Two years after Hurricane Ian decimated the posh Port Royal Club, members cleared their final hurdle and received the green light to move forward with their $100 million reconstruction.
Naples’ Design Review Board voted unanimously Sept. 25 to grant final design-review approval for an expanded three-level, 48.6-foot-high clubhouse with recreational amenities and parking at 2900 Gordon Drive. Preliminary design approval was subject to numerous conditions, which were met, and the project was approved by the Planning Advisory Board and City Council after numerous conditions were required and months of compromises with a neighbor.
Final design approval was the last step before the club could obtain construction permits to rebuild the 65-year-old one-story clubhouse, which was destroyed by Hurricane Ian on Sept. 28, 2022. The new club will be elevated and built to current standards and the city imposed dozens of conditions.
“We thank our building committee and professional team, as well as the city staff for their ongoing efforts and support,” the club said in a statement. “This milestone comes just ahead of the two-year anniversary of Hurricane Ian, marking a significant step forward in our community’s recovery. We are excited to begin construction and look forward to breaking ground in December.”
Estero-based Suffolk Construction is building the West Indies-inspired project, which is expected to be completed in late 2026. The design by internationally renowned Hart Howerton, of New York and San Francisco, adds amenities, including a gulf-front infinity pool and dining options, while layered, colorful landscaping plans by Naples-based Outside Productions received lavish praise by the DRB.
The approval came a week after Council denied the club’s plans for a temporary 5,000-square-foot, 130-seat dining tent, with 1,632 square feet of modular trailers for a kitchen, equipment and staff. City codes consider six months temporary, not 2½ to three years.
DRB Chair Steve Hruby, an architect, said working with a club committee is an “arduous task” and commended Hart Howerton partner Tim McCarthy for the patience and skill it took to reach a consensus, noting a complicated project that undergoes committee input and numerous city approvals takes years, not 18 months.
“The building itself and its character … harkens back to the tradition of Port Royal … a Bahamian design that was almost mandated when it was built in the ’50s and the ’60s, and that picks that up, but in a much more sophisticated and in a more almost-resort-style way,” Hruby said.
In August, Council unanimously approved a conditional-use petition that allows the club to build the larger clubhouse with indoor and outdoor dining, a new pool and deck, outdoor seating areas, a two-story garage, new landscaping and lighting in a public-service district. In nonunanimous votes, Council approved outdoor dining and a waiver allowing an 11-foot wall between the club and a neighbor’s $31 million gulf-front estate to the south because the new club will be closer to that home.
The club sits on about 11 acres, but the three petitions involve 5.5 acres. The plans increase the clubhouse from 32,000 to 77,000 square feet and move the pool and dining next to the home, rather than the center of the property, which shielded noise.
The club made $2 million in changes to appease the neighbor’s concerns over views, noise, traffic, lights, building height and smells, and Council imposed numerous conditions, including enclosing dining areas and bars facing the home, shortening pool hours and removing a beach path that’s been there since 1959.
The plans were approved by 93% of club members who urged approval. The club, which is capped at 700 members, is borrowing $20 million to finance construction and assessed members $45,000. That cost and wait prompted 45 members to leave—most age 70 and older—leaving 623 after others on a waiting list joined.
McCarthy emphasized the larger club was needed to “right-size” the club due to growth and demand, noting members were turned away due to capacity.
DRB member Sabrina McCabe, a landscape architect, grilled McCarthy on the lengthy process he and Outside Productions President Pat Trefz went through and praised Outside Productions’ designs and presentation, calling them a model to emulate.
“I want it to be clear to the residents of Naples how much this has been reviewed by the actual club members … to come up with a project that they thought was best for them,” McCabe said. “It’s very unusual that we have that layer in between a petition and … the Design Review Board.”
