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Southern Oaks Athletic Club, a longtime fixture in southeast Baton Rouge, has new ownership.
Husband-and-wife duo Shane and Kathleen Holland, both members of the club for about a decade, acquired the facility from previous owners Greg and Courtney Bienvenu earlier this month. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.
The deal marks a new chapter for Southern Oaks, which the Bienvenus had owned for nearly 15 years. Kathleen Holland tells Daily Report that she and her husband approached the Bienvenus about acquiring the club after some time spent reflecting on their family’s long-term goals.
“We have three small kids, and about a year ago we were just kind of brainstorming about what our future might look like as a family,” she says. “We were tossing some ideas back and forth, and Southern Oaks came up.”
For the Hollands, the club’s sense of community was what drew them to the idea of making it their own.
“Southern Oaks is really the reason we love living on this side of town,” Kathleen says.
When the Hollands first asked the Bienvenus whether they would ever be interested in selling, the Bienvenus were “taken aback,” Kathleen says, as nobody had ever approached them with an offer before.
“I don’t think they saw themselves moving on until the opportunity presented itself,” she says.
Both Shane and Kathleen have now left their jobs in the oil and gas industry to run the club full time. Though neither of them has a history in the fitness industry, they both have experience managing people and managing projects—experience that Kathleen says translates well to their new roles.
Originally Shenandoah Country Club, the Southern Oaks complex includes nine tennis courts, a fitness center and a pool. It also has an enclosed patio space used for events and social gatherings—think wine tastings and LSU watch parties—as well as a full-service restaurant. The club currently boasts some 4,000 members.
While no major overhauls are currently in the cards, the new owners are making minor facility improvements, and more significant changes may come after the summer pool season. The club’s leadership team under the Bienvenus, which Kathleen describes as the “best in the business,” will remain in place.
The Hollands worked with the LSU Small Business Development Center on the acquisition. That center is one of 10 SBDCs across Louisiana. Read about their economic impact here.
