Town & Country Club At A Glance
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Just about every private club has confronted “renovation reality” this decade. But few have faced as much to fix, with as much urgency, as Town & Country Club in Saint Paul, Minn.
Town & Country is Minnesota’s oldest private club (founded in 1888), and the fifth oldest in the U.S. Its golf course, built in 1893, ranks second only to Long Island’s Shinnecock Hills for continuous play in the same location. And as the new millennium began, its sprawling clubhouse, built in 1956, didn’t exactly represent a quantum leap into the modern age.
Town & Country’s 50-year-old clubhouse and 113-yearold course stand to get more direct attention in due time—but they’ve already been energized by the success of the first phase of the club’s overall renovation vision.
“Like the rest of the hospitality business, we were facing a real crisis, especially after 9/11,” recalls Controller Leo Nagel. “We actually had about 25 more members then than we do now [505], but the average age was close to 60.When we took a closer look at the demographics, we were surprised to find that over 225 of the members were of retirement age [65] or older.”
After arriving as the club’s new General Manager, Vincent Tracy moved forward with the Board’s vision for a two phase renovation. That membership analysis, Nagel adds, showed that things only stood to get worse as more of the existing group moved to retirement areas or passed away. The club’s Board authorized successful programs to begin to attract younger members and legacy applicants through discounted initiation fees and other specials. But still, the need to address the facilities issue loomed as darkly as some of the outdated decor.
Uncovering Hidden Assets
Fortunately, Town & Country had several things going for it underneath its aging facade. First and foremost was its hilly, scenic golf course, lovingly and cost-effectively improved over the years by a remarkably resourceful grounds crew headed by Turfgrass Director Bill Larson. In his 17 years at the club, Larson has not only directed restorations of virtually all tees and bunkers, but also reclaimed natural creeks and ponds on the property, and highlighted everything with colorful landscaping throughout.
“The membership has been open to letting us do a lot of things here in-house,” Larson says. “This is the granddaddy of all Minnesota courses, with some trees that are 200 years old. The terrain lets us design the course around the existing wildlife and landscape. It’s totally changed my view of how to maintain a golf course.”
Even the Town & Country clubhouse, while becoming outdated, still maintained a huge advantage through its location by being situated on the banks of the Mississippi and offering priceless views of not only the river, but the striking skyline of Minneapolis in the distance.
Most of all, Town & Country had a rich history of family-friendliness to build on. The club has had a long tradition of opening its grounds to the public for some of the best and most memorable wintertime sledding and cross-country skiing in the area. Also, it is renowned for an elaborate outdoor Halloween event—complete with an actual Headless Horseman—that it holds each fall for 650 members and guests.
Combining the new pool and building with an already well-established tennis program led by Head Pro Michelle Olson (above left) has created a new central gathering point at Town & Country (the club’s four clay courts were relocated to behind the new structure).
With these underlying strengths, a newly arrived General Manager, Vincent Tracy, set out to work with the club’s Board on how to best approach a physical overhaul of the property.
“Full renovation, including a new clubhouse, was estimated at $19 million,” Tracy recalls. “By this point we had begun to turn the corner by attracting new, younger members, and had a better influx of steady dues revenues and some decent cash reserves. But we still felt it made more sense to do things in stages. And we felt we could make our clubhouse and course last a little longer if we first did more to build on the clear advantages we had in appealing to families.”
Pooling Their Resources
After Tracy and the club’s Board decided to pursue their vision for enhancing Town & Country in phases, the question of which area to attack first became pretty easy to answer. The most obvious need was to upgrade the club’s 50-year-old pool, which was located between the clubhouse and the river at the time. As plans for a new pool were studied, the choice was made to relocate it to a more central location on the property. Combining it with the already strong tennis program would make it possible to bring all aspects of the club’s life together and enhance its family atmosphere.
Even without a full-blown driving range, Head Pro Mike King (above right) and his staff have made a concerted effort to connect with golfers, which has led to big boosts in pro shop sales, lessons, league play, and junior golf participation.
Offering resounding proof that this was the right strategy, record crowds came to this past Memorial Day’s grand opening of Town & Country’s new pool and multi-purpose recreational building, which includes a new kitchen and screened-in restaurant, in addition to new tennis and pool shops and locker rooms. The club’s four clay courts were repositioned to the other side of the new building.
Begun last fall, the $3.8 million project was completed on time and $100,000 under budget, thanks to its clear focus and tight, day-to-day communication and controls between the club and its outside architect and contractor.
And from members’ perspectives, this approach to the renovation was easier to swallow, not only because it was smaller and could be conducted largely in the off-season, but also because the assessment hit ($100/month) was less painful.
“From all aspects, it’s been a home run,” says Tracy. “The new building and pool area is now the central gathering point for club activity. Even golfers drive their carts over after their rounds to eat at the new restaurant or join members who are swimming or playing tennis. Our foodservice revenues are running $10,000 ahead of budget this summer, largely because of the attraction of this new location, which is causing more people to eat lunch at the new restaurant.”
The restaurant, though, isn’t limited to typical poolside fare.Town & Country’s Executive Chef, John Kain, didn’t hold back when establishing its menu, which also includes dinner entrees such as grilled Atlantic salmon and Ribeye steak that command full dining-room prices.
Director of Membership/HR Faith Loggers-Jamnik sees no letup in inquiries.
The clear appeal and success of the first phase has alr
eady sent a ripple effect through all aspects of the club’s activities. Director of Catering Jodie Whaley reports that this year’s pace for weddings is nearly double last year’s, and there are already 30 nuptials on the books for 2007. A huge part of the renewed appeal is a newly created reception area adjacent to the clubhouse, where the old pool was grassed over. Now it’s an ideal spot for photos.
Meanwhile, Director of Membership/HR Faith Loggers-Jamnik reports that while she might have expected to see the momentum spurred by initiation-fee specials to subside by this point, that hasn’t been the case.
Director of Catering Jodie Whaley is running out of wedding dates.
“The new pool has definitely generated a lot of interest in the community,” she reports. “Guests who are brought here to use it are continuing to inquire about membership. Things aren’t slowing down at all and the numbers continue to look pretty good.”
Even on the golf side, Head Pro Mike King says that the overall good feelings created by the first phase of the renovation have contributed to strong numbers for his side of the operation.
“Our pro shop sales for this year alone are up 24 percent from last year,” King says, “We’re getting more people interested in our juniors program, our nine-hole league, and instruction, even though we’re landlocked and don’t have a full-blown driving range. All of the increased [pool and wedding] activity certainly doesn’t hurt in letting people see what we have for golf, too.”
Executive Chef John Kain (above left) didn’t skimp on the menu for his new poolside kitchen/restaurant, which is producing strong returns.
All of this is expected to make it easier to generate momentum and dollars, whether through additional assessments or increased revenues, for the remaining renovations at Town & Country.
“Planning for Phase 2 is underway,” says Tracy. “It includes a new [grounds] maintenance building, new halfway house to store golf carts and house our caddies, some tweaking of golf holes—and eventually a new clubhouse.We would hope to be able to do all of this within five to 10 years.”
And why does Tracy think there’s more than a fighting chance these remaining projects could be completed as successfully as the first one? Simply because a scale model of an entire campus renovation still sits in the clubhouse lobby.
“I’ve often heard from other GMs—and seen it to be true in other clubs where I’ve worked—that displaying a full model of your renovation plan can be the kiss of death, because it just gives members more opportunity to complain about the costs and shoot it all down before it starts,” Tracy says. “But I think we’re still on track because our model’s still there—and everyone’s still excited when they stop to look at it.” C&RB
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