Center Club Orange County, the private business and social club next to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, says it is closing its doors at the start of the new year.
The shuttering marks the end of a 36-year run for Center Club, founded by the late Henry Segerstrom, whose membership was heavy with local lawyers, bankers and real estate execs, and whose space was frequently used for business events, power lunches, weddings and other big gatherings. It and the unaffiliated Pacific Club were OC’s two top private city clubs.
At one time, the Center Club held well over 1,000 members. As of a couple years ago, membership ran around $300 a month, plus a $1,000 initiation fee.
The club, running some 16,000 square feet, is on the bottom, garden level of the Center Tower. It took a hit during the pandemic as many of its members normally at the area’s nearby office towers worked from home and avoided larger social gatherings.
“Despite extensive negotiations with our landlord, the lease was not renewed,” the club said in a letter to members last week.
Over the remainder of 2021, it will “begin transferring our assets, members and employees to our other ClubCorp clubs,” the letter said.
Other area locations run by Dallas-based ClubCorp include the Aliso Viejo Golf Club and the Coto de Caza Golf and Racquet Club.
A New Year’s Eve “Around the World” event will wrap up the center’s activities, it said.
The Business Journal was saddened to hear news of the death of Nate Jensen, senior vice president, co-head renewable fuels and chief legal officer for Newport Beach’s Clean Energy (Nasdaq: CLNE).
Jensen died following a car crash last week. He was 48.
Last month, Jensen was honored during the Business Journal’s annual General Counsel Awards, as the outstanding GC of a public company.
“Nate was not only a terrific legal and business mind but more importantly he was a wonderful husband, father and friend. I will miss him and there will be a large hole in the OC legal landscape with his loss,” said Mark Peterson, a partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, who introduced Jensen at the event.
“Words cannot describe my sadness for the loss of Nate Jensen,” said Clean Energy CEO Andrew J. Littlefair.
“Not only was he a colleague for over a decade and the ‘Best General Counsel’ as the OCBJ awarded him, but he was also a dear, dear friend.
“Nate leaves behind a devoted wife, Pamela, four wonderful kids and his Clean Energy family. We will miss his intellect, his business acumen, his devotion and his kindness,” Littlefair said.
Jensen last month told the Business Journal he was proud of his work at the provider of renewable natural gas, as well as his work in the legal industry, of which he said: “It’s a noble, and should be an honorable, profession that is practiced among civil people who seek to meet their clients’ needs in as cooperative manner as possible.”
“I have not regretted for one minute becoming a lawyer. It’s been a fabulous career.”
