Two Atlantic Beach beach clubs close

There is a ripple in the wave of beach clubs that line Atlantic Beach’s shoreline: the Westbury and Westbury III beach clubs are closing.

Managing agents Stuart and Allie Berman announced the closing of both clubs in an email sent out last week to club members. “The only thing I am prepared to say is that we are sad that the clubs are closing and that we will miss the many friends that we made over the years,” Berman told the Herald.

Though Berman did not say why the two clubs are closing, Howard Taub, owner of the Sunny Atlantic Beach Club, said he is “shocked but not surprised.” “It is a tough business, Taub said. “I’m here 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. most days during the season and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. off-season.”

Rising costs are one of the reasons beach clubs have been financially challenged for some time, said Taub, whose club has between 500 and 600 members. “The price of everything constantly goes up: paint, food, parking, insurance, pay for good employees and much more,” he said. “You can’t raise rates every year, and because of the marine recreational zoning there’s not much more we can do.”

In 1985, the Town of Hempstead created a marine recreation district to preserve the beaches, which prohibits development of the beach club properties for housing. Until 2002, when Atlantic Beach residents approved a proposition that gave the village its own zoning powers, the town had that power thanks to a 1938 amendment in the Nassau County charter that denied zoning authority to new villages. Atlantic Beach was incorporated in 1962.

There have been several projects proposed since the marine recreation district was established for which the village has been asked for variances. But whether the plans were for high-rise apartments, condominiums, single- or multi-family housing, they lacked residents’ support, said Mayor Steven Mahler. “There has been community opposition to [development] several times while I’ve been mayor,” he said. “It doesn’t seem to sell well to the local population.”

The marine recreation zoning also prohibits the beach clubs from leasing space for parties to anyone other than their members. “I think it’s a wonderful thing to keep Mother Nature’s natural beauty,” Taub said, “but the clubs should be able to be more than just beach clubs from May to September.”

Mahler said that some potential developers purchased a few of the clubs in the 1980s with the idea of building on the property in the future. But the restrictive stipulations of the marine recreation zoning foiled those plans, he said. “We are very concerned as a village and watching that situation carefully,” he said. “We don’t like to see that kind of property lie fallow. It’s not attractive for an upscale village.”

While the future of the Westbury and Westbury III beach club properties are uncertain, the Clearwater Beach Club should have a healthy summer season: The Bermans have referred their members to the Clearwater. “All I can tell you is the line was out the door and down the stairs,” Clearwater owner Madeline Abate said of last week’s membership registration.

After her club suffered damage in Tropical Storm Irene last August, Abate said, it was rebuilt, the restaurant was renovated and many new cabanas were added. “We discounted our cabanas due to the economy, and we hope we get a lot of members,” Abate said, referring to the Westbury referrals. “The economy is doing bad. Let’s face it, this is a luxury. But people should consider with the price of gas, this is great. I have a lot of people who play mah-jongg. They don’t care about the pool or the beach. They say just set up the mah-jongg.”

The closing of the two beach clubs also means fewer jobs, from cabana boy to parking valet, for high school and college students. Former Westbury cabana boy Evan Waldman said he is glad he had one of those jobs. “It’s sad,” said Waldman, who is now a property manager, adding that he made a lot of contacts through his summer job. “As hard as you worked, you had fun.”

Waldman remembered that Berman didn’t want to hire him because of the distance from Waldman’s home in Jericho to the beach club. “I came back six weeks later in the pouring rain and he gave me one shot,” Waldman recalled. “The best memories were from forming relationships with the people I took care of. They were very generous, but the advice they passed on meant more to me than the money.”