The PGA of America is moving its headquarters from Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, to Frisco, Texas — a Dallas suburb where it's building a massive development with golf courses, a hotel and offices. The move should be complete in mid-2022.
"This is a big shift in the power structure of professional golf," CBS Sports writer Kyle Porter wrote in December. "The PGA of America is a power player at the highest level, and a relocation for them affects everything."
The PGA hired Savills Studley to develop its real estate plan. The team looked at golf-friendly locations that had warm weather, ties to the PGA’s membership, easy airport access and economic incentives. They narrowed their search to eight locations before choosing Frisco.
According to Savills Studley, the PGA will keep about 100 employees at its Florida site, but build a new, state-of-the-art headquarters in Texas. Its new HQ will anchor a $520M, 600-acre, public-private partnership project.
The PGA Frisco development will include two championship golf courses, plus a short course, a practice area and a clubhouse. There will also be a 100K SF building that will house offices and an education facility. Plans also call for a 500-room Omni resort hotel, a 127K SF conference center, a retail village, parks and trails.
It's possible that the golf courses could host the PGA Championships in 2027 and 2034 and possibly even a future Ryder Cup — a prestigious tournament between U.S. and European golfers held every two years.
The 600 acres is part of a larger 2,500-acre plot being master-planned by Hunt Realty Investments. An initial 25-year deal calls for Omni Stillwater Woods, a joint venture led by Omni Hotels & Resorts with Stillwater Capital and Woods Capital, to purchase the land for $60M from an estate — and then turn it over to the city.
OSW will invest another $400M to construct the hotel, the conference center, retail space, parking and golf courses, though the PGA will invest $30M to build its HQ building. OSW will pay $100K a year in rent to Frisco but manage and operate the resort. The city and its development corporations, together with the state of Texas, will kick in some $160M in incentives.
Frisco is branding itself as “Sports City USA,” and is home to the training facility of the Dallas Cowboys, the FC Dallas soccer team and the Texas Rangers’ Double-A farm team. It also plays host to annual NCAA soccer and football championships.
Meanwhile, PGA of America CEO Seth Waugh told the Palm Beach Post that various government leaders, including former Gov. Rick Scott, tried to get the PGA to stay in Palm Beach Gardens, but their offerings could not compete with the option to build from scratch on largely undeveloped land in Texas. For now, workers will continue to operate out of the association's offices next to PGA National Resort, and the PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie will continue to host important tournaments.
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