Site work began on August 4, 2026, at The Club at Ibis in West Palm Beach. Hedrick Brothers Construction, a West Palm Beach firm founded in 1979, is managing the job as Construction Manager at Risk, and the first phase is interior renovation of the Main Clubhouse. Nearly two months in, two public figures describe the same club's reinvestment. The club's own materials say its members approved a $63 million Capital Investment Plan in January. Trade coverage of the campus work has described it as a $40 million project.
The gap is $23 million. A buyer weighing a home at Ibis is taking on a mandatory membership along with the house, so the gap is relevant to that buyer's cost questions. The documents that would reconcile the two numbers are not public.
The piece the groundbreaking does not mention
Best Clubhouse, a golf architecture and clubhouse publication, compared the two figures in late August and found that public materials do not explain how one sits inside the other. It points to one scope item that appears in the club's plan and in none of the contractor's groundbreaking materials. That item is the full redesign of the Tradition Course by Nicklaus Design senior designer Chris Cochran.
The club describes the Tradition work on its What's Next page. The design draws on Seth Raynor and C.B. Macdonald template-hole principles and cites Fishers Island Club, The Creek, Camargo Club, and Yeamans Hall Club as references. Hoodline, citing LinksNation, reports the renovation is scheduled for 2027.
No source assigns the Tradition a dollar figure. The Tradition is the one major piece missing from the smaller number, and it is the only piece with a reported 2027 date. The $63 million and the $40 million therefore describe two different projects under one name, and Best Clubhouse's reconciliation is that outlet's reading rather than a club statement.
What the contractor is actually building
The scope Hedrick Brothers announced can be laid out by sequence, which shows what the reported figures leave unsaid.
Scope item | In groundbreaking materials | Reported sequence |
|---|---|---|
Main Clubhouse interiors (entry, lobby, Boardroom, Wine Room, new lower-level social space) | Yes | First phase |
Fitness Center renovation and expansion | Yes | Later phases |
Racquet facilities, pickleball and padel courts | Yes | Later phases |
New spa building | Yes | Later phases |
Member Activity Center in the former Property Owners Association building | Yes | Later phases |
New casual restaurant with outdoor seating | Yes | Later phases |
Bocce and basketball courts | Yes | Later phases |
Tradition Course redesign | No | Reportedly 2027 |
The club's plan adds detail the contractor's release leaves out. The fitness and tennis center nearly doubles, with four times the exercise space. The racquets complex is listed at two padel courts, 12 new pickleball courts with five covered, and 15 tennis courts. The fifth dining venue is called The Landing, and Best Clubhouse reports it would occupy the former spa building in 6,700 square feet. A new 12,000-square-foot spa is planned for the North Campus.
Those last two items depend on each other. A restaurant that moves into the old spa building needs the new spa to exist first. The published material lists both as later-phase work and does not state their order or their dates. Neither the club nor Hedrick Brothers has published completion dates for any phase.
Why a mandatory membership changes the question
At Ibis, membership is limited to homeowners, and every home carries one. The cost of owning there is the purchase price, plus the membership initiation, plus annual dues, plus the property owners association fee. A capital plan of this size raises questions about that stack for anyone who owns, and for anyone who buys during the build.
The published record does not say how the plan is funded. Clubs generally draw on some mix of dues, capital assessments, initiation fees, reserves, and borrowing. The USGA Green Section has described the tradeoffs in its discussion of course renovation financing. Assessments are generally unpopular. Dues increases tend to draw less objection because they arrive in small steps. Initiation fee increases draw the least resentment from existing members because they fall only on new recruits.
A buyer is a new recruit, so the initiation line is the one a club can adjust without a member vote on an assessment. That describes how clubs generally behave. It is not a finding about Ibis, because Ibis has not published its funding structure. A buyer should ask for it before an offer.
Third-party figures for Ibis initiation vary by source and by membership tier, and the club's current schedule is the only number that belongs in a cost stack. Broker marketing this year has referenced a fee increase and a contract deadline that has since passed, which is another reason to rely on the current written schedule.
A multi-year build and one closing date
A buyer who closes this fall takes title while Main Clubhouse interiors are underway and the golf course redesign is still ahead. Hedrick Brothers says the work is sequenced to keep the club operating, and Sharon Meirav, the club's General Manager and COO, said the club chose the firm for its experience building on an active campus. Nothing in the published material says which amenities will be affected, when, or for how long.
The club has done this before. Executive Golfer, as relayed by Hoodline, reported that Ibis put more than $57 million into member amenities in the six years before 2021. That cycle included a main clubhouse project, a 24,000-square-foot Sports Village, and a Legend Course renovation. The club's own website cites more than $30 million in recent enhancements. Capital cycles at Ibis recur, so the capital-charge question applies to this plan and to whatever follows it.
The plan also covers the Tradition, one of three courses designed by three generations of the Nicklaus family. Ibis calls itself the world's only private country club community with that distinction, and the Tradition was completed in 2001 by Steve Nicklaus. Members approved the plan that includes it.
What to put in writing before an offer
These requests follow from the gaps above. They apply to any mandatory-membership community, and at Ibis they are sharpened by a plan that is large, phased, and partly undated.
- The current fee schedule. Initiation for the specific tier, annual dues, and what that tier includes, all from the club and dated.
- Capital charges. Whether the plan carries any assessment or capital dues, how much has been collected, how much remains, when it is due, and who bears it at a sale.
- The scope and phasing document. Which amenities change in which phase, with dates, including the Tradition Course and whether play on it is interrupted.
- The reconciliation. How the $63 million plan relates to the $40 million campus figure, and which items the gap represents.
- Transfer mechanics. How membership moves at closing, and whether the buyer applies and pays a new initiation fee.
- The association layer. The property owners association charges and the individual neighborhood association rules, which sit on top of the club.
Wilson & Wilson Private Client represents one side of a transaction and declines dual agency, so the questions above go to the club and the sellers on behalf of the buyer alone. Lisa Wilson spent more than 16 years as a trial attorney reading documents for what they omit. Andy Wilson is a former president of the Admirals Cove Property Owners Association with community governance experience and time on a club board. If an Ibis home is on your list, speak with an advisor about what to request from the club and in what order.
This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.
