Xenii - does this concept make $$?

[nathanFL]

I have heard of a concept in LA called Xenii. It is a members only club, you buy a membership by the month. It is super exclusive and it looks like you have to be pretty well connected to get a membership.

Once you are in, everything is complimentary. Open bar, hourderves, etc.

The other main feature is that the venue changes every week! They rent big industrial spaces and mansions. So I guess the decor never gets boring.

My question is... Does a concept like this make money? Is this a unique concept or just the newest one?

Thanks

Nathan

[excellentbars]

Hey Nathan

I went to this big party in Vegas a while back and it was an introduction party for a Mansion style private club that you would buy a membership and could visit any of the locations that they would set up all over the country....It was like $5,000 to $10,000 for a membership and They had the party at one of the mansions.....It is one of the Kennedy's involved and it was cool BUT It is definately for an older clientel with lots of disposible income.....They had more gold diggers at this party...Than you can imagine and being from vegas for the last 12 years I can imagine a LOT of gold diggers :D .....

as for this type of club they are all over the country in one form or another often used to evade strict liquor laws and regulations.....

In Salt Lake City you pay $1 for a membership :confused: and their are lots of other examples in markets everywhere....

As for changing the venues every week this is not a novel idea it is called a RAVE!!!! :eek: sorry I couldnt help it.......

Club Rubber which has Pimp & Ho has been doing it for over 10 years they just charge a cover but depending on the event....At the galazy theater in OC it was murder to get in.......

Cheers
Chris

[realityrox.com]

There is a very high end ultra exclusive membership club in Manhattan similar to what you are describing. Amazing! There is a thread on here about it somewhere...

Maybe it was David or Michael that describes it. Yes, there are a few that exist, but they are very, very, very exclusive - and very difficult to keep up!

[Narcisstic]

Why are they so difficult to keep up?

[realityrox.com]

No advertising. Top Secret. Very rarely a guest. Secret location, etc.

Most markets couldn't sustain the business. Just a guess, I don't own one. But it has been discussed here in pretty great detail. I also researched the one in New York pretty well.

Here is an excerpt from NY Mag refering - you be the judge:

Deep in the wilds of Chelsea, there is a door. The door has a screen, and the jet-black eye of a promoter behind that screen, peeping out to gauge your social viability. Are you a model? Or a billionaire? It will be hard to get in otherwise.


Around midnight, the most beautiful young models in the city arrive, squired in quickly, their backs with shoulder blades like arrows disappearing inside. Door, as the nightclub is creatively called, popped up late this summer. No one is supposed to know it’s there. It is where moguls go: After the Yahoo board meeting, Jerry Yang and David Filo came by. Another night in the fall, Sergey Brin and Larry Page were there. Supermarket billionaire Ron Burkle, Virgin head Richard Branson, and Steve Bing, the down-to-earth Democratic donor who inherited nearly a billion dollars from his real-estate-magnate grandfather, the developer of some of the most beautiful Art Deco buildings on Park Avenue and the West Village. Advance men for President Clinton. Few other guys can get in, except for a couple of model wranglers, those handsome, usually South American guys who round up models at their apartments and herd them to nightclubs. Promoter Danny A., a friend of Ron Burkle’s, runs this place—he even got to go on a trip to Israel with President Clinton. The wranglers are the only people in here not having fun: One hand on a mojito, they are nervous as they text madly on the phone to more girls, more girls, more girls.


For the rest of the city, the door is closed. A few handsome bankers wait on the sidewalk outside the club for a half-hour, scraping their shoes. “I guess I’m a zero-value-added person in this equation,” says one, stepping away, disappointed.

How many markets in the US do you think could sustain this prestige?

[Michael Black]

The post Jen is referring to is:

http://www.nightclub-business.com/forum/showthread.php?t=4493&highlight=milk+honey

I think this a little less prestigious than the billionaire club she refers to. However, it is similar in nature.

Just recently, mixologist master Toby Maloney from Milk & Honey and club and Chicago restaurant veteran Terry Alexander opened a similar place with not quite as much secrecy in Chicago. There is no name outside, very dark, and has a sense of exclusiveness with high end drink prices and homemade botanical mixtures and simple syrups to create the perfect unusual ****tails. The drinks run $10-15 each, but they are doubles like a good martini size. Think Chartreuse. I don't think it is a membership club but there could be some sort of membership for easier access and no wait lines. It's called Violet Hour named after which takes its name from a line in T.S. Eliot's poem "The Waste Land". We will see if it flies long in Chicago. The spot has had 3 ventures in it in the last 3 years. If it does, expect more of these to pop up across the country in major cities.


Good luck!

Mike