NPCC gets a new look (PBP) 2-23-2000The Palm Beach Post Accession #
Date: Z m Z3 -Zorx)
N.orthalm country club
gets new l
TAYLOR JONES/Staff Photographer
Golfers Thomas Svanstedt (left) and Dag Nor- golf at the North Palm Beach Country Club on
denskjold of Palm Beach Gardens return to their U.S. 1. The newly renovated clubhouse is in the
cart after playing a hole during a recent round of background.
By Thomas R. Collins
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
NORTH PALM BEACH If
there's one thing that the people
in charge of the North Palm
Beach Country Club especially
like to see, it's customers walk-
ing into the dining room wearing
suits.
It means businesses are dis-
cussing their affairs and trying
to win clients there. And when
that happens, it reinforces what
club officials have already con-
cluded: The clubhouse is back.
Village council and club
administrator Ron Albert should
hope so. During a six-month
overhaul that finished last
month and will be celebrated
with a grand opening ceremony
on Friday, the village poured
about $900,000 into the club-
house. , The project included
expanding and refurbishing
almost everything in sight: the
dining room, the locker rooms,
the hallways. The effect is the
equivalent of a daytime talk
show makeover.
Though the clubhouse,
which was opened in 1963, has
had small touch-ups and repairs
done over the years, this is the
first major effort at improving it,
Albert said. Still to come are the
completion of a new snack bar
next to the pool and an addi-
tional $100,000 worth of land-
scaping along the outskirts of
the club along U.S. 1 from Yacht
Club Drive on south, he said.
He can barely contain his
grins of satisfaction as he points
out the changes.
"Everything's new," Albert
said proudly.
The building has a new roof.
The main entrance now has a
fountain next to it. The eating
area near the bar has new furni-
ture, including tables with the
North Palm Beach sailor -wheel
seal like those that mark the
entrances to the village. The
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plates have the seal on them,
too.
The lobby has been given a
lighter, whiter motif.
"Before, it was black slate
floors," Albert said. "It was very
dingy -looking."
Then there's the crown jewel:
the new dining room. The win-
dows have been extended to the
floor to let more sun in and a
wall has been torn down to give
the room about 25 percent more
space.
On a recent Monday, the bar
was so crowded there was barely
a seat to spare.
"Before you could come in
and you could easily get a chair
up there," Albert said.
For years the country club
was "a real focal point where
businessmen would have power
lunches, then a trailing off of that
clientele happened as the club's
conditions deteriorated. The
businessmen are returning,
Albert said.
"Now, we have a restaurant
-that_is actually bringing the busi-
nesses back, in here," he said.
"It's nice to see."
The idea to do the work first
was proposed by Councilman
David Norris about three years
ago, and pushed when Council-
man Joe Tringali listed club revi-
talization as one of his campaign
planks in 1998.
The clubhouse had an aged,
musty smell, Norris said.
"It was just the overall situa-
tion, that the club hadn't been
really renovated for 30 years and
it was just really in a very run-
down state, didn't smell good
and it wasn't something that was
very attractive," he said. "Subse-
quently, no one came."
Times have changed.
"It's absolutely smashing,"
said club member Cal Scarponi,
who spends her summers in
New Hampshire. "Now, it's in
TAYLOR JONES/Staff Photographer
The Forth Palm Beech Country Club's new dining room
windows which give diners a better view of golfers on
green from the comfor
full swing."
Long-time member and vil-
lage resident Anne Medeiros
said the renovation money,
which came from club -generated
profits, was well spent.
"It's already been in escrow
for years to do this," she said.
"It's long overdue."
Village officials are now wait
Continued on Page 23
t of their dining
Official h
9
will pull 1
Continued from Page I
ing to see whether the changes
translate into profit. The restau-
rant's sales never had a deficit
before the changes, Albert said,
but Tringali said the "black
wasn't all that black." Albert said
it's too early to gauge the renova-
tions' effects.
Most of all, he'd love to see
more lucrative memberships and
hopes golfers and tennis players
who formerly paid only daily fees
will become yearly members.
The club now has 532 golfing
members, 183 tennis members,
and 252 pool members. Albert
said he'd like to see each of
those categories increase by
between 50 and 100 members in
has larger
the putting
table.
the next year.
The main goal isn't financial,
Tringali said.
"I think that there's an intan-
gible goal, there's an intangible
profit that's much more than
money," he said. "And that to me
is the sense of community which
North Palm Beach should have,
once had. I lived here back in
the `70s. ... That's where you
took your kids on Saturdays to
the pool. That was to a great
extent the center of community
life."
Boom or no boom, Albert
said, the members are having a
good time.
"It's just nice to hear people
say, `wow, what a difference.
This place looks great.'"
thomas—collins@pbpost.com