Clubs open in Milan, New York and San Francisco
“We’ve always positioned ourselves as a global brand with a global community and global mindedness,” says Jennie Enterprise, Founder and President of Elite, Members-Only CENTER: Club. Since the club’s founding in New York in 2005, however, that city has been its sole location despite a proportion of its 1,500 members being overseas; these members were still going through New York according to Enterprise and they were hosting events in other parts of the world. But the global reach will broaden in more tangible ways later this year when a club opens in Milan in December and in 2023 in San Francisco, cities Enterprise describes as gateway cities and also internationally and culturally relevant. dynamic than New York. A new, expanded New York club will also open in September. Members will have access to all three.
The members, a carefully curated, by-invitation group defined by Enterprise as people “who make a difference, who care about changing the world” span industries and cultures. “A lot of club brands are very focused on a niche segment of a demographic,” she says. “For us, the magic is in diversity, people from the world of art, architecture, science, technology, sport, entertainment. Transformational leaders in these industries and young game changers with an equal number of men and women.
Among the services offered to those admitted: refined catering; a gym; salon; meeting spaces; apartment accommodation; the opportunity to mingle and network with each other and more than 200 cultural activities per year. These also span industries, ranging over the years from a tennis chat and clinic with Billie Jean King, a Rolls Royce ride to Blue Hill to Stone Barns for lunch prepared by Executive Chef Dan Barber, a private concert with Billy Joel and a conversation with Susan Rice, then US Ambassador to the UN. (The price of club membership: registration fees ranging from $15,000 to $100,000 and annual dues from $15,000 to $18,000.)
These events will continue under the direction of a new Global Curator of Cultural Content in expanded facilities in the new spaces. When the club moves from its current location on E. 55and Street to the Coca Cola Building at 711 Fifth Avenue, the 60,000 square foot space spread over four floors will roughly double the size of the current club. There will be three dining spaces, including a culinary lab to showcase chefs from around the world, as well as four private dining/meeting rooms, 11 overnight suites, an art gallery, a wine gallery, a theatre, private event space, gym, lounge, and 6,000 square feet of outdoor terraces overlooking Fifth Avenue and Central Park. the danger institutethe medical-grade skincare estate operated by Enterprise’s wife Dangene, which promises skin transformation and anti-aging, will also make the trip to the new location and the other two clubs.
The Milanese club, located on Corso Giacomo Matteotti near the main fashion thoroughfare via Montenapoleone, was born following a member’s suggestion; the obvious choice, according to Enterprise, would have been London, but Brexit has dampened its appeal. “The CEO of a very, very, very famous brand was doing business in Milan and he came back after Expo in 2017 and said the city was on a trajectory that he couldn’t even explain. He told us urged to come in then,” she says. “I went 10 days later and absolutely fell in love with the city, the people, the culture. There’s an entrepreneurial spirit, a diversity of industries and a quite spectacular cultural dynamism.
The 40,000-square-foot, five-story club with four cascading terraces will have similar features to New York with a slightly fewer number of suites – eight – and a local culinary twist, a pasticceria. The 45,000 square foot San Francisco club, which will be located on the first three floors of the famed Transamerica Pyramid, will also share facilities with the other clubs, including six suites and have a terrace that connects to Redwood Park.
300 members have already signed up during San Francisco’s pre-opening and Enterprise expects the community to grow as new clubs open. As well as the network as a whole: two other clubs in international cities are in preparation.
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