Drive past The Club at Mediterra this month and the new Sports & Lifestyle Center looks done. The shell is up, the roofline is set, and from Corso Mediterra Circle it reads like a finished building waiting for its ribbon cutting. It isn't. What you're seeing is vertical completion, the structural milestone that comes before interior buildout, and the gap between that milestone and an actual grand opening is the piece of information most members don't have yet.
The project carries a board-reported price tag of $38 million, designed by David Corban Architects and built by BUILD. Phase 1, the fitness and wellness half of the building, is targeting a summer 2027 completion. The full two-phase program, which adds a casual restaurant, bar, and resort-style pool on the footprint of the current sports facility, is tracking toward summer 2028. That's not one construction season. It's three.
The Building You're Driving Past Isn't The One You'll Use Yet
Here's what Phase 1 actually contains once it opens: a 5,600-square-foot fitness center, dedicated Pilates, spin, and yoga studios, expanded locker rooms with plunge pools and infrared saunas, and an enlarged spa. That's the wellness half of the program, and it's the part currently standing with a roof on it.
Phase 2 doesn't start until Phase 1 is occupied. Once members move their workouts, spa visits, and locker routines into the new building, the club plans to demolish the existing sports facility, the one currently doing that job, and replace it with roughly 6,000 square feet of casual dining, a bar, and a resort-style pool, plus expanded lockers and space held for future racquet use. Outdoor elements across both phases include a bocce garden, additional fitness terraces, and space overlooking the grand lawn. Published accounts describe the combined project at more than 30,000 square feet, though the club hasn't released one surveyed total for the finished building.
That sequencing is the detail worth sitting with. The old sports facility stays in service specifically because the new one isn't ready to replace it yet. Nobody loses a locker room, a spin class, or a sauna in the meantime. The tradeoff is patience, not disruption.
What Hasn't Skipped a Beat This Season
Here's the part that doesn't show up in the construction photos: none of it touches the parts of daily club life members actually spend time in outside the gym.
The Grille Room, with its bleached paneling and Chef's Table setup, is running its normal service. The Tavern, the casual spot that's been serving brick-oven pizza and cold beer by the 19th hole since 2008, is open, and so is the Tavern Terrace that was expanded years ago specifically to handle overflow seating near the course. The Bocce Bar and its four courts, home to three active leagues and more than 600 participating members, haven't moved. Tennis, with eight Har-Tru courts including a stadium court, and the seven pickleball courts, sit outside the construction footprint entirely.
Golf sits on its own separate calendar. Earlier this year, the club also began restoration and improvement work on both Fazio courses, led by original course architect Tom Fazio and his team, a project running independently of the Sports & Lifestyle Center rather than waiting on it. Two capital projects, one clock each. If your mental model of this season is "the club is under construction," the more accurate version is "two projects are underway on a 1,700-acre property, on two different timelines, while everything else operates on its normal calendar."
A Quick Reference For This Season
| Amenity | Status right now | What changes and when |
|---|---|---|
| Tavern, Tavern Terrace, Grille Room | Open, normal service | No planned changes |
| Bocce Garden and Bocce Bar | Open, 3 active leagues | Unaffected by current phase |
| Tennis (8 Har-Tru courts) | Open | Unaffected by current phase |
| Pickleball (7 courts) | Open | Unaffected by current phase |
| Fazio North and South courses | Open for play | Restoration work began earlier this year, running on its own separate timeline |
| Existing sports facility (gym, spa, lockers) | Open, in daily use | Scheduled for demolition after Phase 1 opens |
| New Sports & Lifestyle Center, Phase 1 | Vertical complete, interior buildout ahead | Targeting summer 2027 |
| New Sports & Lifestyle Center, Phase 2 | Not yet started | Targeting summer 2028, begins after Phase 1 opens |
The Logic Behind The Wait
It would have been faster, on paper, to demolish the old sports facility now and build both phases at once. The club didn't choose that path. By finishing Phase 1 first and holding the existing gym, spa, and locker rooms in service until the new ones are ready, the project avoids a period where members have no fitness or wellness space on property at all. One club representative described watching the shell rise month over month as proof of the planning behind it. The planning shows up less in the architecture than in the order of operations.
For members, that means the next twelve months look less like a construction zone and more like a waiting room with a good view. The building will keep visibly changing between now and next summer, but the amenities that fill most of a typical week, golf, bocce, tennis, pickleball, and the Grille Room, keep running exactly as they have.
Living With It This Season
If your Mediterra routine runs through the Tavern Terrace on a Friday evening or a bocce league on a Wednesday night, this fall and winter look identical to last year's. If it runs through the gym or the spa, the current facility is still the one you're using, and it will be until Phase 1 is finished and ready to take over.
The most useful thing to do with a three-summer timeline is stop checking the construction site for signs of an early finish and start planning around the two dates that matter: summer 2027 for the new fitness and wellness building, and summer 2028 for the restaurant, bar, and pool that follow once the old sports facility comes down. Everything in between is normal club life happening next to a job site, not around one.
Mediterra's broader amenity math still holds regardless of the calendar. The community sits on close to 1,700 acres with two Fazio courses, a private Beach Club on the Gulf, and roughly 950 residences sharing all of it. A new building under construction changes what the property will look like in 2028. It doesn't change what a Tuesday looks like here in 2026.
If you're weighing what a home in Mediterra actually delivers day to day, from the golf calendar to the club's dining rooms to what's genuinely finished versus what's still framed lumber, Ryan Chiodo and the Chiodo Group track these details as part of representing buyers and sellers across Naples and Collier County. Reach out for a current read on what's available in Mediterra right now, or start with an Instant Home Valuation if you're weighing a move of your own.
