Inverness Country Club to open new clubhouse

Published 5:55 pm Thursday, June 25, 2009

The Inverness Country Club’s new clubhouse will officially open for business July 3, two years after the old clubhouse was destroyed by arson.

Owner Bill Ochsenhirt said the new clubhouse is 24,000-square feet with lots of amenities, including a fitness center with cardio workout machines and free weights, space for indoor and outdoor dining and a child-care center for the members. The country club has hired close to 40 employees to staff the clubhouse.

He said when designing the clubhouse, the goal was to keep the setting casual, yet elegant.

“The thing we told the architects very early on is that it needs to be casual but elegant,” he said. “A lot of the members use the club like it’s their home. We wanted the club to be very comfortable.”

The clubhouse can be turned into a space appropriate for either casual or formal dining.

The Inverness Country Club also recently renovated the tennis complex, adding eight more championship-style courts to make 16 total tennis courts. Four more will eventually be added, Ochsenhirt said.

“It’s first-class. We wanted the tennis courts to be where the quality of what the clubhouse is and what the golf course is now,” he said.

Even though the economy has been down, the country club has been growing.

“We’ve done great,” Ochsenhirt said. “Our membership has grown a lot in the last couple of years.”

He said he’s received positive feedback about the new clubhouse from club members. They will get to see the finished clubhouse July 2, when the country club will host an open house for members and their guests.