Ocean Reef Club (Key Largo, Fla.) has always expected its team to deliver a world-class experience. The club’s leadership decided it was time to give its employees an environment that reflected that same standard.
For decades, staff dining and housing operated out of a one-story building that had outlived its usefulness. The structure was hard to clean, difficult to maintain, and never designed to support a workforce that can reach thirteen hundred people during peak season.
“It was an old slab of concrete,” says Executive Chef Jared Reardon. “It had character, but it was tired, and it was holding us back.”
Housing was stretched thin as well. The property had three hundred beds on site, which left many employees in a remote hotel twenty-five miles away.
“We had people living off property without cars,” Reardon says. “We were running a shuttle up and down a dark road all day and night. It was expensive and it wasn’t a great experience for anyone.”
Instead of patching together short-term fixes, the club committed to a long-term solution. The result is a four-story building that reimagines how employees live, eat, and build community.
A Building Designed Around Staff Life
The new hub sits on the footprint of the original structure but adds three floors of housing above it. The additional one hundred and fifty rooms bring the total number of on-site beds to four hundred and fifty. Rooms are intentionally modest. The goal is to encourage employees to use the shared spaces on the first floor and create a stronger sense of community.
The entire ground level is dedicated to employees. Half of the floor is a bright dining hall and half is a social and recreation space modeled after contemporary workplace environments. Reardon often sees staff in sweatpants and t-shirts using the area as a living room between shifts.
“People actually want to be there,” he says. “They come down and hang out. They meet people they never would have met before. It feels like a real community now.”
This is a building designed exclusively for staff. Members do not have access to it. That clarity of purpose mattered when leadership made the case for a thirty-million-dollar investment.
“The membership approved it with zero hesitation,” Reardon says. “They know the staff by name. They know their families. Supporting this project aligns with the values they expect us to live by.”
Elevating the Everyday
The old cafeteria served the basics. The new dining program aims higher. Staff choose from a full hot station, a build-your-own-sandwich station, and an expansive salad bar that rivals the club’s member dining outlets. Everything costs the same and employees pay only half.
“It is a seven-dollar meal, and the club covers fifty percent,” Reardon says. “So for three dollars and fifty cents, they can get a real lunch. And it is the same product we use for our members. There is no second tier.”
The salad bar alone requires up to four people each day. Nothing is canned. Everything is fresh. Employees who work in fitness and wellness, along with clinical staff from the club’s health center, eat there daily.
“They probably eat healthier than anyone on property,” Reardon says. “We had to match that.”
The shift required more staffing and more intention, but leadership supported the increase. “Food is one of the biggest pieces of morale,” says Reardon. “When you eat something good after a long day, you feel valued. For some people, this is more important than the paycheck. It is immediate. It is real.”
Strengthening Culture by Design
The hub has become the place where employees from every corner of the operation naturally meet. Golf staff sit with culinary staff. Finance joins wellness. Housekeeping shares lunch with recreation.
“You start breaking down the walls between departments,” says Reardon. “People talk to each other. They realize how their jobs connect. It makes the whole place run better.”
The building has also changed how employees see their own career paths. Staff who begin in entry-level roles can now explore the broader operation simply by sharing meals and conversations.
“Someone might start as a dishwasher and end up discovering they want to work in communications or fitness,” Reardon says. “You cannot do that if people never interact.”
The impact is already visible. Daily traffic through the hub increases each week, and the club added a front-of-house manager to support the growing activity. Feedback flows quickly, and the team adjusts in real time.
A Clear Signal of What the Club Stands For
Ocean Reef’s new employee hub is a statement. The club chose to invest in its staff with the same care and seriousness it invests in its member experience. The result is a space that brings people together, supports their daily lives, and reinforces the culture the club is known for.
“It shows we mean it when we say people matter here,” Reardon says. “This has changed how our staff live and how they feel when they walk into work. And that changes
