Members-only Regency Club to close after 30 years

The Regency Club, a members-only private dining club in Westwood founded in 1981 by Los Angeles billionaire tycoon David Murdock, is closing — a victim of declining business during the recession.

With sweeping ocean views, the club catered to the Los Angeles business elite from the 17th floor and penthouse perch at the top of the Murdock Plaza building, at 10900 Wilshire Blvd.

Murdock, who owns the club, decided not to renew the 600-member club’s lease that is set to expire April 30, said the club’s general manager, Scully Cloete. He said Murdock once owned the building where the club is located but sold it.

Cloete said membership had gradually declined in recent years, and Murdock felt that “after 30 years, it is perhaps time to make space for a new generation.”

Carl Terzian, who is a founding member and sits on the club’s board of governors, said Murdock called each board member to explain his decision. Murdock told him that he had tried everything, including covering some of the club’s expenses himself, Terzian said, but ultimately the costs were too high, membership too low and the club was not as relevant as it once was.

The April 30 closing of the club is “an enormous shock and real tragedy,” said Terzian, who said he visits the club daily. “At some point, it pencils out to not being a good investment.”

Murdock could not be reached for comment. The closing was first reported by the Los Angeles Business Journal.

Publicist Arlene Howard, who joined with her husband seven years ago, said she is saddened by the closing and called the club “the last bastion of gentility in Los Angeles.”

The $10,000 she paid to join and the club’s $300 monthly fee are well worth the benefit it provided for her business, social life and lifestyle, Howard said.

“When you brought a client there, you were acknowledged by people” like former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan and billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, she said.

“When that happened, you impressed who you were trying to impress,” Howard said.

Attendance seemed to take a hit from both the recession and not being as relevant to the younger crowd of business men and women, she said.

“The younger kids today are calling the shots as far as what the new standards are,” Howard said. “It’s a dinosaur perhaps, but one of the most beloved dinosaurs.”

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