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Traditions Golf & Country Club broke ground Wednesday on a long-awaited $6 million clubhouse.
And that's just the beginning, officials said.
Plans are in the works to add a hotel, retail space and a larger fitness center, said Spencer Clements, one of the four Aggie partners that make up The Huddleston Group, which manages the 943-acre development through an entity known as Traditions Acquisition Partnership.
Local officials and Traditions homeowners expressed excitement that the project was finally in the works. There were plans in 2000, before the development was ever built, for Traditions at University Ranch to include a hotel and conference center as well as a clubhouse.
The clubhouse will be about 25,000 square feet and is scheduled for completion sometime during the football season next fall. No city funds are going toward the project, Clements said.
"We see it as a social gathering place that is really unique in this area, maybe the country," he said.
Clements unveiled preliminary architectural renderings of the complex Wednesday. It will be comprised of four buildings: a golf shop with administrative offices, a men's locker room, a women's locker room and a building that houses a restaurant and bar, banquet and conference space and kitchen. The banquet room will be able to hold 160 to 200 people and the main room will have an elevator that goes to the basement, where it will open to a private wine and conference room. He said the village concept design will emphasize outdoor areas and functionality.
Clements said the clubhouse complex will be "green," and builders will work with specialists on geothermal heating and cooling. Covered walkways will connect the buildings.
"The clubhouse complex will be built as one project and will be the center of social activity within the Traditions community," said Clements, who assumed management of the $85 million residential development and golf course with fellow Texas A&M graduates Peter Currie, Michael Rupe and David Segers earlier this year.
The management group operates the development in a partnership with the city of Bryan, which includes an agreement to share profits from lots sales.
Clements said the hotel will have 150 to 200 rooms and will cater to business conferences but it won't serve as a convention center.
He said the management team felt confident it could attract guests and conferences to the hotel because of its proximity to the Texas A&M Health Science Center campus.
"That's always been the challenge in this market, is occupancy. But we think we can have such a different environment from anybody else that is currently in the market, and we think that will be helpful and attractive," he said.
J.T. Higgins, Texas A&M's men's golf coach, and Trelle McCombs, the university's women's golf coach, said they were excited that the facility was finally being built.
McCombs said the clubhouse will allow Texas A&M to host the 2011 women's national golf championships.
Boyd Cherry, who has lived in Traditions for two years, said the new ownership of the golf course has made a "tremendous difference" and he likes the direction the new owners are headed.
"We're so excited. We've waited a long time," he said.
