Bay Club Co. finalized its acquisition of Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach last week for $73 million, the San Francisco company announced Tuesday.
The purchase, which closed June 1, included the ground lease for the facility and club operations, said Kevin Klipfel, Bay Club’s chief operating officer. The seller was Keith Brackpool, co-founder and chairman of Cadiz Inc. in downtown, who developed the club in 1982, Klipfel said.
The club is 75,270 square feet, according to CoStar, and includes a 6,000-square-foot gym, 18 courts for tennis, squash, and racquetball, a 25-meter outdoor pool, and several eateries. About 1,500 families are members. The City of Manhattan Beach owns the underlying 7.5-acre plot of land on Parkview Avenue near the intersection of Rosecrans Avenue and Sepulveda Boulevard.
The property is the company’s eighth acquisition in Los Angeles County, according to its website, building on its 2015 purchase of 11 Spectrum Athletic Clubs in Southern California. Bay Club now has four locations in the South Bay, which Klipfel said are meant to complement each other with slightly different services.
Bay Club targeted the Manhattan Country Club, which was not on the market, for its mix of gym and leisure facilities, he said.
“We think of ourselves as a hospitality company, not a gym company,” Klipfel said.
Klipfel said Bay Club plans to continue expanding over the next year in California, where it claims a total of 23 properties serving more than 50,000 memberships. The deal was financed through cash and debt on Bay Club’s overall business, Klipfel said. New York-based York Capital Management is a majority investor in the company.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the number of Bay Club locations in Los Angeles County.