Capital City Country Club members voted overwhelmingly in support of a plan to sell the club to an outside group of investors that includes Patrick Zalupski, one of the owners of the Tampa Bay Rays and a billionaire home builder who gave big to Gov. Ron DeSantis.
The country club members met March 30 to consider the proposal to sell, which comes with a $30 million redevelopment project that would see its aging greens replaced and its golf cart paths and clubhouse rehabbed.
Fred Baggett, president of Capital City Country Club, issued a statement to the Tallahassee Democrat following the vote.
“The Capital City Country Club membership voted 167-9 to turn over management and control of the club to an outside group of investors, which which includes Patrick Zalupski,” Baggett said. “As previously reported the investor group has offered legacy membership rates to current members. The outside investors intend to hire an internationally acclaimed golf architect to restore the course.”
The statement did not divulge the names of other investors in the group.
The membership vote came only months after Tallahassee city commissioners opted to sell the 178-acre golf course property to the country club for $1.255 million ― a proposition that sparked opposition among neighborhood activists worried about future development and civil rights activists upset over the handling of an unmarked cemetery of Black slaves. Zapulski’s group will pay the same price to acquire the property.
The Capital City Country Club board, in a recent email to members, said the proposal came from “a group of extremely well-funded investors” who wanted to “not just restore it, but transform it into a world-class country club and golf course worthy of its heritage, its proximity to the Capitol and iconic track.”
As part of the plan, members would have to contribute at least $25,000 each to remain part of the club — though that number would go down to as low as $10,000 based on years of membership. New members would have to pay fees of $50,000 to $75,000.
The board said in the email that an alternative, which it called the “cheapest” option that would see the club “go it alone” would have required each member to pay $25,000, a figure that would only go up as other members left.
Zalupski, 44, is the founder, president and CEO of Dream Finders Homes and a member of the University of Florida Board of Trustees, appointed by DeSantis. He has served as chairman of the Dream Finders board since the company went public in 2021, according to the UF website.
His company, according to Forbes, is valued at $1.25 billion.
Federal campaign contribution records show that Zalupski gave gave $250,000 to DeSantis’ Never Back Down PAC as part of his 2024 White House run. He and his company have also contributed thousands to the Restore our Nation (RON PAC), the Republican Party of Florida, U.S. Rep. Laurel Lee, R-Fla., and Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla.,
Most recently, Zalupski, a Jacksonville developer, led a group of owners to buy the Tampa Bay Rays from former owner Stuart Sternberg last year for $1.7 billion.
The country club board laid out details of the proposal in the email to members and went over it with them in person during the membership meeting.
According to the email, the investors group will retain a “nationally known championship course designer” to design the course and protect its historic design by famed golf course architect A.W. Tillinghast.
Construction is expected to start in the summer of 2028 and take four years to complete.
Contact Jeff Burlew at jburlew@tallahassee.com or 850-599-2180.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Capital City Country Club votes to sell to billionaire Tampa Bay Rays owner
Reporting by Jeff Burlew, Tallahassee Democrat / Tallahassee Democrat
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