A group of private backers led by Key Biscayne residents wants to spend about $80 million in private money to tear up Crandon Park's golf course and tennis complex and rebuild both from scratch.

The plan, first reported by the Miami Herald, calls for hiring Jack Nicklaus's design firm to create a new course elevated several feet above the current grade to guard against storm surge. The existing 37 tennis courts, including the 14,000-seat stadium that hosted the Miami Open before it moved to Hard Rock Stadium in 2019, would be replaced with 27 tennis courts plus eight courts each for pickleball and padel.

Organizer Andres Gaviria, a Key Biscayne resident and avid golfer, told the Herald the upgraded park would stay open to the public.

"What we want to do is build a magnificent course for the public," Gaviria said. "This is going to be a gift."

Gaviria and fellow organizer Eugene Stearns, a Key Biscayne attorney, have been meeting with county officials and potential donors for several years. Nicklaus has already delivered a preliminary course design.

Former Key Biscayne Mayor Mike Davey, who left office in 2022, said he met with Nicklaus about the proposal while still in office.

The plan also includes a three-story clubhouse with a rooftop observation deck offering ocean views, a restaurant, bar, locker rooms and verandas overlooking the course and courts. A separate smaller clubhouse would anchor the consolidated racquet-sports area.

Environmental pitch

Stearns framed the rebuild as an environmental improvement. The redesign would reduce chemical and fertilizer runoff into Biscayne Bay by elevating the course and reworking its drainage, according to the Herald.

Stearns told the newspaper the current course is an "environmental disaster" because its ponds and lakes drain directly into the bay.

Funding and public access

The donors' identities have not been disclosed. Gaviria and Stearns declined to name their backers.

Multiple sources told the Herald the group has courted Ken Griffin, founder and CEO of Citadel, who owns property in Miami. Griffin on Thursday, Oct. 1, announced a $3 billion gift to Carnegie Mellon University, including $2 billion for a new campus in Miami's Wynwood neighborhood. He has not publicly confirmed any involvement with the Crandon effort.

Miami-Dade County Commissioner Raquel Regalado, whose District 7 includes Key Biscayne, told the Herald the course would remain accessible to the public.

"We're not going to create any sort of benefit for the donors. Anybody can play," Regalado said.

The plan would likely introduce a Crandon-specific patron card priced higher than the county's existing $400-a-year card, which gives holders early access to some tee times. Miami-Dade would continue managing the golf facility and racquet center, though a private entity would handle course maintenance funded by revenue from the upgraded course.

History of outside interest

The park is no stranger to major private proposals.

In 2014, Donald Trump proposed investing $10 million in the course in exchange for a 99-year agreement to manage and operate it. The proposal faced opposition from county officials, and then-Miami-Dade County Commission Chairman Jean Monestime recommended rejecting it in 2015. Trump withdrew the proposal before the commission voted on it.

Crandon Golf at Key Biscayne is an 18-hole, par-72 public course established in 1972.

The $80 million proposal remains in the planning stage and has not been formally submitted to Miami-Dade County. No public hearing or vote has been scheduled.