With Dallas-based ClubCorp deciding to close The University Club of Jacksonville, landlord Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners intends to convert the top two floors of Riverplace Tower into office space.
ClubCorp, citing a “business decision” without elaboration, notified members late Wednesday the 48-year-old club will close Dec. 20.
Leasing agent Kaycee Gardner said today the club’s location would be “the best office space in town” as it provides 360-degree views of Downtown, San Marco and beyond.
“It’s going to be very unique space,” said Gardner, senior vice president with JLL, which represents the building on behalf of Lingerfelt CommonWealth.
The 28-story building is at 1301 Riverplace Blvd. on the Southbank, where office vacancy was about 5 percent and rents were about $21-$22 per square foot, based on second-quarter industry reports.
Gardner said the 27th floor, which is the club’s main dining room, lounge and event space, comprises 14,147 square feet.
The 28th floor, used as a men’s athletic center, is about 8,357 square feet.
Renovations would start when a tenant is signed. Gardner said lease rates would be in the mid $20s, which is premium rent in the market.
Gardner and John Mason, senior vice president of asset management for Glen Allen, Va.-based Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners, said they envision a single tenant for the two floors, which total about 22,500 square feet.
Marketing is beginning, but neither said a tenant has been identified.
Staff, members and guests arrived at the club this morning to the news the private venue will close in three months.
“It’s a legacy, it’s a landmark,” said Bonnie Arnold, owner of Bonnie’s Floral Designs.
She said the closing saddened her. “You hate to see the old traditional things go by the wayside,” said Arnold, a former club member.
Its décor of dark wood, elegant lighting and plush furniture in the lobby, main Oxford Room and other areas is enhanced by the view.
“There’s just no place like it,” Arnold said.
ClubCorp sent an email to members Wednesday night notifying them of the closing.
University Club of Jacksonville Board of Governors Chairman Matt Shirk said this morning that ClubCorp was renegotiating the lease, but he didn’t know the details about why it decided to close the Downtown institution.
“When it comes down to it, they are a corporation and they have to make a business decision and it was an unfortunate and tough decision to make,” said Shirk, the 4th Judicial Circuit public defender.
Mason said Lingerfelt CommonWealth had intended to renew the lease and invest capital into the deal, but then learned Dallas-based ClubCorp did not want to do so.
He and Gardner said the rental rate was not being raised. Mason said there would have been a reduction in occupancy costs.
“It would have been more economically beneficial to them,” he said.
Mason said the decision was made at ClubCorp’s corporate level, “and there was nothing we could do to change their minds.”
ClubCorp has not responded to questions today about specifics.
Shirk said he met with the regional vice president and club manager Wednesday morning about the closure. The Board of Governors met that evening and the regional vice president announced the closing to members in an email Wednesday night.
“Based on whatever numbers they were running, it became clear to ClubCorp it was better to close the club,” Shirk said.
He said the club was renegotiating a new lease as a five-year deal was coming up.
Shirk said board members have been kept in the loop and that membership has been growing. He did not know the number of members or employees.
He said he and his family have been members for 10 years. “It’s been a great club. We really enjoyed meeting a lot of people there,” he said.
Everrett Butler, regional vice president of ClubCorp, said in the letter to members that the ownership and members have weathered “many ups and downs during our nearly half-century of service to the Jacksonville community.”
He did not detail the ups and downs or how those led to the announcement.
“We have made a business decision to close the Club. It certainly wasn’t an easy decision — the Club has borne witness to decades of long friendships and the birth of many great ideas — but one that is necessary,” Butler wrote.
Riverplace Tower, which changed ownership in 2014, has been adding tenants and recently signed a lease for a café on the ground floor. Mason and Gardner said occupancy is 80 percent. The sixth floor is the only full floor available, other than The University Club.
Gate Riverplace Co. sold the tower to Lingerfelt CommonWealth Partners. It was built in 1966 as the Gulf Life Tower. It also is now known as the Ameris Bank building after its anchor tenant.
ClubCorp spokeswoman Patty Jerde said late Wednesday the club has “enjoyed a positive and supportive relationship with our landlord and neighbors.”
“We will treasure the memories of the great relationships that were made with the members of the club and the community for years to come,” Jerde said.
A membership town hall meeting is scheduled at 5:30 p.m. Sept. 28 to explain an opportunity to relocate memberships to one of three clubs within ClubCorp.
Three local clubs — Deercreek Country Club, Marsh Creek Country Club and Queens Harbour Yacht & Country Club — are offering preferred memberships. Members must apply at those clubs before Dec. 20.
If members do not want to continue a home club membership, they can learn about a traveling benefit program called ClubCorp Travel.
Representatives from the area clubs and ClubCorp will be at the meeting, the letter said.
Butler wrote that employees will be referred to other clubs in the area and to colleagues in Jacksonville’s hospitality industry.
“It was an adventure,” said James “Slim” Allen, a 35-year employee at the club, who was among the staff preparing early this morning for the club’s day to start.
Allen is well known among the members and so respected that he is one of the three employees for which the club named its MeLS Pub. All three, including Margaret Atter and Liza Flowers, have been with the club for more than 30 years.
Allen, 53, said he would work for his church, The Bethel Church, where he already assists in its culinary operation.
The University Club also offers its space for weddings and other social and business events. It operates another fitness center on the ground-floor concourse level.
Leadership consultant Richard Hadden of Contented Cow Partners LLC, a member for 25 years, said the club did “a fantastic job” for his daughter’s wedding reception in November.
“I was really shocked to find out it was closing,” Hadden said this morning.
Hadden and a group work out together Monday, Wednesday and Friday on the 28th floor.
He said there have been plumbing and maintenance problems at that facility, leading his group to think the club might close that center, but not the entire club.
Butler said a farewell event will be planned for early December.
“This isn’t ‘goodbye,’ but rather ‘until we meet again’ as I look forward to seeing all of you at one of the select clubs within the ClubCorp family,” he concluded.
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