In addition to redesigning its space in the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower), the Chicago club is aiming to diversify its membership, especially with LGBTQ businesspeople. Membership Director Craig Barnard-El says a program the club put in place—the Pride Committee—will prioritize the wants, needs, programming, social and business interests of the LGBTQ community.
Joliet CC Selects KemperSports to Manage Property
KemperSports, which now manages 13 properties in Illinois, will lead a transition to semi-private status – allowing public play at the historic course for the first time. Joliet Country Club will be renamed Joliet Golf Club.
The Metropolitan Set to Reopen After $10M Renovation
The reinvented downtown Chicago private business club, formerly known as The Metropolitan Club, will have a grand reopening on November 3 that will be open to the public as well as members. The ClubCorp property is located on two floors of the Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) and the redesign was inspired by Frank…
Serving the Cause
With a big boost from a sponsor that has helped to attract wide-ranging support, the Chicago Club Chefs Association continues to grow as a valuable educational, charitable and collegial organization. Volunteering can often bring back that feeling we all got as a kid after seeing an inviting pond or lake and eagerly running down to…
Barack Obama Joins Chicago’s Beverly CC, ‘the United Nations’ of Golf Clubs
The former President has accepted an offer to become an honorary member of the club on the city’s South Side, which will allow him to play its Donald Ross course without having to pay an initiation fee or dues or be charge only when bringing guests. The club is located near where the Obamas maintain a Chicago residence.
Report: Future of Hospitality Includes Boutique Fitness
According to a report by Skift, high-end urban sports resorts are bridging fitness and hospitality. Properties such as Midtown Athletic Club in Chicago, which now offers a 55-room hotel, and 1 Hotel South Beach in Miami, which now features a 14,000-sq. ft. Spartan Gym, are examples of the trend. High-end urban sports resorts could serve as…
Be Our Guest
Properties are taking hospitality a step further by putting out the welcome mat for members and guests with upscale lodging. While clubs have long offered top-notch amenities to members that cultivate a home-away-from-home feeling, some properties are truly committing to comfort by offering overnight lodging, complete with cozy bedding, Wi-Fi access, and even plush robes.…
Chicago Marriott Lincolnshire Resort Completes $25M Renovation
The resort has opened two new restaurants, Three Embers and Wrights Brew & Bistro, as well as a Starbucks Café, and an Xhale Spa. The property now features a 5,000-sq. ft. Lakeside Pavilion for events, and a 2,500-sq. ft. patio. The Chicago Marriott Lincolnshire Resort completed a $25 million renovation that saw changes made to nearly every aspect…
Midtown Athletic Club Blends Fitness, Lodging
Founded 50 years ago as Midtown Tennis Club, the downtown Chicago facility has been reinvented through an $80 million project. The five-story building features views of downtown with a 55-room boutique hotel, 16 indoor tennis courts, 100,000-sq. ft. fitness center, indoor and outdoor pools, and restaurant. Slide open the bedside drawer in the 55 rooms…
The Course At Aberdeen Selects Billy Casper for Golf Operations Management
The semi-private Valparaiso, Ind. course was recently acquired by the Aberdeen Property Owners’ Association. In other management-company news, the city of Sioux Falls, S.D. has opened its contract for three courses to proposals for the first time since 1994, and five firms, including the present operator, Dakota Golf Management, have submitted bids.
Farm-to-Fork at a Water Park? Great Wolf to Step Up F&B at First Illinois Resort
When the resort operator opens its new Gurnee, Ill. property next year, F&B offerings will include Barnwood, a restaurant serving locally sourced small plates and craft cocktails that will also be open to non-resort customers. Great Wolf will also try to tap into the emerging food-hall trend with a multi-restaurant, open-seating dining area anchored by four diverse eateries featuring “higher-end, family-friendly” offerings.
Caves Valley GC Featured as Unique “Survivor”
The Baltimore Sun highlighted how the Owings Mills, Md. property, as it prepares to host the Constellation Senior Players Championship and celebrate its 25th anniversary next year, has been able to maintain its prominence while remaining a golf-oriented operation amid major changes in the Baltimore corporate scene.
Tiger Woods Grows the Game Through Design
With an upcoming golf course design project at Big Cedar Lodge in Ridgedale, Mo., whose news coverage generated more than 1,200 media stories, as well as a $30 million project that will merge the Jackson Park and South Shore golf courses in Chicago, Woods’ influence is expanding the game from behind the scenes.
Huy Fong® Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce Ketchup Earns Innovative Product Award
The National Restaurant Association has recognized the Red Gold® product with a Food and Beverage Innovation Award as one of America’s most innovative products for 2017. The spicy ketchup was cited as “the perfect addition of sweet heat in an operation’s condiment offering.”
Public Meeting To Gauge Support for Chicago South Side Golf Project
One of the first public discussions of the $30 million-plus plan to have Tiger Woods design a championship course that has the backing of President Obama and Bandon Dunes owner Mike Keiser is scheduled for January 9th. Community activists are expressing concern over the closed-door nature of the planning to date and whether there will truly be a broad benefit for the sections of the city that have been plagued by unemployment and violence.