Drive past the nine-hole course this month and you will see torn-up turf around the double greens at holes 2 and 8, temporary fencing near the oak tree that has stood in the middle of the fourth fairway for decades, and equipment staged where the Tifeagle greens used to run smooth. It reads like a golf course getting a facelift. It is not quite that.

The renovation now underway at Hideaway Beach, led by Kipp Schulties Golf Design, started this past April 6, and a meaningful share of the scope has nothing to do with how the course plays. It has to do with how the community drains. That distinction, and a second one involving a tax bill that did not move even as two major capital projects ran at once, tells you more about how this 300-acre district actually works than any amenity list will.

The Course Was Never Just A Course

Gordon Lewis designed Hideaway's par-32, 1,844-yard executive course with water in play on nearly every hole, a quirky pair of double greens at 2 and 8, and that oak tree planted squarely in the fourth fairway. Members have played around those idiosyncrasies for years. What most have not had reason to think about is what happens to the water after it lands in those lagoons.

Hideaway's General Manager and Chief Operating Officer, Eamon Murphy, has explained that the course's lagoons filter drainage before it releases into the Gulf. That is the part of the Kipp Schulties scope that matters most this year. The firm, which also designed the Island Country Club here on Marco, the Vanderbilt Country Club in Naples, and the Fiddlesticks Country Club in Fort Myers, is not just reshaping bunkers. Part of the reconstruction is fixing the drainage issues tied to that Gulf outflow.

So when the course reopens, the more relevant change will not be a tighter approach shot into the ninth green. It will be a filtration system doing its job better than it has in years. A golf course renovation, in this case, is stormwater infrastructure wearing a scorecard.

The Clubhouse Grew A Floor

Three years after Hurricane Ian leveled the old sports facility, Hideaway finished a 34,000-square-foot Sports & Wellness Center on the same footprint. Most storm rebuilds replace what was lost. This one added something that was not there before.

The new building has a second floor, with quiet nooks built for phone calls, online meetings, or simply a book and a cup of coffee. It is a small addition, but it is a telling one. Rebuilding after a hurricane usually means restoring square footage. Here, the club used the opportunity to add a use case that did not previously exist inside the sports facility, a working, reading, quiet-hour layer stacked above the fitness and wellness spaces most members already knew.

If you have not been inside since the reopening, it is worth a look. The ground floor still functions as the gym and wellness hub it always was. The second floor is the part that did not exist before Ian.

Two Capital Projects, One Number That Didn't Move

Here is where the story gets more interesting than a renovation update usually is. Hideaway operates its own special tax district, created in 2004, layered on top of the standard Marco Island city tax. For Fiscal Year 2026, the district's board approved a rate of 1.600 mills, identical to FY25. On a hypothetical $3 million taxable value, that works out to $4,800 a year, unchanged from what a resident paid last year.

Compare that to the citywide picture. Marco Island's own millage rate for FY26 sits at 1.267, up 2.18 percent from 1.240 in FY25, as the city works through its own infrastructure needs, including the bridge and road paving projects tied to a $23 million bond referendum going before voters on August 18. The city's number moved. The district's number, funding a golf course rebuild and a 34,000-square-foot building addition in the same twelve-month window, did not.

That is not an accident of timing. It reflects how a self-taxing special district is supposed to work: a defined pool of money, dedicated to a defined 300 acres, managed by people who answer to the members who pay into it. Two capital projects landing in the same fiscal year is exactly the kind of moment that tests whether a district's math holds up. This year, it did.

The Same District Reaches Past The Gate

There is one more piece to this that residents do not always connect to their own tax bill. Marco Island's beaches are public, even where land access to them is not. Tigertail Beach, the public park at the island's northwest end, has been reshaped by hurricane after hurricane, and Hideaway's beach tax district has helped fund its repair more than once. The same self-funded mechanism that pays for the drainage work under the ninth green has also gone toward keeping a beach outside Hideaway's gate usable for the rest of the island.

It is easy to think of a private community's infrastructure spending as walled off, benefiting only the members behind the gate. The Tigertail history says otherwise. The gate closes. The tax district's reach does not stop there.

What This Means If You Live Here Right Now

Expect the course to stay in a partial-play state for a while longer as the Kipp Schulties work continues, with the payoff being functional, not just cosmetic, once it wraps. The Sports & Wellness Center is open now, second floor included, and it is worth spending an afternoon in that new upstairs space if you have not yet. And when the fall tax notice arrives, do not expect a surprise. The number funding both of this year's major projects has already been set, and it looks almost exactly like last year's.

None of this is the kind of thing a golf scorecard or a clubhouse tour tells you. It shows up in board minutes, GM statements, and a millage rate that either moves or doesn't. This year, in a season with more construction happening at once than Hideaway has seen in years, the number held. That is worth understanding, whether you are teeing off at 8 a.m. or reading the fine print on your November tax bill.

If you are comparing Hideaway's rhythm to other parts of the island, our earlier look at balancing golf, beach, and privacy here goes deeper into what daily life in the community actually feels like beyond this year's construction fencing.

Questions about how Hideaway Beach's ownership structure, tax district, or amenities compare to other gated communities on Marco Island? Cathy Rogers has spent decades inside these neighborhoods and is glad to talk through what you are seeing. Let's Connect: Request a Private Consultation