(Photo by Element Photography)
The Detroit, Mich. club was incorporated in 1919 during the influenza pandemic, and 100-plus years later is fighting through the COVID pandemic while upgrading its clubhouse that will now feature a second-story deck with panoramic views of both the Detroit and Windsor, Ontario skylines. “In a year of losses, it’s fun being part of a grand opening and a great time to be opening a club,” says new General Manager Matthew Prost, a former local restaurateur who is joining with new Executive Chef Tim Enfield to plan an upscale but casual supper-club concept for the main dining room and a Key West-style vibe for the 40-foot deck, which will be equipped with a full bar and 38-foot couch overlooking the water.
Bayview Yacht Club in Detroit, Mich. was incorporated in 1919 during the time of the influenza pandemic, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. Over its first 100 years, the private club on the city’s east side has held steady through low points that have included a devastating fire, the Great Depression and Great Recession and, so far, another global pandemic.
But the greatest existential threat to the club has been in plain sight for the last several decades, Crain’s Detroit Business reported, with the number of sailboats on Lake St. Clair and the Detroit River seeming to shrink every summer. Once a wildly popular pastime in metro Detroit, only a small group of sailing stalwarts now remain. And as sailing goes, so goes the Bayview Yacht Club.
“Sailboat racing in the city of Detroit has dwindled dramatically in the last 20 years,” Chuck Stormes, Bayview YC’s Commodore and a member of the club since 1983, told Crain’s Detroit Business. “Our major pipeline of membership came from the 300-some boats that raced on Lake St. Clair for years and years. [But] a big turnout these days is less than 100 boats.”
Club leadership is now hoping that the completion of more than $5 million of renovations at Bayview’s 86-year-old clubhouse will start a resurgence and help the club reverse a membership decline and the impact of other recent developments, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. The club’s signature Bayview Mackinac Race lost its title sponsor, Bell’s Brewery, after a decade, and then a century-old Queen City tugboat that the club was leasing to be used as a temporary clubhouse during renovations sank in March, leaving Bayview with just a tent to bring members together.
But Stormes believes the tide will turn for the organization once the new clubhouse welcomes back members in June, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. “If we can bring the people in and introduce them to the sport, we might be able to grow, and in that way, sort of lead a comeback of sailing in Detroit,” Stormes said.
In addition to being a shrine to the club’s storied sailing history, the renovated 13,000-sq. ft. clubhouse, which has been expanded by 2,700 square feet, will feature new amenities meant to grow Bayview’s niche while also luring outsiders, Crain’s Detroit Business reported.
The renovated clubhouse will boast a new grand entrance that will display trophies and plaques, a new second-story deck with panoramic views of the Detroit and Windsor (Ontario, Canada) skylines, and revamped bar and dining areas led by local restaurateur Matthew Prost, who was hired as the club’s General Manager in March, Crain’s Detroit Businessreported.
More than 85 percent of the clubhouse had to be demolished and rebuilt, and the cost swelled by $1 million due to rising water levels and flooding in the foundation, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. Around 40 percent of the project cost was funded by member donations and the rest by a loan through Flagstar Bancorp.
“The clubhouse was falling apart,” said Brad Kimmel, a Bayview member who oversaw the renovations done by Farmington Hills, Mich.-based architect Nordstrom Samson & Associates and Rochester-based general contractor Frank Rewold & Sons. “[The renovation] was born out of necessity, and number two, to cater to our next generation and their demands and wants.”
That meant evolving the club from a sailor’s hideaway to a place where members can drop in for a business meeting or relax with family, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. After the Great Recession, membership at private clubs and country clubs throughout the state contracted, and for many, including Bayview, membership never recovered. That’s forced many clubs to shed their “good old boys” aura and provide amenities that cater to families and a more diverse pool of potential customers.
Bayview currently has around 350 active full-time members, down more than 25 percent from its pre-recession peak, while most members are around 50 years old and up, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. The club, which operates as a 501(c)(7) nonprofit social club, does around $4 million in annual revenue. That declined somewhat last year due to the pandemic, but membership did not dip.
While the club is financially viable, Stormes told Crain’s Detroit Business, it needs more members to remain that way. The goal is to reach 400 in the next 18 months.
Sailing remains at the center of the club’s mission, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. Bayview YC has 10 boats spanning 20 feet and offers boat slips and storage. It also hosts a highly regarded junior sailing program, collegiate sailing, winter seminars and a variety of races, including international matches and the popular Bayview Mackinac Race, also known as the Port Huron to Mackinac Race.
Costs of a full active membership for ages 35 and up include a $2,500 admission fee, $200 monthly dues and a $150 quarterly minimum spend, Crain’s Detroit Business reported, and there are incentives for younger members. The admission fee is $100 for those ages 27 to 35, and monthly dues are less than half that of older members. A junior class membership has no monthly dues or spend minimums. Those ages 22 to 26 pay $171 annually, while 21 and under pay $81 annually.
“We need a definite new influx of young people who want to get into the sport of sailing, because the sport of sailing is dying,” Kimmel told Crain’s Detroit Business. “We’re really trying to promote the sport of sailing by offering the best amenities that cater to the next generation.”
The best way to strengthen its sailing program in the long run was to invest in other areas, the club’s management decided. To that end, Crain’s Detroit Business reported, the renovated clubhouse will be outfitted with half a dozen flex-space meeting and conference rooms with Wi-Fi, printing and other office amenities. Besides sailing, offerings include kayaking, golf leagues, winter hockey, bowling leagues, a book club, music and live events, as well as holiday parties, weddings and rentals for other special events.
Among the most notable changes—and perhaps the biggest draw for younger prospective members—will be the kitchen and bar, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. Prost is planning an upscale but casual supper-club concept for the club’s main indoor dining room, featuring comfort dishes such as steak and prime rib, with some twists.
Upstairs, Prost envisions a Key West-kind of vibe for the 40-foot deck, which will be equipped with a full bar and 38-foot couch overlooking the water. Tiki cocktails and shellfish appetizers will be offered, with a wood-fired outdoor pizza oven to handle a heartier meal.
“We’re driving that narrative to attract that newer, younger member,” Probst said.
Prost ran the bar and lounge at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin resorts for 12 years before coming to Detroit, where he managed restaurants at the Westin Book Cadillac Detroit and Royal Park Hotel in Rochester, Mich. as well as Social Kitchen and Bar in Birmingham, Mich., Crain’s Detroit Business reported. Before Bayview, he worked for more than three years as regional manager for Delaware North, managing food and beverage at Little Caesars Arena and the Hockeytown Café in downtown Detroit.
“Quite frankly, COVID was a devastating time to be an employee at the arena,” Prost told Crain’s Detroit Business. “It was a great opportunity to see what was out there, and Bayview came calling.”
Prost has hired Executive Chef Tim Enfield from The Henry Hotel in Dearborn, Mich., and is looking to hire 50 full- and part-time employees by the June opening of Bayview’s renovated clubhouse, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. But he is worried about finding enough people, given the ongoing shortage of workers in the hospitality industry. “All of my friends and colleagues in the industry have had a really hard time finding help,” he noted.
While renovations on the clubhouse wrap up, Bayview’s leadership is busy organizing the 97th iteration of the Bayview Mackinac Race, scheduled for July 24th, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. The Lake Huron race likely won’t be the big party it usually is, but the club hopes it will be more traditional than in 2020, when social gatherings were prohibited and the race moved forward with little fanfare.
Atwater Brewery took the place of Bell’s as the race’s main sponsor right before the pandemic began, Crain’s Detroit Business reported. The deal with Atwater, which extends through 2022, is smaller than the one with Bell’s, but financial terms were not disclosed. Bell’s Brewery founder Larry Bell and Bayview parted amicably and left open a chance for a partnership in the future.
“Our analysis on the return on investment as title sponsor didn’t make financial sense to us anymore. It was a huge outlay of cash,” Bell told Crain’s Detroit Business. “We have a friendly relationship [with the club and the event]. We enjoyed the heck out of it. We hope that at some time we can be their beer sponsor again. That hasn’t worked out yet.”
For now, Bayview Yacht Club is ready to say cheers to a new start, Crain’s Detroit Business reported.
“It’s a great time to be opening a club,” Prost said. “In a year of losses, it’s fun being part of a grand opening.”
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