Back to school

New club concept targets college loyalties.

Homecoming was never so sweet. Or comfortable. For select groups of college alumni, faculty, staff, and friends, a new concept in the private club industry is strengthening campus bonds and providing already loyal affinity groups with new college “hangouts.” It’s the “alumni” club, although being a graduate is not a prerequisite for membership. Already, ClubCorp has opened three such clubs across the country, with a fourth on the drawing board and a fifth in final negotiations.

Leading the trend is the Carolina Club in the center of the University of North Carolina campus in Chapel Hill. Opened about six years ago and patterned after a traditional city club, the club is located in the George Watts Hill Alumni Center. Club quarters include three private rooms, the club dining room, and a grill. Lunch is served Monday through Friday, with dinner served Tuesday through Saturday. The club is closed Sundays, except for private parties and a once-a-month brunch. Chip Willis is club manager.

For sports enthusiasts, the University Center Club offers an exciting view of Seminole football from its end-zone perch in the Florida State University stadium in Tallahassee. Opened in January, the club boasts coach Bobby Bowden among its founding Board of Governors. The club offers formal dining, casual dining, private meeting space, and ballroom space. Jim Marsh is general manager.

Boston College’s home-away-from-home is 36 floors up from the street in the Bank Boston Center and boasts what some consider the best views of Boston Harbor, Cambridge, the Charles River, the Charlestown Navy Yard, and the city landscape. Opened in February, the Boston College Club has truly given BC Eagles a place to land. Posh and decorated with antiques, club quarters include a main dining room that seats 200, an informal grill room for 80, a bar and lounge area, and two private dining suites. Founding board member John E. “Jack”Joyce, a principal in B.T. Alex Brown &Sons, was instrumental in helping the club top the 2,000-mark in membership in its first six months of existence. Mitchell Laskowitz is club manager.

The George Washington University Club, which is slated to open in March in Washington, D.C., will be housed on the edge of campus in two pre-Civil War townhomes that are being renovated and combined architecturally into one three-story facility. Plans call for the club to be furnished with period pieces and to become home to a collection of artifacts from Ulysses S. Grant that have long been in storage. With a location just four blocks away from the White House, the club is expected to be one of the top networking spots inside the Beltway.

At press time, agreements were being finalized for a club to be located in the football stadium on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin. Additional clubs are in the negotiation stages with golf courses expected to be part of the plans for certain locations.