New amenities enrich the Watersound Club® experience
Written By Steve Bornhoft
Originally published by Rowland Publishing in Watersound Lifestyle
Patrick Murphy recalls the early days of the WaterColor community as if they were another era in the evolution of The St. Joe Company as a developer and hospitality business. But now, 25 years later, the Watersound Camp Creek community is unfolding in much the same way that WaterColor community did.
“In the old days,” said Murphy, who is The St. Joe Company’s senior vice president of hospitality, “couples would stay at the WaterColor Inn once or twice, then they would rent a home with the whole family and then they bought.”
The advent of the Camp Creek Inn and clubhouse, which opened in July 2023, makes the same “try before you buy” opportunity possible at St. Joe’s latest South Walton residential development.
“A lot of people who are thinking about moving to the area will want to stay at the Inn and experience the Club lifestyle when they are considering options,” Murphy said. “I believe the Inn and Clubhouse provide an ideal experience for Members and those considering joining the Club.”
For established Club Members, the arrival of the 75-room Camp Creek Inn and the adjoining collection of Watersound Club amenities has been a welcome development. It has presented them with new dining venues, tennis and pickleball courts, resort pools and a state-of-the-art fitness facility.
“We were growing the Club and knew we were missing a campus-style club atmosphere that would appeal to entire families,” Murphy said. “We had the Watersound Beach Club amenities with great pools, a Gulf-front location and good food and beverages. We had golf, tennis and a clubhouse at Shark’s Tooth and golf at the Camp Creek property. But we didn’t have one location where mom and dad could play golf or racquet sports, work out, swim and go to a restaurant. We wanted a one-stop shop.”
Members and their guests enjoy amenities galore at Camp Creek, including the wellness center, restaurants and, of course, the Member clubhouse.
The wellness center was the starting point when planners began thinking about what has become the Camp Creek campus. Once the wellness component was addressed, other amenities fell in line.
“Then we asked ourselves how we could tie all these elements together,” Murphy said.
A clubhouse and inn that might be used jointly by Members and visitors emerged as the answer to that question.
“When we were designing what we call the Inn, we determined that we wanted a member clubhouse with guest rooms above it versus designing a hotel,” Murphy said.
Given the Inn’s location next to the Camp Creek Golf Course, its ground floor features a pro shop called the Outfitter Shop and men’s and women’s locker rooms.
It also features the Club Room, which is appropriate to small groups; a conference room; an open space comparable to a hotel lobby that functions as a Member gathering area; and two restaurants.
Bar and lounge 1936 offers casual dining, while the upscale ANR restaurant offers fine-dining options born of the South.
The dining venues’ names are nods to The St. Joe Company’s past. The St. Joe Paper Co. was established in 1936, and its Apalachicola Northern Railroad (ANR) carried product from Port St. Joe north toward Tallahassee and an intersection with an east-west line. On the walls of the Club Room are maps from St. Joe archives dating to the 1930s and 1940s.
St. Joe retained the Kuo Dietrich Chi architectural firm in Atlanta for the Camp Creek Inn project. For the firm, clubhouses are something of a specialty. It won a second-place award in 2023 from Golf Inc. for its clubhouse project at the Old Toccoa Farm golf club in Mineral Bluff, Georgia. A year earlier, it earned first-place honors for a clubhouse at Springdale Resort in North Carolina.
“We told the architect that we wanted Camp Creek Inn to have a New Orleans vibe to it,” Murphy said. “After Katrina, a lot of folks from Louisiana relocated here, and our area has adopted a Cajun-Creole feel. We liked the style developed by the famous Louisiana architect A. Hays Town.”
Feedback from guests and Club Members about the Camp Creek campus has been overwhelmingly positive, both as to accommodations and amenities.
“Rarely do you have a property with relatively few rooms that has so many amenities,” Murphy said. “They were built for Members, but Camp Creek Inn guests are entitled to use them as ‘Members for a stay,’ and there are more amenities here than you can get anywhere else in a setting like ours.”
Watersound Club Members looking to host get-togethers or reunions like having the Camp Creek Inn in the neighborhood. Rather than putting up guests in their homes, their friends and relatives can opt for a room at the Inn.
“Club Members have been among our better customers,” Murphy said. “And referrals from membership have been very strong.”