Some homeowners say the negotiations were conducted with too little transparency and fear the deal gives the developer too much control over land long seen as the heart of the community

Under the terms of the agreement, Benderson must operate the golf courses for three years. After that, the company could walk away following potentially irreversible conservation easements having been placed on the property. The contract also allows Benderson to convert portions of the property into wetlands to generate mitigation credits.

Some Meadows residents also worry the land could become tied to a special taxing district Benderson is seeking to establish at UTC. The new district could potentially hold the easements on the community’s land.

The lawsuit argues the agreement effectively transfers control of the land to a commercial real estate company whose primary business is large-scale retail and mixed-use development, not golf. In Breece’s view, that amounts to a de facto sale that should require a vote of all property owners.

Breece, who is also a dissenting member of the community association board, declined to speak on the record. His attorney, Steven Hutton, said the case remains active and that an HOA election scheduled for March 31 could tilt momentum.

If the judge rules in Breece’s favor, then the deal could be unwound, or at a minimum, the lease could head to a community vote.

“At this point,” Hutton said, “we’re considering all the options.”

From golf haven to financial strain

More than 50 years ago, British developer Frank Taylor, founder of London-based real estate company Taylor Woodrow, set out to build a different kind of community.

He had been looking to expand his construction empire, eyeing the property in northwest Sarasota County as one of his first forays into American development.

He began developing The Meadows in the mid-1970s on former ranchland west of Honore Avenue and north of 17th Street, pitching the community as a lifestyle built around golf, nature and outdoor living. Early marketing promised residents they could “live where you play.”

Over time, the community grew into one of Sarasota’s largest, with about 3,500 homes, three 18-hole golf courses, 100,000 square feet of commercial space and hundreds of acres of green spaces woven through the neighborhood. More than 5,000 people now live in The Meadows.

Jim Laidley remembers visiting his parents in their Meadows residence in 1985, back when parts of Honore Road still weren’t paved. He said in the early days, the course was public and anyone in The Meadows could play.

In the early 1990s, as development of the community was winding down, property owners purchased the golf courses and turned the club into a private operation. For years, the agreement appeared stable, but by the mid-2010s, declining participation and rising costs began to strain the aging golf community.

Golf memberships had dwindled to about 300 — about a third of what it had when the club was taken private, and the facilities were in drastic need of an update.

From 2014 through 2017, the course lost more than $1 million a year, Laidley said. The Meadows Community Association bought the property for $6 million in 2018, wiping out its debt and leasing it back to the country club for $10 a year.

The final blow came in July when the country club declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy and shuttered all three golf courses. One of the courses has since reopened.

Susan Chapman, a former city commissioner and director of The Meadows Community Association, said the board first tried to find a traditional golf operator. But none were willing to invest given the club’s financial troubles and immediate need for upgrades. The terms offered to those golf operators differed substantially from the Benderson lease, she said.

“It was an impossibility because how could you have a return on investment when they (the courses) led to bankruptcy twice?” she said. “And still have money for the clubhouse.”

Chapman was one of the three MCA directors who voted against the Benderson deal. Like Breece, she said she believes such a large decision should be put to a community vote.

She told Suncoast Searchlight that Benderson publicly became involved in August when the company submitted a letter of intent to the board.

In the letter, Benderson promised to operate some of the golf courses and come up with a plan to redevelop the struggling property. The company also included language for conservation easements.

Months of back-and-forth negotiations followed, culminating in a 49-year lease that critics say gives too much power to one of the region’s most influential developers.

“I think it’s too complex,” Chapman said of the deal. “There’s so much in it that you discover something new every day.”

Residents opposed to the Benderson deal say the process has been rife with controversy and secrecy. Chapman, who was appointed to the board in April, said she was presented with a three-page non-disclosure agreement that she refused to sign upon joining the board.

Since then, she said, information about the community’s finances has been difficult to come by.

Richard Sommerfeld, another resident of The Meadows opposed to the Benderson lease, said that since the MCA bought the property, the association has already spent $18 million rehabbing and sustaining the country club.

The bankruptcy “was a surprise to a lot of the residents because the MCA never disclosed to the rest of the residents what the true financial shape of the country club was,” Sommerfeld said.

Inside the Benderson deal

As part of the Benderson agreement, the developer would lend the Meadows millions of dollars to pay off the property’s existing debt and refinance that debt at a 4.5% interest rate.

The deal provides for an initial three-year term where Benderson must operate 36 holes across two courses and mow and maintain the third course. Benderson must decide by the end of September whether to open that course.

Within the first nine months of the lease, Benderson also must decide whether to convert portions of the property into wetlands through a clause in the lease titled the “Conservation Easement Option.”

If the company goes that route, $3 million would be cut from the community’s refinanced debt and the interest rate would drop to 3%.

At the end of the three-year term, Benderson could extend the lease for another 10 years after submitting a redevelopment plan for the golf courses and paying rent of $50,000 per year. The contract has four 10-year extensions.

Susan Schoettle, a former assistant county attorney who’s been involved in land-use for more than 35 years, outlined the proposal to a gathering of Meadows residents last month and warned the deal concentrates too much power in one company.

“You’re going to end up with Benderson being your banker, your tenant, golf course operator, planner for golf course redevelopment and likely holder of easements controlling the use of 500 acres of MCA golf course land and open space,” she told concerned residents days before the lease was signed.

Schoettle said the lease provides residents little leverage. If Benderson submits a redevelopment plan, the MCA has just 30 days to review and provide comments — not enough time, she said, to conduct engineering studies and assess potential impacts.

The lease also requires Benderson to maintain a “high-quality golf course,” a term she said is subjective.

“You ask five different golfers, and I’m sure you’ll get at least seven different versions of what a high-quality golf course is,” she said.

She added the lease does not require Benderson to implement any of the community’s suggestions, giving residents what she called only the illusion of control.

Finally, Schoettle noted that if Benderson decides in its redevelopment plan to convert golf courses to open space, that land would be eligible for conservation easements.

That could benefit the development company in its pursuit to build in other areas — using the mitigation credits it gained in The Meadows deal to offset environmental requirements tied to other projects. Schoettle said that seems like an “inherent conflict of interest.”

While a for-profit company like Benderson cannot hold conservation easements under Florida law, Schoettle said a new special improvement district that Benderson has lobbied for at UTC could.

Benderson would control a majority interest in the proposed UTC Improvement District, according to previous Suncoast Searchlight reporting.

Christine P. Johnson, president of the Big Waters Land Trust, independently reviewed the lease and told Suncoast Searchlight the conservation easements were “grossly undervalued.” She said she didn’t understand why any property owner would give up property rights without knowing who will ultimately hold those rights.

She pointed to the Whole Foods development at the corner of Honore and University Parkway as an example of how land once set aside for mitigation can ultimately be bulldozed and paved over.

“Mitigation lands can be developed,” she said, “as it was with Whole Foods.”

‘A one-sided deal’

On a recent Thursday morning, the lone operating golf course in The Meadows had a half full parking lot.

Retirees walked their dogs down a trail path, seemingly unconcerned about the debate raging among their neighbors. While many residents interviewed by a reporter were aware of the deal, few said they followed the details closely.

Don Caccavo, owner of the Italian restaurant Mona Lisa in The Meadows Shopping Village, said he doesn’t like large real estate companies that exert the level of control that Benderson has come to wield in Sarasota. He noted that Benderson owns many of the most valuable retail locations in the county, and that it has driven up rents at some of its properties.

“I’m not a fan of companies who want to take over a whole town,” he said.

But he would be open to any deal that improves the golf course and brings more customers to his business.

Denny Harton, who was golfing on Thursday at The Meadows golf course, said he believes less than a quarter of The Meadows residents have been paying attention. He said the current board was “in over their head” negotiating with Benderson leading to a deal he could not support.

“I think there could be a deal with Benderson,” he said. “But the deal we entered into is a one-sided deal.”