Glennon Center readies for its first public event

The city will honor its volunteers at the first event in the nearly complete Philip T. Glennon Community this weekend.

Work is still underway downstairs at the center, but upstairs, nearly everything is done. Mayor Bob Runde will hold his annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner at the center Saturday. Phil Glennon, for whom the center is named, will be one of those attending.

"It's better than what I thought it would be," Glennon said Monday. "There would be a void in this community for years if we didn't have it, and the people knew that right away. We had 70 percent approval of the project."

The center won't officially open until the city's birthday celebration on July 4. Some work remains to be done on part of the first floor of the building. However, following the volunteer dinner, Pinnacle Golf Properties, the company managing the Tega Cay Golf Club and the Glennon Center, will be renting out the upstairs, mainly for weddings and receptions, according to General Manager Brian Bradshaw.

The first one is scheduled in May.

"It's set overlooking a golf course," Bradshaw said of the center's main room. "It's a no-brainer for brides."

Already, nearly two dozen events have been booked at the Glennon Center, and Bradshaw said they all have come through "word of mouth" because Pinnacle has not advertised the center.

Space in the center is going for $400 to $1,500 per day, depending on the amount of space and the day of the week, Bradshaw said. The main room can be subdivided into as many as nine smaller rooms ranging from as little as 420 square feet to as much as 6,200 square feet, for as few as 10 to as many as 500 people.

He said he hopes to see the center used daily by 2010-'11, but until then, Pinnacle is looking for regular users to help cover the cost of running and maintaining it. One such user could be a newly-formed church looking for a Sunday morning meeting spot.

"This whole situation is unique," Bradshaw said. "You've got a public municipal course with more amenities than most private clubs that also sells memberships. And then you've got this 23,000-square-foot community center, too."

Pinnacle's next priority is to renovate the Cove Nine on the course with new greens and bunkers. Once that is finished, the Glennon Center, in conjunction with Tega Cay's 27-hole golf course, will be an attractive marketing tool for corporate and group events, Bradshaw said.

"When we bring up the quality on the Cove, we can run as many events as we want," he said.

This story was originally published April 15, 2008 at 5:44 PM.