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September marks six years since The Ronto Group, partnering with a New York investment firm, bought TwinEagles, a 1,115-acre master-planned community in Naples where home sales stalled in the downturn.
A family-run, Naples-based development firm, Ronto paid $11 million for TwinEagles, in conjunction with Angelo, Gordon & Co. The Ronto Group then spent millions more on renovations. That included redoing one of two golf courses, building a resort-style spa, swimming pool and fitness center and enhancing walking paths.
The investment, after some lean years in the beginning, now looks like a shrewd buy-low move. “Fortune favors the bold,” TwinEagles sales manager Van Osborne tells Coffee Talk. “When we got into this project nobody was looking at golf courses.”
A key move early on, says Osborne, was to punt one of the most challenging aspects of selling golf course community homes: Expensive golf club membership initiation fees that oftentimes surpass six figures.
At TwinEagles, a golf membership is now included with every newly constructed home sale. A homeowner then pays around $11,000 a year in dues, but the important part for future resales, says Osborne, is the membership is attached to the home and transfers to the next owner. Other communities on the Gulf coast offer similar options, but doing it in thick of the recession was a significant risk.
Another smart move early on, says Osborne, was to expand the price point and builder list in the community. Homes now range from $300,000 to more than $3 million, and several buyers have upgraded within TwinEagles, he says. Builders in the community include Pulte, Lennar, Stock Signature and Minto.
Sales started slow at TwinEagles after the Ronto transformation. The community had 28 sales in 2011 and 2012 combined, but in 2013 buyers began to trickle in, and it reached 65 sales. In 2014 TwinEagles had 95 total sales and last year it surpassed $135 million in total sales volume.
Sales in 2016, says Osborne, have been up-and-down. In February and April the community sold 15 and 19 homes, respectively, both improvements over those months from 2015. But in January and March, normally strong months, sales didn't get out of the single digits. In August, usually a slow month, TwinEagles had 12 sales and another 10 deals were pending closing. “We've had some fantastic months,” Osborne says, “and we've had some so-so months.”
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