Brooklyn Heights will soon have three members-only clubs within a half-mile stretch.
The Heights Casino, a 1904 Montague Street institution, will be joined by two newcomers in the “urban country club” space: Kings Athletic Club and the Beginning.
Kings Athletic Club, a 52,000-square-foot wellness club in the old Hotel St. George, is preparing for a soft opening over Labor Day weekend, a spokesperson for the club told Pineapple Street. Construction is “substantially complete,” according to the club.
It’s taking over the old Eastern Athletic space, which closed in 2023. Open Squash, a nonprofit squash club, was set to move in a few years ago, but the plans never materialized.
Kings Athletic is a project of private equity firm SC Holdings and real estate investment firm East Gate Investors. The firms signed a 29-year lease at 111 Hicks St. last year.
The club will have a pool, two tennis courts, pickleball and squash courts, golf simulators, a climbing wall, yoga and Pilates studios and a half basketball court. It will also have wellness amenities such as infrared saunas, red light therapy, massage treatment rooms, cold plunges and guided stretching.
Kings Athletic is specifically geared toward families, the spokesperson said. “We want KAC to be a place for families in the neighborhood to come together, whether you’re there to spend time with your kids or take a break.” For the kids: arcade games, ping pong, virtual reality and babysitters on staff.
Billy Durney, founder of Red Hook Tavern and Hometown Bar-B-Que, will lead the club’s food program. The restaurant will serve “health-forward” food during the day and a “tavern menu” at night. The restaurant will be open only to members and their guests.
Over on Columbia Heights, the Beginning is setting up in an 1860s brick building across from Hillside Dog Park.
The club from Little Big Hospitality, co-founded by Michael Schoen and Carroll Gardens local Chris de Koos, also has families in mind. The 45,000-square-foot space will have programming and classes for children, a spa, Pilates and a rooftop bar and restaurant.
A former European design director for Soho House, James Thurstan Waterworth, is handling the interiors, Curbed reported.
The private club boom is part of a citywide trend. In the years after the pandemic, the city saw a new wave of members-only clubs, as people sought out “third spaces” and offices emptied out with the shift to remote work. As of January, brokers were tracking more than 35 clubs operating or in development across New York City.
Some experts have questioned whether the new wave will last. Diana Kendall, a sociology professor at Baylor University who studies elite clubs, told The New York Times that newer clubs may lack “the prestige and resources of the old, established clubs,” leaving them more exposed to economic downturns. Renting rather than owning, she said, may limit their “staying power.”
The Heights Casino is one of those old, established clubs. The Casino, in a Flemish Revival building at 75 Montague St., was founded in 1904 “by and for the Heights’ wealthy residents,” according to Brownstoner. Centered on squash and tennis, it’s reportedly home to the first indoor tennis court in the United States.
By the 1950s, the Casino’s exclusive policies had pushed it to the brink of bankruptcy, per Brownstoner. It became more inclusive over the following decades. Its stated mission, from the start, was to be a “family and community club.”
As for what it costs to join the new clubs, the Beginning’s membership rates aren’t set, but Curbed reported they’re likely to start around $300 a month per adult and $200 per child. Kings Athletic Club declined to disclose its pricing.
Heights Happenings
Major neighborhood news this week: Mayor Zohran Mamdani on Monday announced a $4 billion plan to fix the crumbling triple-cantilever section of the BQE — a piece of the highway that’s vexed city planners for decades. Here’s some more information:
Construction on the city-owned, 1.5-mile stretch of the highway between Atlantic Avenue and Sands Street would take place between 2030 and 2040.
Unlike previous plans, this one wouldn’t require full closure of the Brooklyn Heights Promenade. However, portions of the promenade would be closed at various times during construction.
The plan would involve building a temporary two-level highway above Furman Street. The temporary roadway would be “tucked out of view” from the promenade, City Transportation Commissioner Michael Flynn said.
Local officials, including State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, Assemblymember Jo Anne Simon and Councilmember Lincoln Restler, said they were “encouraged” by the news, but they have “many outstanding questions.” The officials said they are “concerned about such an invasive and disruptive construction approach, and are worried about the damaging impact of temporary highways in our dense neighborhood.”
This fall, NYC DOT will launch an environmental review process and host two public meetings where community members can learn more about the project. Pineapple Street will share the registration links when they’re available.
Virtual Q&A #1: Oct. 6 from 7 to 8 p.m.
Virtual Q&A #2: Oct. 22 from 11 a.m. to noon.
Two trees fell at the corner of Pineapple Street and Columbia Heights after a thunderstorm last Thursday, adding to a steady loss of trees in the neighborhood this summer. The city’s been working to plant new trees, but preservation is just as important, according to a new study from researchers in Chicago: Mature trees like the ones lost last week are particularly good for public health outcomes. “If we take care of trees, they take care of us, and might even help save our lives,” Harrison C. Garcia, lead author of the study, told The New York Times.
The bases of the fallen trees. 
Trees fell "all over Brooklyn" after last week's storm, a Parks Department employee told Pineapple Street. There will be a Montague Open Streets Neighborhood Tag Sale from noon to 4 p.m. on Sept. 27. Brooklyn Heights households can apply for a spot to sell clothes, toys, kitchenware and household items here.
An apartment fire broke out in a ground-floor unit at 35 Orange St. on Sunday afternoon, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported. The blaze drew 79 fire and EMS personnel to the building.
The Brooklyn Book Festival is looking for volunteers to help with Children’s Day on Sept. 26 and Festival Day on Sept. 27. Sign up by Sept. 2.
Books Are Magic is hosting a conversation between Priya Parker, a conflict facilitator and the author of “The Art of Gathering: How We Meet and Why It Matters,” and actor America Ferrera at the First Unitarian Congregational Society on Pierrepont Street on Sept. 9 at 6 p.m. Tickets here.
Tickets are now available for the opening night party for the Brooklyn Heights Designer Showhouse on Sept. 30 at 1 Monroe Place.
On Aug. 29, Dumbo Dads Run Club is teaming up with City Point BKLYN and the FDNY for a morning run ending at the firehouse at 74 Middagh St., where kids can check out the firetrucks. The run starts at Ziggy’s Roman Cafe at 8:30 a.m. RSVP here.
Nearby News
Reformers inside the Brooklyn Democratic Party rallied outside Borough Hall this week against what they described as a “power grab” by the party’s chair, Rodneyse Bichotte Hermelyn.
Light Switch, a coffee shop and wine bar, opened this week at 333 Court St. in Carroll Gardens. The Strong Buzz has all the details on the new spot.
Two developers spent $400,000 to save a 100-year-old silver maple tree on their plot of land on Dikeman Street in Red Hook.
West Village Girls and Murray Hill Boys have been flocking to Red Hook this summer.
Thank you for your service 🫡 I am clicking through to several of these!
Private clubs owned by private equity. Further enshittification by rich assholes.