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By Steve Eubanks
Blue Star Resorts & Golf in Phoenix, Arizona, has greatly expanded its services through non-traditional, cross-club initiatives like zip-lining tours and cooking classes broadcast in high definition
When the wide screen sprang to life in glowing 8.3-megapixels, the images from the other side seemed to fight the mind. A group of seniors, or, as the folks who run their clubs insist on calling them, “active lifestyle members”—as if this bunch had been sitting in chairs before shedding their sedentary ways after retirement—took up positions behind their tables, their silver locks and golden tans shining in 4K ultra-high-definition. They stared back at a screen of their own, old pros ready for another interactive engagement with others of their kind.
This time it was a cooking class. A chef from Wickenburg Ranch Golf and Social Club in Arizona, part of a growing portfolio of clubs operated by Blue Star Golf & Resort management out of Scottsdale, engaged an audience at his own club while simultaneously looping in members from other Blue Star clubs in Arizona, Florida, Lake Tahoe, Oahu and North Carolina.
“It’s through something we call ‘Club Connect,’” says Blue Star founder and CEO Tim Steckbeck. “Think of it like a sophisticated version of Skype but with large HD screens and lots of interaction. The chef has a screen in front of him and can see all the other rooms. If someone at one of the other clubs has a question, he can see them and engage with them and everyone else can see them as well. Then, at the end of the cooking class, as the chef in Arizona serves the meal at his club, the chefs at the other clubs are serving it at all the sites. They’re having this interactive experience, sharing the same meal, even though they could be hundreds or thousands of miles apart.
“We do the same thing with wine tastings and with various speakers,” Steckbeck explains. “It’s remarkable how well received it’s been and how quickly the members embraced the technology. To them, they’re not looking at a screen—they’re engaging in a shared experience with like-minded people from all over the country.”
This is just one of several cross-club initiatives that Steckbeck and Blue Star have created to expand their services. “We offer zip-lining tours,” Steckbeck continues. “We also have hiking tours of the Grand Canyon and special pricing for Viking River Cruises. Most of our trips sell out in about 15 minutes.”
These non-traditional activities not only expand the interaction Blue Star members have with each other, they also expand the community of members beyond a single club. Blue Star has an event called the Good Life Games, for example, a cross-club championship of sorts where teams complete in golf, tennis and swimming. Each Blue Star club holds qualifiers for members to earn spots on their respective teams. “We held [the championship] in Palm Springs one year and it was one of the best events we had,” Steckbeck recalls. “Members not only worked very hard to try to make the Good Life Games, those who didn’t still came out and rooted for their clubs.”
None of these activities bubbled up out of the ground like an artesian well. They were all meticulously planned and executed by a staff with decades of experience in both golf and hospitality. Steckbeck, himself, spent 18 years with Starwood Hotels, working in eight different countries.
“When I landed back in the states, I worked at The Phoenician (Resort and Spa in Arizona). While I was there I got to know the Shea family of Shea Homes. They convinced me to come (with them) because they said they had these great, high-end golf clubs with clubhouses and amenities— everything but hotel rooms—and they were going to grow to 50 of those within the next 10 years. Of course, that was back in 2004 and 2005, the crazy years. They needed somebody to manage the clubs and set the hospitality standards. That became the genesis of Blue Star.”
The company became independent soon after, buying the golf assets of Interwest Capital and expanding beyond just Shea properties. They currently manage 11 golf clubs with consulting contracts for several others.
Shea Homes still provides the bulk of Blue Star’s business, but they work with other developments like Shaeffer’s Mill located between Truckee, California, and Lake Tahoe, and Bear Lake in Cashiers, North Carolina.
“The (Shea) family has been very supportive,” Steckbeck notes. “In markets they don’t plan to enter and in communities that do not directly compete with them, they’ve told us to go for it. Now, if there was a Del Webb community nearby, we’d have to pass on it because that would be a direct Shea competitor. But other than that, we couldn’t have a better working relationship.”
Members who enjoy the interactive cooking classes don’t know the inner workings of Blue Star’s contracts and don’t care. All that matters is they’re getting an experience that they can’t find anywhere else.
“What sets us apart is that we’ve worked in the active lifestyle community market since the beginning. We understand that segment better than anybody in the country,” Steckbeck says. “We understand what those members want to do and what they don’t want to do. Then we offer them a lot of wonderful options.”
Steve Eubanks is an Atlanta-based freelance writer and New York Times bestselling author.