Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club offers Boca Raton’s prestigious signature address located on Federal Highway/US1 and Camino Real Blvd.
Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club is a quiet guard gated community.
Directly across from the internationally renowned Boca Raton Resort & Club and the beach, Royal Palm is located only minutes from Mizner Park shopping and dining. Town Center Mall is just 15 minutes away and features Bloomingdales, Saks Fifth Avenue, Lord & Taylor, and more than 180 fine specialty shops.
Real estate in Royal Palm Yacht and Country Club features around 700 single family homes. Homes provide their residents with carpet and marble floors, fireplaces, French doors, vaulted ceilings, second/third levels, magnificent staircases, patios, swimming pools, private docks and Intracoastal front views.
Royal Palm has exemplified the lifestyle once envisioned for all of Boca Raton by the famous 1920’s architect, Addison Mizner. This gated luxury residential real estate community in Boca Raton Florida offers a variety of new homes, luxury estates and resale real estate properties. Home buyers may select from luxury estate homes, exclusive Royal Palm real estate residences and new spec homes to allow the design of their “dream home” in Boca Raton, Florida. It is the only country club community in Boca Raton combining the delights of golf and yachting. The Intracostal Waterway and the deepwater canals that bisect the community offer vivid waterfront views while accommodating individual boat dockage and a private marina
Homes in Royal Palm Yacht are definitely luxury-class and their price reflects their amenities: from around $600,000+ to $15M+. Lots are a combination of waterfront lots whether direct Intracoastal or canals or dry lots. The homes were originally built in the 1960’s.
They have spacious 3 to 7+ bedroom floor plans, starting at 2,500+ sq ft up to 15,000+ sq ft. With the solid construction and technological advances that these homes offer, plus the singular advantage of deep-water yacht moorage, these homes are definitely worth luxury pricing. For the luxury home buyer, Royal Palm homes offer everything that a homeowner could want: comfort, luxury and the opportunity to enjoy congenial society in one of Florida's finest private clubs.
The opportunity to belong to one of the most prestigious country clubs in South Florida is something that is unique to this little community. A small club, Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club membership is restricted to those with sponsorships by at least two of the Club's Founder Members and three letters of recommendation from other Club members, interviews and Board approval. A tight-knit community, the Club is dedicated to ensuring that new members will uphold its values and traditions.
Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club was the first planned development in South Florida and the first in the U.S. to bury its utilities. In March, 1959, construction began on the site. The year 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Royal Palm's beginning and it has never been a better time to buy. An entire year of celebration marks this milestoneThe Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club is a private, by-invitation only club with a Jack Nicklaus Signature golf course, a 30,000-square-foot golf clubhouse, fitness center, clay tennis courts, swimming pool, and two championship croquet courses.
The Club's facilities also include six lighted clay tennis courts, an Olympic-size swimming pool, a fully equipped marina, a golf practice range with two chip and putting practice areas, two championship six wicket croquet courts, and the Yacht Club.
The Royal Palm Yacht Club houses the general offices, a Main Dining Room seating 300 with a permanent dance floor, the Commodore Grille room seating 160 for informal dining.
HISTORY
Arthur Vining Davis, Chairman of The Aluminum Company of America, originally owned the tract of land now known as Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club. In 1958, Mr. Davis formed the Arvida Corporation for the purposes of developing some one hundred thousand acres of his Florida land holdings.
Royal Palm became the first tract of land selected for development. The site was then used for a nationally renowned polo field that was a focal point for Palm Beach society, with grandstands and stables for overnight housing of polo ponies. Also there was a well kept nine hole golf course, frequently used by Tommy Armour and hotel guests to whom he was giving lessons.
Arthur Vining Davis was diminutive, kindly, gentle and smiling. His real estate holdings in Florida alone had an estimated value of over one hundred million dollars. He took pride in the development of Royal Palm. He dined, danced, and beamed at the Club’s inaugural Commodore’s Ball on March 19, 1960. His original hope was that the development would become purely a retirement community.
Royal Palm derived its name form the statuesque Royal Palms bordering Camino Real; the Club’s Blue and Gold colors are from the color theme of early Arvida sales brochures and advertising.
The winning bid to build the golf course, designed by Robert Trent Jones, was three hundred sixty eight thousand dollars. The 2002 renovation of the course cost four million three hundred and forty thousand dollars and the design fee paid to Jack Nicklaus was one million two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Sam Snead was named Professional, dividing his time between Royal Palm and the Boca Raton Hotel and Club. Some members kidded him as being the "Lot Salesman Pro." Resident Professional was John Redman, who fired a 63 on the new course and has gone on to be recognized as one of the finest teaching professional in America. Member play burgeoned swiftly. As early as 1959, Kay Wolfel, Jobie Welch and Aggie Goss met to write the initial Bylaws of the Club’s oldest formal organization, The Ladies’ Golf Association.
The entire areas was an enclave that could not be encroached upon, being bound on the North by the Boca Raton Hotel and Club; the East by the Intracoastal Waterway; the South by the Hillsboro River; and the West by Federal Highway. This tract was selected for the first development because its location insured an early success for Arvida.
Work on the development commenced early in 1959. Simultaneously, Royal Palm Yacht & Country Club was organized as a Club owned by Arvida, with ownership of a lot or home in Royal Palm a condition for membership. The initiation fee was one hundred dollars. Lot purchase arrangements provided that ownership and operation of the Club could subsequently pass to the members whenever five hundred members were obtained, but no later than May 28, 1964.
The members acquired full title of the Club and with it full operating responsibility in 1963. Membership then was less than the five hundred required in the controlling agreement. Arvida, however, was willing to yield on this point. Five hundred and fifty home sites of the original seven hundred and forty two available had been sold. Further, the fledging Club was suffering operating losses each year which were being absorbed by Arvida. For 1962 alone, this amounted to two hundred and seventeen thousand dollars. Arvida additionally agreed in the negotiations to put the golf course, buildings and grounds in good state, and also to provide sixty thousand dollars as working capital.
On January 1, 1964 the transfer of Club ownership to the members took place. The initiation fee was immediately raised to three thousand dollars and dues increased. This was indeed a bold step because, as one member remarked, 'We had not been getting too many members at five hundred dollars." In its first year of independent operation, a modest cash reserve was accumulated, although cost cutting measures caused some members to speak ruefully of the "good ‘ol days", when Arvida was picking up a large part of the tab.
The Members’ Equity Plan was adopted by vote June 20, 1967. Simply stated, this established the current value of an individual member’s share of Club ownership by providing that a resigning Founder Member would receive sixty percent of the initiation fee paid by the new member to whom the resigning member’s membership certificate was transferred. Immediately, this simple action caused many members to look at their Club in an enhanced light.
In 1972, a membership qualification change of great importance was made. Until then, Royal Palm had been a "home site" club. It had become clear; however, that membership and club revenues could not be maintained at desired levels by drawing exclusively from the ranks of Royal Palm residents. This was a serious acknowledgement. For restricting applications to owners of homes in Royal Palm had always been considered vital by members interested in maintaining club quality and intimacy. Nevertheless, when the facts were clearly presented, the members voted to award Founder Membership and Golf Privileges to other than Royal Palm homeowners.
In January of 2001, the Club changed the membership structure again -- raising the initiation fee to eighty thousand dollars with seventy percent refundable upon resignation. The new plan was introduced to provide funding for a Club Enhancement Program that included a new Jack Nicklaus designed golf course, a new seven thousand foot fitness center and a new golf clubhouse. Over the years, the Club had become outdated and the facilities were not attracting a steady stream of new members. Since the enactment of the Club Enhancement Program, the Club has seen steady growth.
The Fitness Center opened in May 2002. The Golf Course opened in December of 2002. The golf clubhouse opened in December of 2003. It includes men's and ladies' locker rooms and card rooms, a main dining room and tap room, a halfway house and 19th Hole, open terraces for dining, the Golf Pro Shop, and bag and cart storage.
The history of Royal Palm Yacht and Country club is adapted from www.rpycc.org
