Jordan-Branded Club Opens Its Doors, and Its Reservation Book, While City Approval Sits on the Bench

Six weeks after pulling its private club application, 1000 North Sarasota told members it would open at the end of October, will let the public book tables in pursuit of a Michelin star, and has handed every member a 24-page contract to sign or take a refund

—In September, when the game started slipping away at Sarasota City Hall, the private club wrapped in Michael Jordan’s aura called timeout. Now it’s back on the floor, and it’s running a different play.

—In an Oct. 19 email to members, 1000 North Sarasota announced that it “will officially open its doors at the end of October” inside the BLVD condominium tower at North Tamiami Trail and Boulevard of the Arts. The private club approval it asked the Planning Board to shelve on Sept. 9 has not come back. Neither has a finished parking plan. What has arrived is a new strategy: the club announced two years ago as a members-only refuge will now take dinner reservations from the general public.

—The email, signed by Chief Operating Officer Alex Elshimy and shared with LBK News by a member, presents the change as a pursuit of Michelin stars. “To support this aspiration and allow for the anonymous dining experiences associated with MICHELIN inspections, we will welcome public dining guests on a limited, reservation-only basis,” it reads, with every booking “carefully managed by our dedicated concierge team.”

—Members got something else along with the news. Before they can walk through the door, each must sign a new 24-page Private Club Membership Agreement that includes a release and waiver of liability, a jury trial waiver and a clause stating the contract supersedes everything the club has said in its marketing. They must also pay $6,000 in annual dues and settle up for any wine or liquor lockers they reserved. Members who won’t sign, the email says, “will receive a refund of their membership deposit and will no longer retain membership status.”

—A Michelin Play

—Michelin is no longer an idle dream in this market. The guide covered all of Florida for the first time this year, and in May Sarasota landed its first recognition: a Bib Gourmand for Lucky 8, with Tralia and Focaccia Sandwich + Bakery named Michelin-recommended. No Sarasota restaurant holds a star. Michelin inspectors book and dine anonymously, and the club’s email says that is exactly why it is opening its dining room to outsiders.

—The agreement members are being asked to sign lays out how the “Limited Public Reservation Program” will work. The club may release “a limited number of dining reservations” to the public through OpenTable or another platform of its choosing. Public diners acquire no membership rights and may be confined to designated dining areas and menus. Members keep priority access, but only to the extent of the club’s “commercially reasonable efforts,” and the document warns that public diners “may be present on the Club Premises during Member dining periods.” The upper-level Social Club and its lounge stay members-only and closed to anyone under 21.

—The fine print also leaves the door open, so to speak, for more. The club “may modify, expand, limit, suspend or discontinue” the public program at any time, and doing so does not change a member’s obligations.

—That is a notable turn for a club that has spent nearly two years selling itself as the place Sarasota couldn’t simply book. The original 1000 North in Jupiter has long been open to the public with a membership option. When the Sarasota location was announced in October 2024, it was pitched as the members-only version, and as recently as this spring, local coverage reported it would not be open to the general public. With an open reservation book, the Sarasota club now looks a little more like its Jupiter namesake.

—The email insists the core product has not changed. “Our commitment to creating an extraordinary private membership experience remains unchanged,” it says.

—Open Doors, Pending Approval

—The club’s business with the city is another matter. The email says 1000 North continues “advancing the remaining requirements for our private club approval with the City of Sarasota” and expects “to appear before the Planning Board in the near future.” It reports “exciting progress” on “securing additional parking accommodations for our members and guests.” It gives no hearing date.

—That is where things stood on Sept. 9, when the applicant’s planner, Joel Freedman, asked the Planning Board to continue the club’s application to a date uncertain rather than risk a vote. The board agreed 5-0 after nearly two hours of scrutiny. Board member Alexander Neihaus had measured a tandem valet run in the BLVD garage at 29 feet, 6 inches, against the 36 feet two code-compliant spaces parked nose-to-tail require. BLVD residents, with Brenda Dunn speaking for 99 neighbors, challenged the club’s claim to second-floor garage spaces that the condominium’s own recorded documents tie to residential visitors.

—The code requires 27 spaces. The club’s revised plan claimed 32, propped up in part by handshake arrangements with the voco hotel across the street, with Anand Pallegar’s lot at 1370 Boulevard of the Arts and with The Sarasota Modern hotel, none of them formalized. Because the board continued the case to a date uncertain, the application must be re-advertised and neighbors re-noticed before it can come back.

—The Oct. 19 email does not say what city approval the club is opening under in the meantime, or how a dining room taking public reservations fits with the members club use still waiting on the board. The BLVD’s ground floor was planned around a restaurant. “We expected the Beach Bistro when we moved in,” Dunn told the board in September. The conditional use request on hold is for a private club.

—As of Nov. 1, the home page of the club’s website still read, “Prestigious. Arriving Soon.”

—Sign Here

—The agreement’s cover page warns, in capital letters, that its provisions “affect your legal rights.” It is not exaggerating.

—Under Article 9, members release the club and its owners, managers, employees and affiliates from claims for injury, illness, death, property damage or economic loss arising from their use of the club, its car service and valet, its events and trips, and any outside service it arranges, “including claims arising from the negligence” of those being released. The release does not reach gross negligence or intentional misconduct. Members also assume a list of risks that runs from private aviation and boating to food allergies and alcohol and, in a building where parking has become the central fight, valet parking.

—If something goes wrong anyway, the club’s total liability to a member is capped at the annual dues that member paid that year. Disputes go to state court in Sarasota County with no jury: both sides waive a jury trial, and the winner collects attorneys’ fees.

—The agreement also declares itself the whole deal. It “supersedes all prior proposals, marketing materials, presentations, representations and agreements, whether written or oral.” A separate section says the benefits, programs and personnel described in “marketing materials, presentations, newsletters, emails or conversations” reflect the club’s “present intentions and are not guarantees,” and that changing chefs, sommeliers or providers “does not breach this Agreement.” Clauses like these are standard contract language. But for a club whose pitch leaned hard on celebrity, chefs and perks, members who sign are agreeing that the pitch is not the contract.

—Among the other terms:

—No equity. A membership is a “personal, revocable, non-transferable license.” Members get no ownership, equity, profit or voting interest, and no part of any fee is an investment.

—Automatic renewal. Memberships renew every year unless the member gives written notice at least 60 days before the end of the term. Management can raise the dues with advance notice.

—No refunds, mostly. Fees are non-refundable, including for members who resign or are suspended or terminated. The exceptions are a declined application, or the club ending a membership without cause or closing for good, in which case unused dues are refunded pro rata.

—Late fees. A late payment carries a $250 charge plus 1.5% monthly interest. Fifteen days late can bring suspension; 30 days, termination.

—Assignable. The club may hand the agreement to “any affiliate, successor operator, lender or purchaser” without members’ consent.

—Side deals. The club may create special membership programs, including for “residents or owners of particular residential communities,” corporate members and founding members, on terms that are confidential. That line may draw notice next door: in September, BLVD residents testified that the club had canceled the memberships of every Boulevard resident who had joined after their condo board challenged its use of the building.

—What $6,000 Buys

—Annual dues are $6,000 per membership, covering a member and spouse. On top of that comes an initiation fee “as determined by the Club,” which is non-refundable and may differ from member to member. The club has not disclosed what it charges. Food and drink are billed separately, and for now there is no annual food and beverage minimum.

—Included are priority reservations ahead of public diners, access to the upstairs Social Club and its programming, from French, Sushi, Egyptian and Brazilian nights to bourbon and champagne tastings, “Coffee with the CEOs,” “Meet the Author” evenings, decade nights, 007 nights and murder-mystery parties. Members also get a concierge desk, complimentary car service between home and the club (book 48 hours ahead), complimentary member valet, a notary, holiday gift wrapping and a dietitian who relays allergies to the kitchen.

—That dietitian, presently anticipated to be Jordan Colbert, is the only Jordan named anywhere in the 24-page agreement or the six pages of club rules.

—The extras have price tags. A standard wine locker runs $2,000 a year and a liquor locker $4,000. Corkage is $25 a bottle, and only for wines not on the club’s list; anything on the list must be bought from the club. Guest valet costs $50. And the club recommends that each member chip in at least $300 a year to a Holiday Team Appreciation Fund for the staff, billed in December with the member’s consent.

—The concierge will help arrange private jet charters, including a jet-sharing program for members headed the same way, yacht charters, motor coaches to concerts and games in Tampa and St. Petersburg, two international member trips a year through Admiral Travel (the Monaco Grand Prix is offered as an example) and an annual wine trip. The club says it takes no fee or commission on travel. For home services, personal shopping and event tickets, it reserves the right to charge an arrangement fee and to collect referral fees it need not separately disclose.

—And no poaching. A member who hires away a current or recent employee without permission owes the club a placement fee equal to 5% of that person’s first-year pay.

—House Rules

—Club rules took effect Oct. 15. Photography and video or audio recording inside are prohibited without the club’s consent. Members may not identify other members, or describe their conduct or conversations, on social media without permission, though reviewing the club itself is allowed. Phones go on silent, calls are limited to the lobby or designated areas, and speakerphone is banned everywhere. Laptops and “spread-out papers” belong in the lounge.

—The dress code calls for smart casual to “jacket preferred for dinner,” with a nod to “City Chic, structured silhouettes, neutral or jewel tones.” Banned are athletic wear, beachwear, flip-flops, tank tops, torn clothing and ball caps, except for religious or medical reasons. Leave the Bulls cap at home.

—Upstairs, members may bring no more than two guests at a time. Tables are held 15 minutes past the reservation, and parties larger than six need management’s approval.

—The Kitchen

—The email’s headline culinary news is the arrival of Chef Albert Dao, who the club says joined from minibar by José Andrés, the two-Michelin-star tasting counter in Washington, D.C. He joins Chef David Testa, previously announced, who relocated from Washington to lead the culinary program. The agreement describes a menu of classical and contemporary dishes, including Italian pasta, fish, seafood and meats, tasting-menu items and a limited tableside guéridon service.

—Jupiter, Again

—The email also promises “a spectacular Grand Opening Celebration in December” and says the club is “coordinating with our partners at 1000 NORTH Jupiter to finalize the date.”

—That phrasing will catch the ear of anyone who sat through the Sept. 9 hearing. Patrick McNamee, a BLVD condominium board member and president of the Downtown Sarasota Condominium Association, testified that he had phoned Ira Fenton, managing partner of the Jupiter club, and then put on the chambers screen an email in which 1000 North Jupiter stated it “has no ownership interest” in 1000 North Sarasota or its premises. “So this isn’t backed by Michael Jordan,” McNamee told the board.

—Partners and owners are not the same thing, and the Sarasota club has consistently described itself as modeled after and associated with the Jupiter flagship rather than owned by it. The documents members are signing fit that description. The contract is with 1000 NORTH SARASOTA, LLC, a Florida limited liability company. Jupiter does not appear in either document. Neither does Michael Jordan.

—What Happens Now

—For members, the deadline is practical. No signed agreement and paid dues, no credential. Anyone on a membership who has not finished onboarding, which also includes a member profile and a mandatory one-hour orientation, can get in only as the guest of an active member.

—For the city, the private club application still has to return to the Planning Board with a parking plan the board can verify and formal off-site parking agreements that meet the code. The fight over who controls the BLVD garage stays where Deputy City Attorney John Shamsey parked it in September. “The city is not going to solve this private condo dispute,” he told the board.

—The club also owns the 10,500-square-foot parcel next door at 1290 Boulevard of the Arts, bought this spring to handle what Elshimy described at the time as membership demand running ahead of projections. Residents pointed out in September that the lot could hold a parking structure.

—Six weeks ago, this newspaper observed that in this town, even His Airness has to find a parking spot. Since then, the club has found two chefs, a Michelin strategy, a public reservation book and a 24-page contract. The parking spot is still pending.