Westminster Club may be selling its penthouse space on Columbia Street, but it isn’t prepared to go down without a fight.
Formed in 1889, the business and social club has been located on the top floor of the Westminster Building since it opened in 1922. On Monday, the Westminster Club’s penthouse floor at 713 Columbia St. was listed for sale at $2.15 million.
“It was a painful decision to come to,” said Allen Domaas, president of the club. “In the end, it wasn’t hard. We had been taking progressively larger mortgages to get some capital to refurbish.”
As membership declined through the decades, the club spent less money on upkeep of its penthouse premises. A decision was made that in order to attract more members, the space needed to be refurbished.
Marc Lotzer, managing consultant of the Westminster Club, said the club was unable to secure a new mortgage at a reasonable rate that would allow it to move forward with the next phase of its renewal program. Rather than suffering through a high rate of interest, the board of directors decided to put its floor up for sale.
The Cushman and Wakefield brochure states that the 7,429-square-foot property is 100 per cent of the strata interest in the entire seventh floor of the building.
Options for the new ownership include having owner-occupied premises, using the floor to rent to individual office spaces, leasing the space back to the Westminster Club and maintaining the existing improvements and operating the facility as a private club for special events, catering or restaurant facility,
Domaas said the club will consider all of its options when the sale completes, which could include leasing back its current space or moving to a new location.
At this time, the club’s board of directors is focused on selling the club’s current real estate asset.
“The future of the club will be decided at a later date, and then, only with the input of the valued members,” Domaas said.
Domaas estimates the club had a membership of more than 400 at its peak. As larger engineering and accounting firms have moved out of the city, they’ve taken members with them.
“We are down to less than 100,” he said. “It’s been difficult.”
Domaas took over the helm of Westminster Club in 2008, around the same time that the City of New Westminster was developing its plans for the future of the downtown. While the area around the Westminster Building is starting to benefit from projects like the upgrades to Columbia Square, the construction of Plaza 88 and the arrival of new condominiums, Domaas said the club couldn’t get a mortgage rate that would allow it to carry on.
“It didn’t work for us,” he said. “We are selling the floor. We are not closing the club.”
A press release from Westminster Club states that the “unfortunate reality” is that it was unable to complete the refinancing of the club to take it to the next level at the very time that it began to see growing interest in membership and renewal of its premises in the Westminster Building was underway.