WELLINGTON, Fla. — Palm Beach Polo Inc. has sold its 18-hole Cypress golf course to a company owned by entrepreneur Mark Bellissimo for $35 million, the latest move in his attempt to build support for a sweeping project in Wellington’s equestrian preserve.
The course at Palm Beach Polo Golf & Country Club would become part of The Wellington, Bellissimo’s plan to build two luxury residential communities and a high-end commercial district on land largely in the preserve, with the help of a company backed by star golfer Tiger Woods and star singer Justin Timberlake.
Palm Beach Polo sits next to the land Bellissimo has amassed for the project near equestrian showgrounds. The deal not only gives Bellissimo a golf course for The Wellington, but it also stands to help Palm Beach Polo pay $6.8 million in unpaid fines to the village.
The 125 acres encompassing the golf course were among the Palm Beach Polo parcels on which Wellington was poised to foreclose. A judge Wednesday called off a planned June 12 auction of the properties, saying Palm Beach Polo had posted the money in a bond while it appeals the case.
Before Bellissimo’s development can have residents play the golf course, however, three village boards — crowned by the village council — must decide his plans for it are compatible with the stringent rules governing development in the equestrian preserve, a 9,000-acre zone at the south end of Wellington.
It’s unclear whether or when those decisions will happen. None of the boards has scheduled a meeting about the project, which Bellissimo unveiled last fall. His development company has not filed any plans for the commercial district, which would include a hotel, shops and restaurants.
What’s at stake for Wellington and its equestrian preserve?
The Wellington marks Bellissimo’s third attempt since 2012 to build in the 9,000-acre equestrian preserve, where he stages the annual Winter Equestrian Festival and has interests in other properties.
Community opposition helped to scuttle his plans in 2012 for a hotel and a dressage area and in 2016 for a hotel and improvements to the International Polo Club, which he has since sold. Instead, he developed an equestrian center in North Carolina.
An equestrian arena at Wellington International in Wellington, Florida. (Photo: Andres Leiva/Palm Beach Post)
Bellissimo has said Wellington risks losing the equestrian competitions and businesses that have helped to define it to horse-friendly places such…
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