The state is helping the private, 144-year-old organization pay for renovations through a $300,000 loan and $100,000 grant because the club is keeping up with a plan to repay back taxes. Renovations will include refinishing original oak floors, repairing stucco walls, and rewiring antique chandeliers with LED lighting.

The state is helping to pay for renovations to The Hartford (Conn.) Club as the 144-year-old private organization looks to attract new members and expand its bookings for weddings and other outside events, the Hartford Courant reported.

At the same time, the club also must dig out from debt: $312,000 in back taxes, mostly for personal property taxes not paid for years to the city, the Courant reported.

A spokesman for the state Department of Economic and Community Development said The Hartford Club qualified for a $300,000 loan and a $100,000 matching grant because the club is keeping up with a plan to repay the back taxes to the city and is up to date on its current tax payments, the Courant reported.

In June, the club reached the repayment agreement with the city after it appeared tax liens filed by the city could be sold in an auction, Nancy Raich, the city’s tax collector, said.

In 2015, the club faced foreclosure on its Prospect Street building and almost certain demise of the club. A group of about 50 members and two local philanthropists, Alan Lazowski and Henry Zachs raised over $1 million to take over an existing mortgage, the Courant reported.

Scott Trenholm, the club’s president, said The Hartford Club is turning a corner in its comeback and is confident the institution will be able to stay on track in making its tax payments. The renovations will be crucial to those efforts by building member rolls and increasing its outside event business, the Courant reported.

The next phase of renovations will take place beginning Monday during the club’s annual two-week summer shutdown. The $100,000 in renovations will include tearing up wall-to-wall carpeting and refinishing original oak floors in several rooms, repairing and repainting stucco walls and rewiring antique chandeliers with LED lighting, the Courant reported.

“We have to respect the building that we are in, but at the same time recognizing the amenities that we can add, the things that we can do to attract members is really important,” said Trenholm.

Under the terms of the state’s “Small Business Express” loan program, the club must retain 20 employees and add five more, the Courant reported.

The Hartford Club now has about 475 members, nearly a third fewer than 1,300 members in 1998. But Trenholm said the club has a goal of adding another 300 members in the next three to five years. Trenholm said the establishment of downtown campuses by the University of Connecticut and Trinity College has the potential to increase member rolls, the Courant reported.

“In addition, our location in what is becoming a very vibrant part of the city should be a positive as well,” Trenholm said. “Once we start getting the needle moving north, we think we can build on the momentum.”

Annual dues range from $1,000 to $2,880, plus a minimum of $900 spent on meals and drinks. With membership numbers below where they should be, Trenholm said the club has relied heavily on weddings and other events for revenue, stressing membership is not required to book an event at the club, the Courant reported.

Experts say private city clubs like The Hartford Club have potential not only to survive but thrive, given the move of people back to cities. In Hartford, hundreds of new apartments have been added in the downtown area and they are, so far, enjoying high occupancy, the Courant reported.

“There’s a big opportunity to attract those people moving into the city—millennials, empty-nesters—people looking for social interaction and networking,” said Henry Wallmeyer, president and chief executive of the National Club Association in Washington, D.C. “But this may mean changing rules, dress codes, rules about electronics. People are so tied to electronics, why would they want to come into a place that forbids them?”

The dress code has been relaxed significantly, Trenholm said. The only time a jacket is required is Saturday nights in the dining room. The club is outfitted with Wi-Fi, and it is not unusual to see members working on laptops in the downstairs lounge. And there is the equivalent of a “business center” giving access to a printer, he said.

Hudson Atkinson, a Hartford Club member since the end of 2016, represents the future for the club. Atkinson, now 23, said he wasn’t sure he wanted to join after he moved to Hartford in 2015 to take a job at United Technologies Corp. as a project manager. New to the city, Atkinson leased a rental at the just-opened Spectra apartments on Constitution Plaza. A runner, Atkinson had often passed by the Georgian facade of the club on Prospect Street—the club’s home since 1903—and it seemed a bit off-putting, the Courant reported.

But when the club threw a “mixer” event for Spectra, Atkinson said he saw a different side of the club, an atmosphere that wasn’t stilted. “I always saw that place as a lunch place for lawyers in the middle of the day,” Atkinson said.

There are clubs within the club, for members with specific interests—wine, golf, cigars, poker and others—and the range of events for members—some geared towards families—surprised Atkinson, the Courant reported.

Without perks like a golf course or a swimming pool, the club has focused on its dining, resurrecting its own bakery and hiring well-known chef Leslie Tripp, who trained in Paris. Everything is made from scratch, General Manager Thomas Natola said, right down to ingredients such as freshly cracked egg whites stored in a walk-in freezer, the Courant reported.

The club also has again begun printing matchboxes, napkins and notepads with the Hartford Club name that find their way out into the community, Natola said.

“It shows [the club] is still here,” Natola said. “It’s alive. It’s not dead.”