of food.