Windstar on Naples Bay

Windstar on Naples Bay is a gated golf community on the eastern shore of Naples Bay, south of downtown Naples, laid out along 2 miles of bay and Haldeman Creek frontage. Its marina, Southpointe Yacht Club, is part of the community itself. The club puts the position in travel time: "By land, we are just seven minutes to Old Naples and by sea just one mile across the Bay".

Three of the things people come here for are separate arrangements. The golf, the private beach and a boat slip each come through a club membership or a purchase of their own, so buy a home here and you have bought a home, with each of those decisions still ahead of you. That's the fact that shapes a purchase at Windstar more than any floor plan does.

What does a club membership cover?

That depends which of the three tiers is in play: Full Golf, Social Summer Golf or Social. The club is explicit that Social members don't get golf, and the middle tier is seasonal in a way the club spells out: "Social Summer Golf Members are entitled to unlimited golf during the off-season of May through October". Those members keep the clubhouse and the private beach all year, so only the golf carries a season. The course is a Tom Fazio design.

The private beach and the boat shuttle to Keewaydin Island sit among member privileges as well, and plenty of buyers picture both when they picture living at Windstar. Both are reached by joining rather than by buying. Not every owner joins, either. The club keeps a page for tenants covering what applies "if you are renting from a non member of the Windstar Club".

Can you keep a boat at Windstar?

Yes, once a slip is arranged. Southpointe is "a private yacht basin located within Windstar on Naples Bay", with 72 deep-water slips that take yachts up to 70 feet. The berths run "from 33 feet to 72 feet with a 5 feet mean low tide", so the length of your boat decides which of the 72 will fit.

A slip is its own transaction, and that's the catch in buying here for the water. "Boat slips are available for sale or lease", and a home purchase doesn't bring one with it, so a boat owner budgets two deals instead of one. Settle the slip first if the house only makes sense with a boat behind it.

Two ways lead out of the basin. One heads west, with "immediate access to Gordon Pass into the Gulf of Mexico". The other leads "to a southbound inland waterway passage to Keewaydin Island and Marco Island".

What else is inside the gate?

Four places to eat: the 1700 Grille, the Bayview Dining Room, the Sunset Lounge and Veranda, and the Wine Room. Tennis is played on 6 Har-Tru courts, and bocce has 3 courts of its own, all of them lit, so a game can start after dinner.

What kind of homes does Windstar have?

Condominiums, mostly. Low-rise buildings make up the bulk of the housing, with one mid-rise among them, a smaller number of houses and some attached villas. Homes hold 2 to 5 bedrooms, starting at about 1,350 square feet and topping out near 6,100. The price band is just as wide, from the $350,000s up to around $7 million. A 1,350 square foot condominium and a house several times that size are not the same purchase, and the gate is most of what they have in common.

What about the older buildings?

The oldest homes here go back to 1987, so parts of the community have decades behind them, and age shows in the condominium buildings before it shows anywhere else. Florida makes older condominium buildings prove they are sound, and hold a reserve big enough to act on what that proof shows. A building current on both keeps its monthly fee predictable. One that is behind can bill its owners for the gap, which is how a special assessment arrives in your name.

What to pin down on a particular home

• Whether club membership comes with that address, and at which of the three tiers.
• Whether a slip forms part of the sale, and on exactly what terms if it does.
• The last structural inspection on that building, and the reserve balance standing behind it.

The water is what this place is organized around: 2 miles of frontage, 72 berths in a basin within the community, and Gordon Pass at the western end of it. The home is one purchase. Membership, the private beach and a berth are arranged separately, each on its own paperwork.