Portola Country Club is a 499-unit manufactured home park designed for 55 and over senior living. It is a gated community located on fee land close to the Whitewater River on Portola Avenue in Palm Desert. This is a very central location, near the shopping and restaurants on El Paseo and handy for the Westfield Shopping Mall. The developer was BJ Mc Morrow, who built the project out in two phases. Phase 1 was started in 1973 and Phase 2 in 1979.

The two and three bedroom homes are double and triple wide modular units ranging in size from 1,200 to 2,200 square feet. Current prices are in the $120,000 to $250,000 range and the resale market is very strong. The ratio of full time to part time residents is roughly 50/50. The part time owners begin arriving in October and stay through April, when they start to leave.

Portola Country Club residents enjoy unlimited free play on an 18-hole par 3 golf course. The course is anchored by a beautiful clubhouse complete with card room, library, exercise room, bar, café, and spectacular views of the mountains, golf course and lakes. Three swimming pools, two tennis courts, bocce ball courts, and an RV lot round out the amenities.

The clubhouse is the central focus of the homeowners’ busy calendar of social events and community activities. This includes a choral group, which puts on a production every year. Bingo is a weekly event and utilizes the club’s own bingo equipment. The annual golf tournament takes the form of a western party turkey shoot. A New Homeowners Committee welcomes newcomers to the club with a coffee gathering. The club’s own in-house TV channel keeps all residents reminded of upcoming events and up to date with community news.

A seven-member board of directors runs Portola Country Club. The directors are elected for two and three year terms. Active groups of volunteers support the Board. An outstanding characteristic of the operation is the meticulous attention paid to club maintenance.

Every aspect of ongoing maintenance is reduced to a precise and regular schedule. This attention to detail, aside from keeping the club looking exceptionally sharp, has resulted in a high standard of forward financial planning and healthy reserves for replacement items. Current improvement projects include the installation of new dry wells, the renovation of the pool decks, and the expansion of the RV lot.

Association dues are a very competitive $205 per month and reflect the efforts made by the Board and Management to run an efficient operation and keep costs under control. In particular, all possible steps taken to minimize utility costs.

Desert Resort Management provides management services. The onsite manager is Diane Lynn. Diane, who has been in association management for 17 years, truly enjoys being at Portola Country Club. Says Diane, "There is such incredible pride of ownership here. With hard working volunteers and the support of the individual owners, the club really is self-run by its members and is a great success."