Chandlers Landing HOA to unveil new clubhouse this summer
(ROCKWALL, TX — June 5, 2017) In early July, the Chandlers Landing HOA will open up its brand new clubhouse and restaurant known as The Landing at Chandlers to the public – a project that’s been the pride and joy of the Chandlers Landing community for the past year and half.
When Allure Restaurant permanently closed in late December 2015, HOA Board members knew they were seeing an unfortunate pattern in regards to the property. It’s changed ownership multiple times in its existence, sometimes shutting down for as long as a year or two until someone else came in to manage it.
“As a board we thought, how many times are we going to have our number one amenity go dark? So we got to talking about it for a while and in early 2016, we decided we really ought to try and buy it. We had a meeting with the community, and they seemed to really support that decision,” said HOA Board Vice President David Mallard.
The HOA closed on the property on November 5, 2016, and afterwards formed a committee to figure out what would need to be done to make the building usable again. Mallard said over the years, little money had been invested in future capital structure and the facility needed work – lots of work.
“We put in new siding, new painting, partial new roof, huge electric repairs,” said HOA Board President Russ Martin. “The swimming pool is about 85 percent brand new. Decking, plumbing, pumps – all brand new. The building is probably about 40 percent repairs.”
HOA Board members have been up at the clubhouse nearly every day helping with repairs and cleanup, and learning the ins and outs of restaurant management. But the work hasn’t been all their doing.
“Every three weeks, we’ve asked community members to come pitch in doing everything from cleaning the kitchen to emptying the storage rooms out, to carrying out old ceiling tiles, to doing landscaping,” Martin said. “By doing that, it gave a sense of ownership of the club to the people in our community.”
The clubhouse will accommodate all manner of events from weddings to business meetings and birthday parties through its event bookings program known as Regatta Vista. It even has a beach area which community members have helped to re-level, and will be one of the few places in DFW where one can have a beach wedding. There’s a ballroom on the bottom floor with a beautiful view of the lake, although the large events room on the main level offers the best lake view. Other amenities include a bar and grill, a commodore’s lounge for overflow guest events like tea parties, and The Loft – an area where residents can relax on low-lying sofas, have WiFi access, drink coffee and socialize in the mornings before the restaurant opens.
Personal trainer and fitness coach Melissa Corporon with Lakescape Wellness will bring water aerobics and fitness classes to the new pool at the club, but the pool will still be open to community members. CL Tennis, Inc. will be leasing the seven tennis courts on the clubhouse property to use for their tennis programs.
“They’re doing a really good job,” said Mallard, who along with a couple of others founded CL Tennis in 2009. “We’ve got a lot of tennis activity – leagues and teams. As things settle down a bit here we hope to focus more on getting our community more involved in tennis.”
Mallard said the HOA is also planning a summer tennis, swim and sail camp, and looks forward to working together with the owners of the Chandlers Landing Marina. “The marina was sold off a long time ago. We don’t own that, somebody else owns that. But we hope to have a good relationship with them and we’re working toward that really well,” he said.
A large bronze plaque is also planned for the club wall, and as part of a fundraising campaign for the clubhouse, people can make donations to have their name put on the plaque. People can make donations from $1,000 to $25,000, and the more you donate, the larger and more prominent your name will appear on the plaque.
Mallard said owning the clubhouse as HOA members presents a financial advantage other restauranteurs didn’t have when they were operating the facility. “Restauranteurs were having a tough time making it here because this is a 20,000 square-foot facility with one small restaurant area which is hard to get to. But we as HOA members can put this in our dues because it’s our amenity. The whole community owns this, the whole community through our Board of Directors controls it.
“So what us owning this does is it gives us the flexibility to use this in a way that makes it the best amenity for our community.”
Martin said acting as both owners and operators of their clubhouse presents a unique opportunity not seen in a lot of similar scenarios.
“Based on what loan officers at the bank have told us and guys with loaning institutions who have been around a long time, this is really unique that an HOA has purchased and operated their own facility like this. By that I mean maybe they would own it but they would rent it to a company that runs clubs. We’re not only owning it, we’re going to run it ourselves. We’ve hired a manager and he’s going to hire a staff. It’s completely unique as far as anybody knows.”
Having the Chandlers Landing community own their top amenity is how it should be, Mallard said. “There’s been a lot of board meetings. We’ve had more board meetings than we’ve ever had for that extended period of time, and we probably needed more. We’ve done a lot of work on this, a lot of people really have. We’re really proud of what has been and what’s going to be further accomplished.”
Story and photos by Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News.
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