The University Club of Milwaukee has permanently closed its iconic City Club in downtown Milwaukee’s East Town neighborhood, with plans to focus solely on its country club in Brown Deer.
The closure and decision to sell the club’s historic building at 924 E. Wells St. was announced Tuesday in a letter sent to members by board president Jim Caragher. The letter cited member attrition, deferred maintenance and increased competition from the city’s burgeoning restaurant scene among the driving factors.
“It is with great sadness that we are announcing the permanent closure of the City Club, effective today, December 19. This is a tremendously difficult decision to make, especially at this time of year, and given that the walls of the City Club contain years, and in some cases generations, of memories for our members,” Caragher wrote in the letter, obtained by BizTimes.
“After evaluating our current financial situation and forecast, the Board contemplated and exhausted all reasonable alternative scenarios to improve the club’s financial position and determined that closure and sale of the downtown facility was the only responsible option.”
Post-merger membership tension
Some of the club’s recent issues, as described in the letter, can be traced back to its 2017 merger with Tripoli Country Club, now the site of the University Club’s country club campus at 7401 N. 43rd St. in Brown Deer. Since the two clubs merged, the number of non-golf members has fallen from 500 in 2017 to 220 today.
“Some of these member losses occurred immediately after the merger and were driven by the club’s post-merger pricing structure,” according to the letter.
But the decrease in membership can also be blamed on government-mandated health restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic which prevented members from utilizing the club’s indoor facilities for several months.
Another challenge that arose from the 2017 merger was a so-called “cultural divide” between the users and operations of the two clubs. That’s despite members of both organizations voting “overwhelmingly” in favor of the merger.
“Though leadership of both clubs believed that the array of amenities offered by the combined club would positively drive member retention and recruitment, the cultural and operational synergies we hoped for were never realized. While some cross-usage occurred, the overall experience was of two clubs attempting – but failing – to coexist as one. The vision of a shared culture between members of the two clubs was never achieved,” according to the letter.
