The Cliffside Beach Club Is For Sale After Nearly 70 Years Under Family Ownership

The Currie family, which has owned and operated The Cliffside Beach Club on Nantucket's north shore since 1958, has put the iconic property up for sale, informing its staff and club members last week that it would be entertaining offers for the century-old facility located between Steps Beach and The Galley restaurant.

The family has engaged the global commercial real estate company CBRE to manage the private sale, according to a message sent to Cliffside Beach Club members by Robert Currie. The asking price has not been disclosed publicly.

The Currie family has owned the property for nearly 70 years and oversaw the addition of a hotel operation to the existing club during the 1970s, as well as several expansions of the facilities during the 1980s.

In Robert Currie’s message to members, obtained by the Current, he spoke to his family’s connection to the island and the property, while emphasizing that the summer would be “business as usual” at the club for its members and guests.

“After 66 years and three generations of family stewardship, the Currie family has made the decision to consider the sale of Cliffside Beach Club,” Currie wrote. “As you undoubtedly can imagine, this was a decision that has been in our thoughts for some time and wasn’t taken lightly. This property has been our family home for decades. We have raised our children here and developed lifelong friendships. It is no exaggeration to say that this property has shaped our lives in ways beyond description.”

Currie informed members that while CBRE would immediately begin engaging potential buyers, he expected the process to take “several months” and that there is “no assurance” that a sale will occur.

“The usual cadence of the beach club and our lodging operations will continue through the end of the season without any changes,” Currie wrote.

Leading the process of selling the Cliffside Beach Club on behalf of the Currie family will be Robert Webster, the vice chairman of CBRE’s hotels institutional group who the company describes as one of the top hotel brokers in the world. It was Webster who returned the Current’s call to the Cliffside Beach Club on Friday to answer questions about the sale.

“This has been owned in the family for a long time, and all family businesses eventually make decisions that are best for the family,” Webster said. “They all got together and realized now is the time to explore options. We don’t know if there will be a sale or not…We’re going to see what options are in the market.”

Webster stated he believed the property would remain operating as a beach club and hotel, but acknowledged there would be few buyers for such a unique property with its history as a beach club and hotel.

“It’s a very curated process,” Webster said. “It’s not going to be a widely marketed asset...There is no asking price. We’ll be doing some pricing discovery in the market. We’ll see where we end up.”

A property like the Cliffside Beach Club comes up for sale “once in a lifetime,” Webster added, and like Currie, he stressed a sale could take months if it happens at all.

“It could take well into next year,” Webster said. “It depends on the process and the interest and the level of interest. These are aspects to every transaction and pricing is part of it, but speed and certainty is part of it. We’re looking to strike a balance and we’re going to be very thoughtful about it. We know how important this asset is to the island, the people, and the customers.”

The 2.66-acre property along the north shore was first developed as a beach club in 1924 when it opened under the name Conrad’s Beach after the owner/manager. The original pavilion built that year still exists.

“On warm summer days the pavilion was filled with guests elegantly dressed in silk suits and top hats,” according to a 1989 brochure for the Cliffside Beach Club in the Nantucket Historical Association’s archives. “At that time it was unthinkable to arrive at the beach in a bathing suit. In the early years, the over four hundred wooden changing rooms were rented two times per day to meet the demand.”

The club became private in 1949, and nine years later it was purchased by the Currie family.

“In 1970, the transition from Beach Club to Beach Club-Hotel began with the construction of several rental apartments,” Currie wrote to guests in 1989. “During 1983 and 1984 a limited number of hotel rooms and suites were added…All the furnishings including the beds, tables, vanities and interior doors were designed and built by Nantucket craftsmen.”

Over the three generations of ownership by the Curries, the Cliffside Beach Club has added 22 hotel rooms and suites, an exercise and spa facility, a private bar and cafe, along with a pool area.

The nearby property located at 41 Jefferson Avenue and situated on the other side of Galley Beach and the public way - which was originally developed as a private beach club in the 1930s - is also on the market, listed by The Mazer Group at Compass. The property is smaller - just .94 acres, but it includes a four-unit main beach house, two stand-alone cottages, two garages, an entry courtyard/garden, and a large Belgian-block parking area. Like the Cliffside Beach Club, it is part of the only residential/commercial (R/C) zoned property on the entire north shore of Nantucket. Compass has been marketing its potential uses as a residential compound, a luxury boutique hotel, an exclusive private club, as well as “a joint venture with other island accommodation businesses offering the private bathing beach and large beachfront residences that they lack, or a condominium conversion.”

In May, Compass slashed the original $39 million asking price for 41 Jefferson Avenue down to $29.9 million. It has been on the market for more than two years.