Edited by: TJVNews.com
SoHo House, the international chain of 27 high-end private clubs in 10 different countries, has finally opened its doors in Israel. Having experienced delays in branching out to the Middle East, due to the coronavirus, the SoHo House made its way to the New York Stock Exchange for the first time last month.
SoHo House was first opened in 1995 on London’s Greek Street, when founder Nick Jones was offered the space above his restaurant, Cafe Boheme. The rooms of the townhouse were accessed via a small door just around the corner from Cafe Boheme, which inspired Jones to turn it into a members’ club for the local artists and actors who had become the restaurant’s regulars.
It was called Soho House because that was what it was: a Georgian house in London’s Soho. The logo reflects the layout of that first space – three floors across three interconnecting houses.
In 2003, the first US House in New York’s Meatpacking District. Set over six floors of a former warehouse, Soho House New York was also home to the first-ever rooftop pool. Its success as a summer escape for Manhattan members later inspired the layout for the Shoreditch House rooftop pool.
A 2017 report on the Eater.com web site indicated that through its lounge spaces, spas, pools, screening rooms, hotels, and restaurants, Soho House caters to the young, city-dwelling creative class, providing them with beautiful spaces. The Soho House brand, however, comprises more than its famously members-only clubs. Soho House owns restaurants all over the world (restaurants that anyone can go to), has a burgeoning e-commerce operation, and, over the past 20-plus years, has established its presence as a global hospitality brand.
A spokesperson for SoHo House confirmed to the Jewish Insider web site indicated that the new Tel Aviv club will select “founder members” for a brief soft opening beginning this week before a full opening in September.
In a press release provided to the Jewish Insider web site, the SoHo House will be located in a “turreted building” on 27 Yefet Street near Jaffa’s historic flea market. The JI reported indicated that the Tel Aviv location will offer such amenities as a pool, outdoor bar and 24 bedrooms as well as a garden “dotted with 300-year-old olive trees from Galilee and set beneath a retractable pergola roof.”
Its art collection will highlight such Israeli-born artists as Elad Lassry, Tal R, Ilit Azoulayto, Shai Yehezkelli and Maayan Elyakim, according to the JI report.
Due to the restrictions imposed because of the pandemic, plans to open the Israel branch of SoHo House were delayed. JI reported that last July, a spokesperson told them that the club was scheduled to open in early 2021, but the club’s Israel debut was delayed until spring and when that was not possible its opening was pushed off until the summer of 2021.
Because of the devastating economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the SoHo House reported a $235.3 million loss, according to the JI report. The report added that the club did receive approximately $22 million provided to them by the government’s Paycheck Protection Program
Jewish Insider reported that the newest location in Tel Aviv for SoHo House is not the first one in the Middle East. In 2015, it opened in Istanbul, Turkey.
Annual rates for membership in the Tel Aviv outpost are $2,237 and discounted by 50% to $1,118 for applicants under 27, according to the press release.
Speaking to JI, Howard Adler, a professor in the hospitality and tourism management department at Purdue University said “Israel is a strong market because it is a unique place which all faiths want to visit,” often “more than once. I would be bullish for the future of this unique property.”
JI reported that Soho House is joining a number of new hotels that have opened in Israel this year, including the De’ Mar Florentine, which launched in January, and Six Senses Shaharut, a resort in the Negev that opened in early August. (Sources: JewishInsider.com)
