Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 14, 1995 TAG: 9506140044
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Stung by tax law changes and corporate relocations that have cut the demand for elegant dining, the private Jefferson Club in Roanoke will defer initiation fees for a year in an urgent bid for new members.
Long a dining and social spot for business executives and community leaders, the club said Tuesday it was having a harder time selling its brand of luxury.
The club in part blames the phasing out of federal income-tax deductions for business meals, which fell from 100 percent of a meal's expense to 50 percent last year. Also, dues in private clubs are no longer deductible as business expenses.
Another factor, said club General Manager Russ Curtis, was the departure of some corporate headquarters from the Roanoke Valley. Norfolk and Western's head office moved to Norfolk when it merged with Southern Railway in 1982 to form Norfolk Southern Corp. More executive jobs - and corporate members - vanished when First Union Corp. of Charlotte, N.C., acquired Roanoke-based Dominion Bankshares in 1993.
Club officials said other members-only dining and country clubs in the area have lost members for the same reasons. A spokeswoman for the private Shenandoah Club, also in downtown Roanoke, said the club was in "good shape" but declined to discuss any membership numbers.
By mid-August, the Jefferson Club hopes to increase its ranks from 850 members to 1,000. The club urged members in a letter Monday to aggressively recruit new members during the next two weeks and to eat twice as often as they usually do at its facilities on the top floor of the First Union Building.
"If you don't have enough members, you don't have a club," said member Dale E. Forbes, who is heading a committee to build membership.
Curtis wouldn't say how many members left during the past year, but corporations seem to be losing their appetite for private establishments. ClubCorp, a Dallas company that owns the Jefferson Club, along with 240 clubs worldwide, said the share of membership costs paid by corporations for their executives had dropped in recent years from 80 percent to about 35 percent.
Curtis was mum on whether ClubCorp had a role in launching the membership drive - the club's second in seven months - or what the owners might do if membership remains inadequate.
A letter to members puts the initiation fee at $150 and says the club will defer it for a year.
The Roanoke Times & World-News pays $80 in monthly dues for each of several single memberships.
For that price, members find a button in the elevator marked Jefferson Club that sends the car to the 16th floor. Men must wear jackets as they dine before views of the Roanoke Valley, paying $15 for lunch. Strawberries dipped in white chocolate are complimentary on the way out.
"It's a very good club. Great food," said William Carder, general manager of the Radisson Patrick Henry Hotel in Roanoke. But Carder didn't renew his Jefferson Club membership in 1993 because of the loss of tax deductions. He said his money for business entertaining went further at Roanoke Country Club.
by CNB