Presidential's Game Plan Is Corporate Exclusivity
By Kendra Marr
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 17, 2008
John C. Lee, chairman and chief executive of Lee Technologies, belongs to four golf clubs. Unfortunately, Lee said, country clubs full of parents, kids and retirees aren't the best environments for entertaining clients and doing business.
His solution: add a fifth membership at the Presidential, a new private club in Dulles that promises serious executive hobnobbing without the hassle of weekend hackers.
"It's kind of like the golfing version of the Tower Club," Lee said.
The Presidential, which opens this spring, is the brainchild of landowner Lerner Enterprises and developer Eric R. Wells, chief executive of WestDulles Properties -- both of whom own developments surrounding the new complex. Their plug for the golf course is corporate exclusivity. Membership is limited to 150 companies, which pay $60,000 a year, then allocate golf rounds and clubhouse privileges to their employees and clients. No corporate affiliation, no tee time.
Already, a number of Washington's key business leaders and personalities -- including Bill Dean of M.C. Dean and Ted Leonsis of Revolution Money, and former Washington Redskins player Darrell Green -- have invested in or joined the Presidential. Golf clubs have always been a place to do business and talk deals, but by keeping non-business people away from the greens, the Presidential aims to truly become an annex to the office.
"I like what they're doing to encourage business," said Leonsis, who has watched construction from his AOL perch across the street for years. "That's a unique position and they're making no bones about it -- come and do business here, use it as your business's office if you want, come and bring clients. Some of the family, private-owned clubs discourage that."
The $40 million first phase of the project -- a clubhouse, golf academy, driving range, restaurant, pro shop and 18-hole course -- is a few months from completion. The second phase, to be completed by 2010, will cost $30 million. It includes additional nine holes and a 60,000-square-foot clubhouse complete with a ballroom, wine cellar and libraries.
Wells said the Presidential will be a place to hold meetings and seminars, where the staff greets executives by name and the bartender knows their favorite drinks. For many of the big employers lining the Greenway, the clubhouse restaurant could be a nearby alternative to the popular high-end Reston Town Center eateries. Dulles Airport is down the street.
"You're in a situation where you could have clients just 10 minutes away from golf," said Lee, one of 14 local businessmen who invested in the venture as a partner.
Northern Virginia's economy has seen better days. Golf is closely tied to market ups and downs, said Tony Mobasser, general manager of Chantilly National Golf & Country Club. "This is luxury item, not a necessity," Mobasser said. "When things get tight, we feel it before anybody."
But even in economic decline, sometimes it's vital to increase spending on business development and networking, Wells said. The management team argues that executives will be frequenting the Presidential to network with one another at the clubhouse.
"Golf is really a backdrop," said Scott Stephens, vice president of membership. "It's more about business-to-business relationships."
For now, the Presidential will target Northern Virginia employers, particularly those in the nearby Dulles tech corridor. Soon, it plans to offer a golf clinic for women executives picking up the game. The club includes a Jack Nicklaus Academy of Golf.
A corporate focus wasn't always the plan.
In 1999, Lerner Enterprises pitched the idea for a standard golf club along Waxpool Road, adjacent to its Dulles 28 Centre shopping center. Wells, who had collaborated with Lerner on several developments in the past, signed onto the Dulles project.
In 2000, Wells left the project, entrusting its completion to his partner. But planning and financing never got off the ground.
Wells returned and rewrote the lease with Lerner in 2005, proposing a corporate-only membership structure and facility redesign. He added a golf academy and enlarged meeting rooms equipped with WiFi and video-conferencing.
"We tried to make the overall facilities more professional and functional," said Wells, who is now president and a partner of the Presidential.
Around the same time, DullesWest Properties purchased land on the eastern border of the golf course, a portion of the old WorldCom campus. That land will eventually include an office park and high-end hotel tied to the Presidential, Wells said.
Wells funded the Presidential by enlisting local business people as investors. Of the 14 partners, five make up the core executive committee, which makes the day-to-day decisions. Each partner owns a percentage of the club, which varies depending on the size of his individual endowment. Wells owns the largest stake.
The corporate-only business model is unusual. Nearly all country clubs offer a form of company membership, but corporate-only membership is more popular in Asia, said Joe Rice, chief marketing officer of the National Golf Course Owners Association.
The Presidential modeled itself after Fiddler's Elbow Country Club in New Jersey -- the elite destination for Manhattan's financiers -- but it is pricier and even more exclusive. A Fiddler's Elbow membership for four company designees cost $33,000 a year, with no membership cap. At the Presidential, an equivalent membership costs $60,000 each year, and the club limits the number companies that can join.
Soon the two clubs will have reciprocal membership, Wells said.
Robert Sweeney, president of the Greater Washington Sports Alliance, has been playing the course's six finished holes, despite the construction and winter weather. "You can call me an extreme golfer," said Sweeney, who is also a partner.
For the past month, he's also been taking out clients twice a week for double rounds on the truncated course. "It's your way to capture a client for four hours," he said. "If you can't close them in four hours, you're not going to close them."
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