New state-of-the-art club house to open at Chevy Chase Country Club in Glendale
The Chevy Chase Country Club, tucked away in the hills of northeast Glendale, is scheduled to reveal the major overhaul and expansion of its clubhouse in August after more than a year of construction.
In the face of dwindling membership, aging infrastructure and a rotation of four owners in the past decade, the current owners who purchased the club in 2013 — including Nick Agakanian and two others who prefer to remain unidentified — with their development team have been turning the 12,000-square-foot, 90-year old clubhouse into a new 30,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility.
For the record:
12:21 p.m. May 8, 2024A previous version of this story listed Mike Kobeissi as a co-owner of the club, along with Nick Agakanian. The club is owned by Agakanian and two others who prefer to remain unidentified. Kobeissi is a real estate agent.
The only piece left from the original clubhouse, which was built in 1927, is the fireplace.
Althea Rowe, director of public relations and membership at the country club, leads weekend tours of the new clubhouse and said she’s received positive feedback from new and longtime members.
“The owners have done so well to give the community a renovated space, yet maintained the feel of calm and community, somewhere that people will feel welcome,” Rowe said. “That’s what I heard from visitors — a ‘homey, peaceful, easy space.’”
The new clubhouse features a bar and restaurant, called the Sycamore Room, which will be open to the public.
The members-only locations include a lounge, a terrace overlooking the golf course, a pro shop for golf apparel and gear, and a four-lane pool with a full kitchen.
There is also the Cyprus Ballroom, where members can host events with a maximum 300-person capacity. There are several locations throughout the country club to hold events including a spot on the golf course — hole No. 2 can be reserved for a private wedding anniversary, for example.
A group exercise room, gym, family recreation room, Jacuzzi and locker rooms complete the clubhouse’s renovation.
Ken Bierman, the Men’s Club president at the country club, first joined 18 years ago with his wife when the club had a larger, more active membership, he said.
“[The club] used to have major numbers around here. Then things dwindled a little bit, but now, with the new ownership, I think people look at this as something that’s going to be valuable to this area for a lot of years,” Biermann said.
He added that current members are “very pleased” with the overhaul.
Members are still able to use the golf course during construction, and the clubhouse had a soft opening on June 1, allowing limited access to some of the new areas until its grand opening slated for sometime in August.
The nine-hole golf course on the 34-acre site also underwent a few upgrades, but its layout largely remains the same.
Twitter: @JeffLanda
