Members of the suburban club voted to sell the property for $2.3 million to a partnership led by Steve Smith, an Old Hickory member who owns the popular Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge and other Nashville eateries and entertainment venues. The new owners are planning improvements that will include a new upscale public restaurant created as part of a ballroom renovation.
A group led by a prominent honky-tonk owner in downtown Nashville, Tenn. has bought the Old Hickory (Tenn.) Country Club for $2.3 million, with commitments to upgrade the private facility through improvements that would include opening a public restaurant, reported the Nashville Tennessean.
Steve Smith, his wife Leah Smith and their partner, Al Ross, recently closed on the property that was previously owned as a member-equity club, reported the Tennessean.
The plan is to name the public restaurant Jackson’s, according to Steve Smith, who has an ownership stake in Nashville restaurants and entertainment venues that include Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, Rippy’s Bar & Grill, Honky Tonk Central and The Diner Nashville. Smith has also partnered with music artist Robert “Kid Rock” Ritchie to open a future bar and restaurant in Nashville, reported the Tennessean.
Smith, a golfer, has been a member of Old Hickory CC, which is located in the Nashville suburb near the Cumberland River, reported the Tennessean. Old Hickory CC was founded in 1926 by the DuPont Company, which developed Old Hickory as a company town, for its employees. Club members hired George Livingstone, a golf pro at Nashville’s Belle Meade Country Club, to design its golf course.
“They were struggling on how to make money in the food-and-beverage division, and that is what we’re good at,” Smith said in describing his interest in becoming an owner to the Tennessean. “And also, it’s really a cool old place, and a lot of great people are members.”
The club, which currently has around 325 members, voted by an approximate 90 percent margin to sell to the Smiths and Ross, reported the Tennessean.
“It’s an opportunity for us to not only continue, but continue with a big investment and become one of the nicest country clubs in Davidson County,” said club President Ron Graham. “It’s an old facility that needs investment, and [Steve Smith] seems to love the place. It’s already a great golf course.”
The planned Jackson’s restaurant will be part of a renovation of a ballroom area on top of the clubhouse, reported the Tennessean.
Plans for the renovations are still being finalized, and Smith told the Tennessean that he hopes to start work around October, to target a September 2019 opening for the restaurant that he said will be upscale.
A public hair and nail salon at the club could also be part of the planned upgrades, Smith said.
The golf course itself is “well-conditioned,” Smith told the Tennessean, but he also plans some investment “to bring it up to an A-level course instead of a B-level.”
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