Noted Pinellas resort, home to PGA Tour event, to be sold in $20M deal

Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club, the Palm Harbor home of the PGA Tour’s Valspar Championship, will sell to affiliates of Concert Golf Partners by the end of the year for $19.8 million in cash plus the assumption of certain liabilities, federal filings say. 

According to a Nov. 3 filing with the SEC, Salamander Collection, which purchased the 600-acre golf and spa resort for $35 million in 2007, signed an agreement Oct. 28 to sell the property to private golf and country club owner-operator Concert Golf Partners. The transaction not only includes the four golf courses and resort property but also covers three condominium units and related assets, the filing says.

Not included in the sale is about 34 acres and development entitlements Salamander will hold on to for future development, the filing says. 

Closing is targeted for Dec. 31, subject to possible extensions and other conditions, including an agreement on a development agreement and lease for the retained acreage, the filing says. Salamander expects to repay its outstanding Truist Bank loan at closing, the filing says. 

In a joint statement sent to the Business Observer, Concert Golf and Salamander say Innisbrook will remain open and continue operating throughout the transition. Concert Golf also plans to retain Innisbrook’s current team, the statement says. "No immediate operational changes are planned at this time," the note says.

The statement goes on to say Concert Golf Partners plans to “build on the foundation established by (owner) Sheila Johnson and Salamander Collection.” 

“Salamander Collection will remain involved in a consulting capacity following closing,” the statement says. 

Based in Lake Mary, Concert Golf Partners owns and operates 41 upscale private golf and country clubs nationwide, nine of which are in Florida. The company’s Gulf Coast clubs include the Carrollwood Country Club in Tampa, Plantation Golf and Country Club in Venice, The Club at Renaissance in Fort Myers and Golf Club of the Everglades in Naples. 

Founded in 1970, Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club was designed by golf course architect E. Lawrence Packard and is famous for its Copperhead Course, which hosts the annual PGA Tour Valspar Championship and features the challenging “Snake Pit” finishing holes. 

The roughly 600-acre destination offers 63 holes of golf, about 300 guest rooms and suites with full kitchens, six swimming pools and the Loch Ness Monster pool complex, dining venues such as Packard’s Steakhouse, the Salamander Spa and more than 65,000-square-feet of banquet and catering space, according to its 2025 annual report. Innisbrook employed 474 people at year-end, the report says.

The resort reported $46.5 million in revenue in 2025, the report says, down 1.6% from the previous year. That’s a $2.15 million net loss, compared with a $2.01 million net loss in 2024. Room revenue dropped 10.6% in the 2025 fiscal year, the report says. Management attributed the overall revenue decline to a slowdown in demand for hotel rooms and food-and-beverage business following the back-to-back hurricanes Helene and Milton in September and October 2024. Innisbrook incurred about $816,000 worth of damage during the storms, the report says, as well as untimely closures and disruptions of business for needed repairs and maintenance. 

Innisbrook’s 2025 annual report also says Salamander previously sold about 54 acres along the northern boundary of the resort’s property to luxury real estate firm Toll Brothers in November 2023, receiving $12.5 million in net proceeds. Toll Brothers intends to build 122 single-family homes and 52 townhouses on the property, the report says. According to their sale agreement, Salamander will receive 10% of sale proceeds for the homes. 

The new ownership deal also comes ahead of a calendar change for Innisbrook’s signature event. The Valspar Championship’s 2027 competition rounds won’t be held in March, but are instead scheduled to begin May 6 and end Mother’s Day, May 9. Innisbrook’s annual report says the tournament and related sponsorship deals have been extended through 2030.