The Club at Mediterra

Mediterra is gated, master planned, and the community gives its size as about 1,700 acres. A little over 900 homes stand on it, plus around fifty platted lots carrying no house. In the community's own words, it "was designed with the intimacy, charm and classical style of the Mediterranean region of Europe."

Everything else here runs through the club, and every owner has to belong. Buying the house doesn't buy the membership: it's a separate purchase at a separate price, on its own application, approved at the club's discretion.

Do I have to join the club at Mediterra?

Yes, and approval is its own step, which the club's membership booklet puts plainly. "The Club at Mediterra does not accept non-resident applications. Club Membership is mandatory for owners in the Mediterra Community. To become a member of the Club, owners must apply and complete the Club's approval process." Approval means a background check, an interview with the membership committee and a vote of the board. The obligation binds every later owner too, each of whom must hold at least a Lifestyle membership, the lowest category. The club is owned by its members, so the membership carries shares and votes that differ by category.

What does the lowest membership category include?

Counted golf rounds and a seasonal beach. The Lifestyle list includes "Dinner at Beach Club year-round ... Full Access to Beach summer season (May 1-Oct 31) ... Six rounds of golf during summer". The driving range is summer and winter afternoons, fitness is afternoons with unlimited use in summer, and tennis and pickleball are summer with winter lessons after 1pm. The categories above Lifestyle carry unlimited golf with no green fees and full beach access. Wanting golf whenever you like, or that beach in February, means a category above the one ownership requires.

Can I get a golf membership at Mediterra?

Not straight away. The club states that "Memberships are limited to 450 for 36 holes of golf", and both golf categories are full. Full golf has been at its cap since 2012, the limited golf category since 2021. The club gives no estimate of the wait's length. Its summary reads, "At capacity since 2012, you must either join a wait list or buy a home from a resigning golf member. The wait is significant".

What is there to use, and where is it?

Golf is two 18-hole courses, North and South, both designed by Tom Fazio, with a Golf Learning Center. Nearly 60,000 square feet of clubhouse holds a grille room, a lounge, a ballroom, a tavern, a fire pit patio and a covered bar terrace over one course. There's a sports club with a fitness center and studio, a spa with three treatment rooms, a sauna, and a heated lap and lounge pool. Add 8 Har-Tru clay courts for tennis, among them a learning court and a stadium court, plus 7 pickleball courts and 4 bocce courts. Three themed parks hold formal gardens, natural wetlands and a play area, and about eight miles of pathway cross the community. A new sports and lifestyle center is going up, approved by the members, and the club calls it a "multi-million dollar investment in the Club and Community".

The beach club is somewhere else entirely, fronting the Gulf about 6.5 miles from the homes as a straight line, so getting there means a drive. The 2002 building has two floors: cabana service on the sand, an upper-floor pool above the water, a restaurant serving indoors and out. The houses aren't near the water either, roughly 3.5 to 4 miles inland of the shoreline, again as a straight line. How much of that beach you get depends on your membership category.

What do the homes look like, and what have they sold for?

Detached houses are about three in every four here, with attached coach homes making up the rest, and the products are custom manor single-family homes, villas and coach homes. What's sold has run from the $850,000s to around $11 million, coach homes through custom estate homes.

Who bills you, and where do the rules live?

More than one body bills you, because two layers of association govern the property. Mediterra Community Association, Inc. owns the roads, the lakes and the common tracts, and beneath it a number of neighborhood associations run individual enclaves. So an owner can be billed twice before the club is counted, and the club's charges are extra to all of it.

• A one-time contribution, not refundable, differing by category.
• A capital assessment charged once to a new member.
• Annual dues, billed in two halves in August and February.
• An annual contribution toward the new sports and lifestyle center.
• A minimum annual food and beverage spend.
• An annual amenity fee, set by the type of home.

Let that last charge go unpaid and the master association can lien the home to collect it, as it would for its own dues. The club publishes figures for all of these, and the schedule moves. The association doesn't post the governing documents: "In accordance with Florida Sunshine State Laws, we provide links to all our community documentation upon request." Leasing terms and pet rules sit in those documents, better read before an offer.

The developer's own line on the clubhouse: "Never stuffy or ostentatious, the clubhouse offers an engaging atmosphere where informal attire, including jeans, is always welcomed."