NYC’s Princeton Club Closes Doors ‘Indefinitely’ in Cash Crunch

(Bloomberg) -- The Princeton Club of New York has shut its doors for good.

The storied private midtown club closed “indefinitely” Friday, club president Christine Loomis said in an email to members obtained by Bloomberg. 

The club’s $40 million in mortgage debt is in default and being sold at auction. So far, no white knight has emerged to purchase the note and keep things running. 

Members can access the Cornell Club, Penn Club and other reciprocal locations for now, Loomis said. Repeated efforts to enlist Princeton University’s financial aid went nowhere, she said. 

“I want to be clear—we do not have the money to continue to operate the Club,” Loomis said. “The university is aware that their decision not to support the club means the club may cease to exist. Once the ultimate note purchaser is identified, we will be able to ascertain if they will allow us to take on financing to resume operations.”

After receiving six months of forbearance on its $39.3 million debt from lender Sterling National Bank that ended in September, the club went into default and the bank enlisted Newmark Group Inc. to sell the note by the end of November, people familiar with the situation said earlier this month. 

The club, which had four previous homes before settling into its current location on 15 W. 43rd St. in 1963, traces its origins back to 1866.

Unlike other midtown-based Ivy League alumni clubs, many of which are situated nearby in an area known as “Clubhouse Row,” the Princeton Club of New York has no financial relationship with the New Jersey-based university, one of the richest in the nation. In contrast, the Cornell Club on East 44th Street has been owned by Cornell University since 1986. 

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