It won’t literally be within the boundaries of West Hollywood, but it’s borrowing the name. That would be AllBright West Hollywood, a private membership club exclusively for working women that plans to open at 8474 Melrose Place early next summer.
Plans for the club were first revealed in the Hollywood Reporter in a story that described it as entering “a crowded members-only landscape.” In West Hollywood, that landscape includes the Arts Club, a members-only club planned for 8920 Sunset Blvd., and the San Vicente Bungalows, which will consist of a portion of the renovated San Vicente Inn at 845 N. San Vicente Blvd., which is expected to open later this year. West Hollywood already is home to the SoHo House at 9200 Sunset Blvd., which opened 10 years ago. SoHo House, the Arts Club and AllBright all are offshoots of clubs based in London.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that AllBright will occupy a 9,000-square-foot building designed by Brigette Romanek. It will “have beauty services on the ground floor and club and dining spaces on the upper floors and rooftop.”
Unlike The Wing, a women-only collective workspace planned for the building under construction at 8550 Santa Monica Blvd., AllBright will allow men to enter its doors. The Wing’s New York location has been under investigation by New York City’s Human Rights Commission for its refusal to allow men inside.
Joining the new members-only clubs will be pricey. Annual fees at AllBright will be $2,100 ($1,100 for women 29 and under), with a $300 initiation fee. Membership at the San Vicente Bungalows will cost $4,200 a year, or $1,800 for those 35 and under. The initiation fee will be $1,800 (only $500 for those 40 and under). The SoHo House is said to charge $2,000 annually, or $2,800 for access to all of its clubs around the world. It’s not clear what the Arts Club will charge, but in London a membership in the club for artists and writers and other creatives is the equivalent of $2,558 in U.S. dollars as is the initiation fee.
While anyone can apply for a membership to SoHo House or the Arts Club (although not anyone will be accepted), membership in the San Vicente Bungalows is by invitation only.
The opening of the Arts Club remains uncertain given the success of Unite Here Local 11, the restaurant and hotel workers union, in gathering signatures to put a proposal on the March 5, 2019, ballot to rescind the West Hollywood City Council’s approval of the club.
Union members and supporters criticized the city’s support for the club at Monday night’s City Council meeting, calling it a contradiction to the city’s historic commitment to making West Hollywood an affordable place to live.
An exclusive club for women? How gender friendly! Imagine if this were an all male club being proposed. Do you think that would go down well with the tree huggers on the West Hollywood City Council?
As for the Arts Club, I can’t imagine Dickens or Thackeray being comfortable in a place like that. The highbrow spinoff from the Soho Club – considering who will make up the membership. Not scholars, artists and thinkers but a collection of Hollywood types. Flacks, flesh peddlers, lawyers and con artists masquerading as producers. Ho-hum.
You said it perfectly with direct sarcasm neeed for this fiasco of an arts club. I reference dickens in my retort as well to A previous commentor. Like you said arts clubs are intimate. And this is grandiose and the design and actual size is too large for that allotted space and looks like a mega mega mansion that sits atop the hills. This is a Hollywood rooftop club, supper club, and exclusive rooms and suites for dalliances, sleepovers, or excess binges, not meant for a regular resident like myself! In New England I could have become a member of… Read more »
I am SO against this. Expensive private clubs with extremely high “membership fees” might be great for their (obnoxious, haughty, entitled, “high-end”, elitist, superior, Narcisissitic, bigoted) entrepreneurial owners, but they are yet another relatively recent Homage to Elitism in a city that already stinks with elitism and has veered far from its founding roots of equality, fairness, and opportunity for all. Particularly when the clubs are “women only”, and these things also very much imply “White only” or “Rich only”. Reverse discrimination is still discrimination, and “two wrongs don’t make a right.” Whatever happened to West Hollywood’s commitment to being… Read more »
Ken Howard, the way you refer to the rich one would think that’s a bad thing. The rich are usually people who took great risks and worked very hard. You assume they are obnoxious, haughty, entitled, elitist, superior, Narcissistic, and bigoted, when in my experience the rich are none of those things. They fund charities and provide jobs for those who might not otherwise have one. What you’re suggesting is a form of socialism in which the incentive to work hard and to produce is eliminated so that those of us who don’t have as much won’t feel bad. What’s… Read more »
There appears to be a bias even in the title of this article.
Great comment Ken. This is the beginning of a slippery slope. West Hollywood is losing its original identity and purpose. BTW BEB, there are many wealthy people who never worked a day in their lives and who don’t give to charities. There are many trust fund babies out there.
You’re stating the obvious and I’m not going to play “tit for tat” with you Erik Jon Schmidt. For every “trust funder” you referenced SOMEBODY who came before them EARNED that money. There is no virtue in poverty, and wealth is not evil. I’ve known many very wealthy people, and I’ve known more poor or struggling people. I have found that the wealthy more often than the poor possess the personal integrity and other attributes that I admire. Let’s extend your logic to say that to be able to own a house closed off from the street with hedges is… Read more »
Did you, or anyone commenting here read the article? It’s not in West Hollywood. 🤦🏻♂️
🙄🙄🙄 Whoa! It may take many lifetimes to get over these recriminations. Please look at the facts of the Jonathan Club and its multiple issues regarding public land. It’s very interesting.
I agree whole heartily with you Ken Howard! lol at my post when you see it! He is stating the obvious people! Why should I care about your wealthy status or club memberships when you may not worry or care about gentrification here in the city I live in and was priced out of and fought to move back and lived here and the only option have is getting on affordable housing lists not the guest lists of these exclusive clubs which my application would be rejected!
City might add to the 63 page list of permits needed use of “West Hollywood” name for commercial purposes. Isn’t making a buck on any enterprise in our city charter?
Okay?