Jonathan Club, located in southern California has both a Town Club situated in the bustling urban core of Los Angeles, and a Beach Club that is bathed in the sunlight and gentle Pacific breezes of Santa Monica. The San Andreas fault-line may lurk beneath the surface, but this area is also the epicenter of big, important lifestyle trends that are just as likely to shake the cultural landscape. So what is going on at this premier club?
First, you might be surprised to find that the Jonathan Club’s Town Club has a fifth floor garden roof in the heart of L.A.—and not a symbolic, decorative urban garden, either. This is a garden that might be more accurately labeled a productive farming venture. It has the scale: 2,800 square feet and 42 usable beds. It produces dozens of varieties of fruits and vegetables: lemons, oranges, eggplants, figs, tomatoes, spinach, cilantro, sage and other herbs. It yields more than $100,000 in food and beverage ingredients. This “farmscape” may be the first of its kind in Los Angeles, but it won’t be the last. Watch for one coming to a club near you.
Jonathan Club, however, is a harbinger of things that extend beyond agricultural and its related expression in food. The club recognizes that the interest and commitment to a healthy and sustainable food cycle point to concerns that are both bigger and broader. These involve quality of life issues that organize around aspirations for wellness, for worthwhile pursuits and for participation in a broader social context that is both fun and enriching.
Thus the success of Jonathan Club and others like it traces to its “fit” with the lifestyle needs of its members and its capacity to open up new possibilities based on a thorough understanding of their aspirations for a well-balanced life. In this way the club becomes not an accessory to a successful life, but an essential means to that end. This is the irreducible value proposition of the modern club.
Jonathan Club does not have a formulaic approach to achieving these high levels of salience and relevance, but there are several foundational elements. Let’s highlight a few:
Nurture important values.
Traditional values can find expansion and new expression however. California has led the way in fashioning lifestyle adaptions. In the past, these have often reflected our preference for informality and physicality, but now we increasingly see these established club activities give new meaning and application. Thus, Jonathan Club has been at the vanguard of an important renewal of the private club industry: taking clubs’ longstanding association with physical and athletic pursuits and linking them to something bigger, namely, an enduring need for continued good health and a sustainable lifestyle. Run down Jonathan Club’s organizational chart or management departments and you’ll find a unifying and holistic emphasis: as in Athletics and Wellness. Something new is sidling up to the old in a way that makes sense that just fits.
Connect the dots. Though Jonathan Club consistently delivers extraordinary experiences, these are not typically one-off events. Matthew Allnatt, the club’s general manager/COO, explains that the club’s many offerings have an important coherence and unity: “We start simple and build.” The club’s approach to wellness is “in front of everything we do.” Physical exercise, recreational activities and athletic endeavors are all well supported with a highly trained staff and premium facilities, but notions of wellness extend into other areas like dining, spa services and education. They observe here that physical fitness is rapidly expanding with applications that focus on the mind-body connection. Wellness has a mental and even spiritual dimension that Jonathan Club unapologetically cultivates. While Allnatt will grant that L.A. has created more than a few stressful environments, Jonathan Club is not one on them—and that’s by design.
Fitness. Jonathan Club is using My Zone technology in its athletic and wellness programming. It brings personalized data into the picture, which dramatically increases the member’s chances of achieving results and minimizes the likelihood of strain or over-exertion. Bio-data from off-site exercise can also be merged with club workouts to get a fuller picture of one’s activities and overall health.
Invest in people. Director of Athletics and Wellness Alan Krugel credits his talented staff with a unique capacity to meld passion with expertise in areas ranging from Pilates to paddle tennis to personal training. The connection between athletics and wellness gets expressed in myriad ways. Jonathan Club has its members covered from head to toe, with Pilates instruction bolstered via “Posture Check 101” and Spa Director Bill Takahashi pitching in to do his part in the Body Sustainability Series with a session on “Happy Feet”—all part of a larger series of membership education workshops organized under the philosophy and techniques of Yamuna Body Rolling[CV1] .
The club’s investment in people is not just limited to members. Jonathan Club’s culture of health and wellness winds its way deep into all of its 500 employees, who similarly internalize and benefit from a heightened awareness of the habits of healthy living, which includes robust physical activity as well as nutrition and education. The club clearly views its employees as family and works to support their aspirations as well.
Look around the corner. Jonathan Club has done an admirable job of anticipating important trends and responding to them in ways that have both preserved and enhanced its core identity and values. It’s hard to put a finger on any single key to this organizational nimbleness. Leadership and vision is a key ingredient, as is careful planning. To these sound management principles, a certain openness to the future coupled with a generosity of spirit and zest for life adds further momentum to the entire project. It ushers in new possibilities that are vital and exciting. Jonathan Club, with its embodiment of this outlook, offers others in the private club world a compelling vision of this altogether attractive and sustainable future.
In sum, Jonathan Club’s health and wellness focus is farsighted. In its attention to the needs of not only its members but also those of its employees, the club is able to anticipate emergent priorities, to see around those corners and hasten the arrival of new approaches that enliven the time-honored traditions and values of the club. This 360° view of the current scene gives club leadership and management the perspective it needs to make the connections between this program and that department in order to ultimately deliver an integrated experience that reflects the club’s mission and forward-looking spirit. It’s an approach in step with the time, in touch with members’ aspirations and in keeping with the distinctive offerings that a private club is uniquely positioned to deliver. It all fits together.
Spa Sidebar
The spa is a great place to pamper yourself, but at Jonathan Club’s Urban and Beach Retreats, it’s also a place to promote the benefits of wellness. Massage therapy (over a half-dozen types), skin care (including “healthy glow” and LED light anti-aging) and body treatments complement the more typical offerings like manicures and pedicures. The Urban Retreat offers a full line of 30-minute services and lunch “on the run” for members with limited time.
The spa also embodies Matthew Allnatt’s “start simple and build” philosophy. It has grown in popularity to the point that it’s clearly not just for women anymore. There is, for example, the “Gentleman’s Organic Treat” (a facial) and also the Sports Massage, which “enhances pre-event performance and rehabilitates post-event injuries.” It reaches across the generations with yet another massage approach—this one Thai—that enhances flexibility, and, when it comes to loving your skin, there is the “Never Too Soon” option aimed at the pre-teen crowd.
Club Trends Spring 2015