Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 8, 1995 TAG: 9511080066
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL AND JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITERS
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Twenty years after its charter members first sat down to a meal and a breathtaking 16th-floor view of the Roanoke Valley, the Jefferson Club is about to pull the curtains.
The private dining club, located on the top floor of the First Union Bank Building, will close after dinner Dec. 22. It will continue to operate during its normal hours until then. Members were sent letters Tuesday announcing the closing.
"It's a sign of the times," said Ed Hall, president of Hall Associates Inc. and one of the club's charter members. "It's not a sign of the dedication of the people who ran the Jefferson Club."
The club, which counts among its members some of Roanoke's best-known business and civic leaders, in recent years has been struggling to keep its rosters full.
Cited among reasons for the closing is a 1994 change in federal tax laws that cut the portion of the price of a business lunch that is tax deductible from 100 percent of the cost to 50 percent. In addition, dues for private clubs no longer are deductible as business expenses, prompting some companies to limit the number of club memberships they buy for executives.
The 1982 departure from Roanoke of Norfolk Southern Corp.'s headquarters and the 1993 acquisition of Dominion Bankshares Corp. by First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., contributed to declining membership rolls as well. The railroad's move to Norfolk meant the loss of many top executives, and the bank's sale downgraded Roanoke from Dominion's headquarters to the status of a multistate regional base for First Union.
Dale E. Forbes, a member of the club's advisory board, said a summer membership drive he helped conduct fell far short of bringing in the number of new members needed to keep the club operating.
"We had a pretty good membership drive, but we needed a lot more than we got," Forbes said. "We did everything we could do to save the club."
Forbes estimated the club has between 800 and 850 members and said in June he had hoped the ranks would grow to 1,000.
Because questions about the Jefferson Club's future had surfaced some weeks before the closing was announced, Hall said his realty firm, which manages First Union Bank Building, has talked to several potential tenants for the 9,000-square-foot space now occupied by the club. The building is at the corner of South Jefferson Street and Campbell Avenue.
The Jefferson Club is owned by Club Corporation International, or ClubCorp, a Dallas-based company that owns 240 clubs and resorts, including The Homestead in Hot Springs.
The Jefferson Club's general manager, Russ Curtis, declined to discuss the matter beyond a basic statement. But Murray Siegel, vice president of development for ClubCorp, said the decision to close the Jefferson Club was made by the club's board of governors in conjunction with the management.
"The city club business is having some struggling times in general," Siegel said.
Club members have been offered membership without initiation fees in Winston-Salem's Piedmont Club in North Carolina, an associate club similar to the Jefferson. Members who would rather continue to attend a local club may join Hunting Hills Country Club or the Roanoke Athletic Club, both without initiation fees. And the Shenandoah Club, a private downtown Roanoke club, has agreed to take inquiries about memberships, the Jefferson Club letter said.
Although the Jefferson Club may be best known as a setting for business lunches and meetings, it also has been used for wedding receptions, baby showers and Rotary Club meetings, Hall said.
"It's not just a place for businessmen to go have lunch," Hall said. "It's a community club. It's a shame, really, for the community at large."
Memo: ***CORRECTION***