MANSFIELD — North central Ohio’s only traditional country club is investing $2.5 million from member donations on a new swimming pool complex, as well as clubhouse renovations including a new front facade portico and a chef’s patio kitchen.
“The goal for Westbrook Country Club’s ambitious capital plan is to upgrade facilities and assure the club’s future as one of Ohio’s best,” said Westbrook Country Club General Manager Chris Bellamy.
The club has 364 members at its 1098 Springmill Street location. It features a Donald Ross-designed golf course that’s considered one of the best in Ohio.
At a time when many country clubs are closing or going public, Westbrook board of directors’ president Nick Gesouras said the location is increasing membership and planning for the future.
“In spite of the challenges we face in the world we live in today, Westbrook’s members are optimistic and committed to bettering our club through these improvements,” Gesouras said. “Many of our club members also are contributing to our area’s non-profits, such as Kingwood Center, the Imagination District, and the Mansfield Art Center, currently making improvements or expanding to better serve our commnity.”
Bellamy said the golf course is something that receives constant attention.
“Our golf course is always in great shape and we’ve spent millions on it over the last 10 years,” Bellamy said. “Plus, our dining experience is among the best in north central Ohio.
“It’s great to see our membership recognize the club’s need for upgrades to our clubhouse and amenities. We know these are important to our current and future members.”
Bellamy said the club’s board of directors started planning in 2018 to update the clubhouse and the nearly 70-year-old swimming pool.
Special offerings, like a new pool and renovations to the clubhouse, kitchen and patio are a must for the club, Gesouras said.
“So that is where we are starting with what we are calling ‘Westbrook Rising,’ a transformational capital program to renovate our club and its offerings.”
Dan and Brenda Niss, club members since 2009, have contributed the lead gift of $350,000.
Board member Cameron Haring has chaired the club’s strategic planning process.
“Westbrook, like many of our community’s long-standing assets, has great bones and a mountain of history, but it needed a growth strategy for the future,” Haring said. “Member response to ‘Westbrook Rising’ has been phenomenal.
“As a result, Westbrook is going to become a very unique, high-impact part of our Richland County’s expanding ‘live, work, and play’ development narrative.”
Gesouras said future plans for “Westbrook Rising” also call for the renovation of locker rooms, golfers’ bar/dining area (called Niss’s 19th Hole), pro shop, fitness area, tennis and pickle ball courts and a permanent pavilion.
“These will be done within the next five years,” Gesouras said. “Today we are focusing on Step One: primarily the pool, front facade, and certain clubhouse rooms.”
Gesouras acknowledged it’s unusual for a country club to solicit and raise funds from members. In a recent survey of country clubs, most assess their members monthly, raise membership rates, or borrow the money needed for capital projects.
“Our successful fundraising effort, directed and managed by development consultant Chriss Harris, has provided us with the funds to cover the poolscape, along with renovations inside and outside of our clubhouse,” he said.
About two-thirds of Westbrook’s members have donated to the fund to date.
“A club’s swimming pool area is now the number two most desired amenity by prospective country club members, second only to golf,” Gesouras said.
Westbrook members believe there is significant membership growth potential in this market.
“We believe our current membership growth of seven percent since August 2019 is partly because of our ‘Westbrook Rising’ projects, to be completed by the end of May 2021,” Gesouras said. “We know our pool area will appeal to new member families with young children. That was our focus as our architect Dan Seckel, of the Seckel Group, began working on the project.”
Gesouras said the club expects to reach 400 members by next summer when the pool complex opens. By the year 2024, the club expects a membership of 500 and a waiting list.
Westbrook’s new pool area, to be relocated from the front of the clubhouse to its east side, will feature a 25-meter pool and diving board, a zero-entry pool section with splash features for young children, and various pool decks, shaded areas, and spaces for socializing. It will also include a covered dining patio, food and beverage service, and bar for adults.
Groundbreking for the projects (the smaller kitchen patio project was completed in July) will begin in mid-September and conclude next May, when member families will enjoy the newest and most creative swimming pool in north central ohio with special features for children and adults alike.
The 119-year-old country club has always been a tool in the economic development arsenal for the Mansfield community, Bellamy said. Quality of life for professionals and their families is vital in relocation decisions as many look for good golfing, dining and country club opportunities before deciding to transfer to an area.
“We’ve provided many tours of our facilities for local companies and hospital systems that want us to entertain potential new hires,” Bellamy said. “It’s important for us in the attraction of new members and for the community that we always make a good first impression.
“Thanks to our members’ generosity with ‘Westbrook Rising,’ our improvements will help us achieve that goal, too.”
WESTBROOK COUNTRY CLUB
Westbrook Country Club’s first nine-hole golf course was developed in 1901 in a former horse pasture off West Fourth Street, overlooking Mansfield’s North Lake. A few years later, Westbrook golfers wanted an 18-hole course, so the club was moved to its current, larger, more accomodating site on 170 acres of a nearby hilltop, then surrounded by farmland.
The new golf course was built by the leading designer of American golf courses, Donald Ross, who used the landscaping elements of his native Scotland and coastal hometown to create the magnificent fairways, greens and landscaping of the Westbrook Country Club course of today. Westbrook’s first clubhouse burned down in 1940 and was repalced two years later by the current clubhouse with a hilltop view that has been enjoyed for generations.
