Friday, September 17, 1999
'Affordable' country club expands
N.Ky.'s Four Seasons to take shot at Symmes
BY DAVID ECK
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Greater Cincinnati's already tight tennis/fitness club market is about to become more crowded as a well-known Northern Kentucky sports club is expanding into Cincinnati's northern suburbs.
After opening the upscale Four Seasons Sports Country Club in Northern Kentucky in 1988 and then a similar club in Indianapolis, real estate developer Bill Butler is taking the concept to other communities, including Symmes Township.
Construction on a 27-acre site on Snider Road is set for this fall, and the Five Seasons Sports Country Club could be open in just over a year. In addition to indoor and outdoor tennis courts, the club will offer a high-tech fitness center, a gymnasium for basketball and volleyball, an aerobics studio, racquetball/squash courts and a heated indoor lap pool.
Several restaurants also are planned in the 120,000-square-foot complex, said Diane MacLachlan, director of sales and marketing. There will be conference rooms, a banquet room that will accommodate 400 people and a pro shop.
“It is in every sense a full-service country club,” she said. “One of the unique things about our club is there are huge numbers of programs and special events. We will adapt our events and our programs to the needs of the membership. We try to be very sensitive to what the people in the club like to do.”
Family cost to the full club is a one-time $5,000 membership fee plus $195 monthly dues, but the club is offering discounted fees. Other plans for specific activities are available.
Billed as an affordable alternative to exclusive country clubs, Five Seasons officials say their club is geared toward families and is responsive to members' needs.
“Our members want to pursue an active lifestyle while enjoying the comforts of an exclusive setting,” said Kevin Molony, co-founder and managing director of the clubs. “And that's precisely what this club is designed to do. It is the first year-round family country club in the market.”
The family focus attracted Landen resident Vicki Sena, who sits on the club's volun teer board of governors. She and her husband plan to entertain at the new club, and she wants to take up tennis, a game her son already plays.
“It fulfills a need that we have (had) out in the area,” she said. “It appeals more to your average family.”
In addition to Symmes Township, Five Seasons clubs will soon be opening in Dayton and Cleveland. A club in Boston and two in Chicago are also planned.
Members can visit any of the clubs, Mrs. MacLachlan said.
But with several tennis and fitness clubs already in the northern suburbs, some are concerned the area is saturated.
Steve Contardi, operating partner at The Club at Harpers Point, will keep an eye on his new neighbor, about two miles away.
“Although the demographics are strong, it'll remain to be seen whether or not they're strong enough to support one more club of that magnitude,” he said. “My plan is to do what we do and do it better than anybody else. We are what we are. What we are and what we strive to be is the finest tennis club in the Midwest, if not the country.”
Still, he said, Five Seasons could be of some benefit.
“Competition makes the cream rise to the top,” he said. “It'll force us to improve, and of course we will. I think it's a little (inundated) from a business point of view. Obviously, from a consumer point of view, they're going to have some choices.”
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