BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. — A month after the devastating fire that burned down the Oakland Hills Country Club, new evidence shows the fire appears to have started from construction workers using a propane torch against a wall.
Full Answer
How much of Bogey Hills' food and beverage revenue was from the fire?
Through its high volume of weddings and other event and outing business, Bogey Hills earned 70% of its food-and-beverage revenues from the banquet side prior to its clubhouse fire, Walters Likens says. But even though the club expects to now have its wedding and catering numbers soar past pre-fire levels, the early returns after the new clubhouse opened have indicated that the banquet/ a la carte mix will now actually shift closer to 60-40, in large part because of the greater appeal of dining and drinking at the club and enjoying the clubhouse’s new venues and amenities.
When was Bogey Hills Clubhouse built?
The Bogey Hills clubhouse that burned to the ground in February 2017 had sections dating back to 1926 from its origins as a farmhouse, with additions made in three consecutive decades after the club was founded in 1962. The new clubhouse was opened in May 2018, with about 10,000 square feet added to expand the club’s banquet capacity and offer a variety of new amenities.
Is Bogey Hills back in full bore?
By this fall, Walters Likens reports, Bogey Hills was back in the wedding game full-bore, with weekends already filling up again for 2019 and 2020. “We’ll do three in a weekend if we can,” she says. “It’s our bread and butter, and the one-stop shopping we can provide is giving us a real edge again [in securing wedding bookings], along with the appeal of the new building and our property.”
When did Bogey Hills become a private club?
Under the Walters’ family ownership, Bogey Hills expanded from a nine-hole operation to 18 holes in 1972. It became a private club in 1980 and hosted the largest non-PGA golf tournament in the U.S., the Bogey Hills Invitational, during the late 1980s and early 1990s, which attracted both up-and-coming and established players, including Bob Goalby, Lee Elder, John Daly, Jay Haas and Payne Stewart.
Is Bogey Hills a for profit club?
In May of this year, Bogey Hills unveiled the physical evidence of that effect, with the grand opening of its new clubhouse (see photo above, and on cover). And through the first season of its renewed operation, the positive effects of the for-profit club’s determination to quickly turn the shock of the fire into a successful rebirth have already been demonstrated through not only a rapid return to lively activity levels, but also strong membership gains and bookings for future business.
Who is the president of Bogey Hills?
Even as the debris from the fire was still being cleared away, Angel Walters Likens, Bogey Hills’ President and General Manager , was planning and spreading the word about a new clubhouse that would be the centerpiece of a new chapter in the club’s history.
Is Bogey Hills a simulator?
Bogey Hills’ new simulator room is proving to be a strong instructional and bad-weather complement to the club’s golf course, which for many years hosted the largest non-PGA Tour event in the U.S. The simulators have also generated lively league play and use by grooms and their parties while on site for weddings.
Rooms For Improvements
Rapid Transformation
- From the groundbreaking for the new building in Augut 2017 to the grand opening nine months later, the Bogey Hills management and membership team involved with creating the new clubhouse saw to it that all of those new “to do” boxes were checked off. And when the doors were opened, both the current membership and outside world quickly took notice that much mor…
A New Identity
- The start of the new chapter in Bogey Hills’ history is also proving to be timely for how it coincides with a revival of St. Charles, which had pretty much been considered just an outlying suburb of St. Louis for many years. But now, like many older settlements that first existed on their own without a connection to a larger city, St. Charles—a Missouri River town that was founded in 1769 and is …
Learning from Experience
- While clubhouse fires are not the common occurrence they were 100 years ago, when they happen today the consequences can be far more devastating, and the recovery process far more complicated. So it’s no surprise that many other club managers have been eager to learn all they can from how Bogey Hills bounced back so quickly from its fire. And while Angel Walters Likens …