More than three years after Hurricane Ian caused widespread and devastating storm surge in Southwest Florida, a private neighborhood in Marco Island that focuses on preserving area beaches has rebuilt a central part of its community.
Hideaway Beach Club, made up of about 600 homes on the northwest tip of the island, saw its sports and wellness center flooded by Hurricane Ian Sept. 28, 2022, and then destroyed by a fire a week later. In its place, the beach club now has a shiny new and modern building that is part sports center, part spa, part Top Golf and part clubhouse.
The gated community was built in the 1960s and 1970s on the northwest side of Marco Island, along its white sand beaches. In 2004, the Hideaway Beach Tax District was created. It’s a dependent special district of the City of Marco Island created to improve, renourish, preserve, maintain and monitor the beach property located within the boundaries of Hideaway Beach. Hideaway residents also pay Marco Island property tax.
The beaches on Marco Island are public, even if some land access is not, so it’s not just Hideaway residents the tax helps. Tigertail Beach, in particular, has been changed and disturbed by hurricane after hurricane, and Hideaway’s taxes have helped refurbish it, more than once.
Tigertail Beach, a public park, was a separate sandbar until Hurricane Wilma connected it to the mainland in 2005.
Hideaway Beach Club sits among 300 acres, more than half of which is set to forever remain in their natural state. That’s 150 acres of conservation area with boardwalks through the lagoons and canopied mangroves.
Inside the exclusive Hideaway Beach Club
Hideaway residents enjoy amenities created so they rarely need to leave the community. The neighborhood is more like a small city, but without grocery stores or gas stations.
“We say never give them a reason to leave Hideaway,” said Kacie Crown, director of communications, during a tour of the new sports and wellness center.
The new 34,000-square-foot center gives big reasons, including that it is significantly larger than the previous 12,300-square-foot building.
On the first floor are a pro shop with high-end brands for everything from pickleball and tennis to golf and lounging. There are golf simulators – a private one for lessons with the golf pro – along with four others for club member use that turn into a Top Golf experience later in the day. There are courses from around the world, along with games, including zombie dodgeball, for the whole family to enjoy.
And it wouldn’t be a club kind of experience without a bar – self-serve even, similar to restaurants with beer walls. If the building is open, you can pour a beer or some wine. There’s also a market, where pre-made family dinners and bottles of wine are for sale, as well as snacks, throughout the day.
Outside, three new bocce courts, eight resurfaced tennis courts and six pickleball courts as well as the community’s nine-hole golf course keep residents active. The golf course will be re-constructed and storm water improvements made next year, after the snowbirds head north, Crown said.
Kipp Schulties Golf Design Inc. will start work April 6, said Hideaway General Manager and Chief Operating Officer Eamon Murphy. Kipp Schulties also designed the Island Country Club in Marco Island, the Vanderbilt Country Club in Naples and the Fiddlesticks Country Club in Fort Myers
Hideaway’s golf course also serves the environment, Murphy said, with large lagoons that filter water drainage before it releases into what is commonly known as the Gulf of Mexico, renamed the Gulf of America by President Donald Trump Jan. 20, 2025.
As part of its reconstruction project, Hideaway is fixing drainage issues related to that outflow into the gulf.
But that’s not all there is at the club’s new sports and wellness center. There’s a second floor.
The gym, the spa, the bocce director!
The second floor has a few nooks and crannies for phone calls or online meetings, as well as space to take a moment with a book and a cup of coffee.
But the big draw are the gym and the balconies overlooking the property.
There’s an open workout space with high-end equipment as well as free weights. There are personal trainers to help residents stay in or get in their best shape. There is a dedicated Pilates Reformer room, along with rooms for private classes. There are a group fitness room and a Cycle Studio for spin classes.
The fitness center also has an on-site physical therapist in partnership with the NCH Healthcare System. There’s no excuse not to get to PT when your physical therapist has an office at your gym.
The community’s bocce director also has an office there.
And for after those workouts, there is a massage room with licensed massage therapists available by appointment.
Hideaway Beach Club approved Fiscal Year 2026 property tax rate of 1.600 mills, the same as in FY25. Residents of the private beach community pay a special district property tax on top of the Marco Island tax, which is 1.267 mill for FY26, up 2.18% from 1.240 for FY25.
The community of about 300 acres includes single-family homes, condos, villas and cottages. About half the acreage is wetlands and conserved lands.
One mill equates to $1 for every $1,000 worth of a property’s assessed, or taxable, value (after adjustments, such as the homestead exemption for residents).
This article originally appeared on Marco Eagle: Hideaway Beach rebuilds sports facility 3 years after Hurricane Ian
Reporting by J. Kyle Foster, Naples Daily News / Marco Eagle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
