Halogen Guides caught up with Geoffrey Kent, founder and CEO of Abercrombie & Kent and Jarvis J. Slade, Jr. president of Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club on the day of the club’s launch.

In the months leading up to today’s opening to the public, Slade and Kent introduced the club in presentations to small groups of friends and family already acquainted with the Abercrombie & Kent brand. Those presentations have brought in 30 members who have joined the club or are in the process of completing the membership process. Including members that Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club inherited from the integration of BelleHavens and Crescendo, the club now has 155 members. A&K’s aspiration to be a global destination club is already being born out by these early memberships, as 25 percent of those new members hail from outside North America.

Abercrombie & Kent Residence Club executives could hardly have predicted that the launch would coincide with one of the worst days on Wall Street in seven years, but with the stock market’s dive of more than 500 points today, the timing was less than auspicious. Kent, who has developed Abercrombie & Kent into a leading luxury tour operator over 40 years, was unruffled by the market’s turmoil. “Launching my original business, [Abercrombie & Kent], in the south of Sudan in the middle of a civil war, that was a challenge,” he said, dryly adding, “I think we’ll manage through this.”

In fact, Kent said, the uncertain economic climate may just help to underscore the value of a membership in a destination club versus traditional second home ownership. “If people are thinking twice about a second home, it’s easier to join a residence club,” said Kent. “It plays in our favor.”

Financial crisis or not, the next few weeks will see Kent and Slade embark on a whirlwind tour introducing the club in cities across the U.S. The club partnered with Christie’s International, which hosted today’s event in New York. Abercrombie & Kent will roll out the club at a series of dinners hosted at the vaunted auction house’s showrooms across the country. Tomorrow night Kent and Slade will be in Greenwich, Conn., before moving onto Chicago, Dallas, and Los Angeles. The high level of involvement of Kent and Slade in communicating with potential members is the kind of personal touch that they hope will set Abercrombie & Kent’s club apart from its competition.

Beyond the immediate horizon of the club’s launch, A&K is looking to increase its real estate portfolio, with particular attention to properties in the kind of exotic locations that are brand trademarks. A home in Kenya is already underway, and the club is eyeing property in Egypt, Morocco, and Cape Town, South Africa.

To learn more about the costs, benefits and risks of joining a destination club, download our Decision Guide.