THE CITY Club’s Bar & Game Room
Country clubs became popular when people started looking for private places where they can spend their free time, and entertain family and friends with a variety of leisure activities. Since then, clubs have sprung up one by one in different parts of the country.
I haven’t really realized how a country club in the metro can be so different from the existing ones until I went to The City Club during its grand opening last Sept. 5. Developed by Alphaland Corp. and another one of Bobby Ongpin’s new babies, this newest members-only country club has 3 hectares of floor area, with a total of 52 world-class amenities.
Tour around the club
After greeting friends who also attended the event, I took a tour around The City Club to check out the amenities. Yes, the club is really so big that you need to be toured around, especially if it’s your first time to visit. The City Club occupies the 4th to 6th levels of Alphaland’s 55-story Makati Place, one of the tallest and most intelligent residential buildings on Ayala Avenue, Makati. The 4th floor of the club houses seven of the club’s eight specialty restaurants, which include Hai Shin Lou (Chinese), Salathip (Thai) Mark’s Prime Rib (Steakhouse), Costa del Sol (Spanish), Mona Lisa (Italian), A Taste of France by Chef Sau (French) and even Balesin Island Club’s famous Sakura by Edo San (Japanese).
Aside from the restaurants, The Tea Room by TWG and the Tabacalera Cigar Divan can be found on the same floor. The club also has a bar and game room where you can enjoy a few drinks while playing a game of billiards with your friends or belt out songs in one of its three KTV rooms.
On the other side of the 4th floor is where the indoor courts are located. The club has courts for badminton, tennis, basketball and squash. It also has two function rooms, which can be combined as one banquet hall, where members can hold private events.
I toured the fifth floor, where the club’s business center, and sports and recreational facilities are found. The club has a total of eight meeting rooms and a library.
Sports, recreational facilities
ME, Renee Olstead and Tommy King
I was then ushered to the other section of the floor where we entered the gym. The gym was immaculate. The 500-square-meter area is complete with equipment for cardio, conditioning, strength and endurance, all from Life Fitness. It even has Synrgy360 that serves as a full-service training facility. Aside from the gym, the club has a boxing ring plus studios for martial arts, dance, yoga and aerobics, pilates and pole dancing. Just outside the gym is a juice and salad bar where you can get healthy snacks after working up a sweat.
The club also has a table tennis room, a screening room where you can watch movies in a private cinema setting and an indoor airsoft gun room where you can practice your sharp-shooting skills.
Just when I thought that I’ve seen everything, I was surprised when I was led to another area where I found the most unique amenity in The City Club, a golf simulator. Not offered in any other club in the country, the golf simulator allows you to practice your swing whenever you can’t go to the golf course. The trainer demonstrated the use of the facility and I personally witnessed how realistic and accurate it is—from the scenery to the flight of the ball.
Pampering, relaxation area
The sixth floor of The City Club will open before the end of the year. It is where the pampering and relaxation area will be located. With a world-class spa, an outdoor Jacuzzi area, swimming pool and lap pools together with a large Filipino restaurant and a barbecue area, members can de-stress and spend quality time with their family and friends after work or during the weekends.
THE CITY Club’s 500-sq-m gym
The club is also designed to be very child-friendly with its children’s pool, daycare, learning center and indoor and outdoor play areas, all found on the same floor.
After the impressive tour, I can only say that Alphaland chair Bobby Ongpin has yet again delivered another premiere and top-of-the-line addition to the country’s real estate industry. I am pretty sure I will be spending a lot of time at The City Club.
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