Princeton Club of New York Closes Indefinitely as Bank Declares Default

Pandemic closures deprived the club of operating income, the club’s president wrote

Former Chair of the Federal Reserve Ben Bernanke speaks in April 2012 at the Princeton Club of New York. In the background is a portrait of former Princeton President Shirley Tilghman.

John Moore/Getty Images

By Elisabeth H. Daugherty

Published Oct. 29, 2021

2 min read

Editor’s note: Since this story was published, club president Christine M. Loomis ’72 wrote to members saying the weeklong closure is now “indefinite.” The story has been updated.

The Princeton Club of New York is closed indefinitely as the bank holding its mortgage has declared it in default.

Sterling Bank of New York has begun the process to auction the loans, club president Christine M. Loomis ’72 wrote in an email to members. The club has occupied its 10-story building in midtown Manhattan since 1963.

Loomis wrote that New York’s mandatory closures during the pandemic kept the club closed or only partially open for a year, depriving it of operating income. Still, the club continued paying utilities, real estate taxes, employee benefits, and salaries for a skeleton staff. It also continued its payments to Sterling until March 2021, when it received a six-month forbearance. That ended in September, and the club couldn’t accept the bank’s offer of another month with “punitive interest rates and conditions.”

The club has brought Sterling “several friendly prospective note-buyers who were interested in investing in our Club and community,” but the bank chose to continue with the auction, Loomis wrote. Emlen Harmon, director of investor relations at Sterling, declined to comment.

“While the auction does not close until the end of November, our financial situation means that the club is no longer able to operate until we know who will be the buyer of our debt,” Loomis wrote in a subsequent email dated Oct. 29.

Bloomberg reported the club’s mortgage debt is $39.3 million and its annual operating expenses are about $15 million. It also said that the club lost one-third of its 6,000 members during the pandemic. Its dues-paying members are alumni of Princeton and also colleges including NYU, the London School of Economics, Fordham University, and more, according to its website.

The club tried to enlist the University’s help to stay open, but was told repeatedly it will not receive support, Loomis wrote. The club was founded independently from Princeton in 1899 and is not recognized as a formal alumni association.

“The University is aware that their decision not to support the club means the club may cease to exist,” Loomis wrote.

University spokesman Mike Hotchkiss said in an email that Princeton does not financially support the New York club or any others like it, and he referred questions about conversations between the University and the club to the club. The club’s leaders did not comment. When The Daily Princetonian asked for comment, a University official said the New York alumni association provides programming in the area and alumni there also “benefit from easy access to campus events.”

The Princeton Club of New York was founded in 1866 and had four locations in Manhattan prior to the current clubhouse on West 43rd Street. It has accommodations for overnight stays as well as squash courts, a gym, two restaurants, and private meeting spaces.

Loomis told members they continue to have access to reciprocal clubs including the Penn Club, Cornell Club, and the National Arts Club, and leaders are looking for more reciprocal partners.

Alumni 1972

3 Responses

Henry Lerner ’71

1 Year Ago

Disappointment at the Loss of Princeton Club

I was — and I suspect others were — extremely disappointed when the Princeton Club of New York closed its doors (“Princeton Club of New York Closes Indefinitely as Bank Declares Default,” published online Oct. 29, 2021). I very much miss having this wonderful facility in mid-Manhattan for my occasional visits to New York City, with its many associations with Princeton. But I am writing to comment on two aspects of the closure of the club: how it was done and Princeton University’s failure to in any way assist the club.

Many members of the club, as have I, had been members for 30, 40, or 50 or more years. Yet when the club closed, no official announcement or letter was communicated to the membership. In fact, emails and letters that I sent to the last club president, to members of the club board, and to the last club manager went unanswered. This was unfortunate, inappropriate, and left many club members wondering what had happened — and what the future of the club facility would be.

Secondly, the University refused all requests to come to some arrangement with the club to keep it functioning [see editor’s note below]. Surely, having a superb facility in the heart of the biggest business, financial, and arts center in the country would have been of some use to the University. It declined to enter into any such arrangement.

On a personal level, I now have one less connection with Princeton, having now no facility in New York with a Princeton affiliation. As an alumnus concerned with Princeton’s well-being, I am disappointed that the University did not take advantage of the opportunity to save, partner with, or take over the wonderful facility that was the Princeton Club of New York.

Editor’s note: PAW reported at the time of the closure that Princeton did not financially support the New York club or any others like it. In February, a University spokesman confirmed this is still the case.

Chuck Goldberg ’71

1 Year Ago

Missed Opportunity

As my classmate Henry Lerner ’71 has stated, I, too, am extremely disappointed that the president of the University and the trustees did not see fit to rescue the club, which is situated in a city that is arguably one of the most productive on the planet in terms of philanthropical support.

No explanation of this travesty will assuage me. To underscore my profound dismay, for the last two years, I have sent checks to the Annual Fund in the amount of $0.02. Princeton University does many things well; this hasn’t been one of them.

Bruce MacEwen ’76

2 Years Ago

Much Worse Than Members Knew

The article reporting that the Princeton Club of New York has closed confirms my view that club leadership flagrantly abused the trust of its members and exploited their forbearance, trust, and good will for nearly two full years, starting in March 2020 as the pandemic lockdown descended on New York. During that entire period, communication from leadership to the members — of whom I have been one for over a decade — consisted of a single email from President Loomis asking for “voluntary” contributions to help tide the Club over. (I was naive enough to make a donation, quite humiliating in hindsight but more than ample evidence of the trust members reposed in the club.)

In the meantime, the club has continued to bill full dues, totaling thousands of dollars over that period for a typical member — for zero services rendered. Yet management has kept the club’s dire financial straits completely secret, up to and through President Loomis’ flagrantly untrue statement late last month that the club was closing for “a week.” Then and only then did I learn — on Bloomberg News — that the mortgage was being auctioned and the club would be shuttered for good.

Earlier this year, I sent several follow-on, personal emails to President Loomis asking for updates on the club’s situation; all went unanswered. Perhaps that should have been a red flag to me, and indeed I recount these events with a sense of shame that I could have been so trusting for so long, but I long ago chose to live my life premised on relationships and not transactions.

All told, this presents a track record of duplicity, gross abuse of members’ trust and loyalty, and financial exploitation on a large scale, that cries out for accountability and consequences. I for one hope a gifted plaintiff’s lawyer takes a deeper look at this travesty of mismanagement.