New MCA/TMCC Lease Agreement + Details

As always, if anything is incorrect here please let us know and we will correct it.

An MCA Homeowner has obtained and shared images of the new MCA/TMCC lease through the MCA’s Records Inspection Policy. MCA won’t provide a PDF of the documents so we received cell phone pictures of the lease and we reproduced a facsimile of the lease (essentially typed it out) so that is legible, understandable and searchable. We believe it is an accurate copy of the text and most of the formatting. Here is a link to a copy of the previous 2021-2024 lease we posted in May: LINK.

MCA has never expressed concerns with sharing MCA documents with MCA Homeowners before but the photographed lease includes the following text at the top of each page which we do not believe is a part of the actual lease contract:
DISCLAIMER: These official records are private corporate documents that you are given to access to, they are not intended to be shared with the public, on any social media platform or on any website other than the official website of the Meadows.
We have not included that text in the facsimile below.

To the best of our knowledge this document is not available on the MCA website, which is a public website and includes the MCA’s governing documents. While the public does not have access to obtain the lease documents from the MCA, we are not aware of any restrictions on their use when legally obtained. There are certainly no trade secrets in it. It is provided to MCA Homeowners for information and transparency purposes so our 628 subscribers don’t have to individually solicit and obtain the document from the MCA.

Large Maintenance (over $10,000) of all facilities remains the responsibility of MCA. See Sections 9(4), 9(7) and 9(9). So don’t believe the Chair when they tell you that TMCC will pay for major golf course work. MCA paid for the work done to the Meadows/Members course a few years ago and will have to pay for work on the Highlands. TMCC will continue to receive all the benefits of MCA Homeowner spending on the facilities.

These are the major changes to the lease we have noted:

Term: Only for 16 months which is a welcome change from the previous 3-year terms. BUT this new language is also included in Section 3: “The parties hereto agree to reach executed agreement by August 1, 2025 on a lease extension of a term and conditions to be defined and also hereto agree to participate in a strategic planning process with key management personnel and Board members of each organization.”

An indication of a strategic planning process is good, but it only involves management and the Boards, with zero new input and zero professional input. MCA needs to do its own strategic planning process WITH expert help AND community input as it may well result in an approach for managing its sport complex assets in a way that does not include TMCC managing it.
UPDATE: Board minutes from a August 19 Special meeting (posted well into November) indicate that the MCA/TMCC Strategic Group had met twice at that time.

Lease Fee: Unfortunately, smoke and mirrors here. The annual lease fee is up from $10/year to $65,000/per year (Section 4 (B)). While still an insufficient annual lease fee on $10 million of assets it would seem like a move in the right direction. But we also noted that this text was dropped from Section 5: “The Club shall pay the MCA’s annual assessment by the due date.” That means TMCC is no longer paying an estimated $50,000 MCA assessment to MCA. So effectively the annual fee has gone from $10/year to $15,000/year. Still not remotely representative of a fair lease fee on $10 million of assets. Really disappointing to see that type of slight of hand done by the MCA Board with MCA Homeowners.
(UPDATE: MCA Assessment of leased properties calculated at $48,407 based on taxable value of $8,537,400 and MCA millage rate of $5.67 per $1,000)

Property taxes and most insurance now paid by MCA. These were changes to Sections 5 and 17. This had been previously communicated (and actually implemented contrary to the previous lease which was then in effect). There are some benefits to MCA with this arrangement (mostly ensuring they are paid up and MCA would be the beneficiary of insurance proceeds). But we have also written numerous times about how the MCA Chair uses this administrative change to misleadingly say that the Renaissance Access Fee/subsidy has gone down from $600,000 to approx $160,000. We first posted about it in Feb 2024:

Cash management. TMCC can now make cash management arrangements with ICON (this MAY be just to facilitate ICON paying staff and being reimbursed) . It continues to be the case that TMCC can borrow, but only with the permission of MCA, and TMCC can make “intra club cash management arrangements” with their members. (Section 15(C))

Tennis facility maintenance is the responsibility of TMCC (not previously specified) (Section 9(5))

Pickleball courts (both 2 existing and 8 under construction) now remain under the control of MCA, but TMCC will manage court reservations, lessons, etc. (Section 9(1))

Summary: Ignoring the administrative change on who pays the property taxes and insurance, the big changes are a 16 month term is good (only 9 months to the renegotiation deadline) and a commitment to a strategic review is good.

BUT: There is only 1 year for the “strategic review”, 3 months are gone, and we have not heard any mention of this project. That is probably because they are keeping the people involved a VERY CLOSED SHOP: Only existing managers and Board members. How can that possibly produce something different that will benefit MCA Homeowners. At the October 30th MCA Board meeting the Treasurer said something to the effect of “we’ve been wracking our brains and haven’t been able to figure it out”. GET MORE PEOPLE INVOLVED.

Per another director “we have a country club building that is in total disrepair, we have limited insurance coverage, we have some big decisions that have to be made in the next couple of months that are going to determine the fate of the community. We need time to reflect and study this.”

Having a short lease term is only valuable if the time is spent well.
Please be transparent with the Community.
Lets all understand and agree on the problems.
Engage the Community for help. There are a lot of skilled people out there.
Before we spend millions of $ on anything ENGAGE INDEPENDENT EXPERTS.