New Private Club Planned for the Historic Federal Reserve Building

[Joey Mackey]

https://www.jaxdailyrecord.com/news/2024/oct/23/members-only-the-june-club-leasing-historic-federal-reserve-building-downtown-for-premier-destination/

Interesting use. If executed correctly (i.e. food/service/networking is actually worth the cost of membership) then I could see this being successful.

[thelakelander]

Glad to see Britt's project moving forward. She's been working on this for quite a while now.

[heights unknown]

Who is Britt? Who is she? What is she? Who does she hope to be? Whoever she is, great plan of use for this iconic and lovely building.

[acme54321]

Bold

[Captain Zissou]

Four floors of dinner and drinks with 480 total seats.  Looks like they'll need monthly food minimums to keep foot traffic up enough to make it look busy and keep FOH and BOH staff paid.  With all 4 floors operating, my guess is there'd be 75+ staff members in the building on any given night.  Maybe they'll stagger which floors operate on which nights, but that could be confusing and tough to supply food for if they're serving different menus. To me it seems like a risky way to make this work vs a diversity of uses across floors more like a vertical country club.  I don't see a floor that looks like it has the flexibility to be used for weddings or event rentals, but I could be wrong.

[jaxlongtimer]

Is this going to be a competitor to the River Club?  Looks like it.

With the big decline in Downtown office workers, a tough time to open.  I would imagine they will have to count on urban residents to be members.  Will be interesting to see if they can pull that off but would appear to be an uphill battle in the short run, at least.  Maybe buyers of housing in the Pearl Street project will get a membership with their purchase given the common developers.

Without any athletic facilities, what will they offer other than an exclusive dining venue? 

The University Club had this plus a gym and couldn't survive after some 50 years or so.  I doubt the River Club is doing much to add to the fortunes of Gate compared to Ponte Vedra or even Epping.

I would think this would do better as an open high end restaurant like Cowford/Capital Grill/Ruth's Chris/Mortons.

I have read that these types of clubs in NYC have been struggling to survive so surprised that Morgan-Saks, coming from there, thinks it will work here in our struggling Downtown.

Wishing them the best.

[Steve]

Is this going to be a competitor to the River Club?  Looks like it.

With the big decline in Downtown office workers, a tough time to open.  I would imagine they will have to count on urban residents to be members.  Will be interesting to see if they can pull that off but would appear to be an uphill battle in the short run, at least.  Maybe buyers of housing in the Pearl Street project will get a membership with their purchase given the common developers.

Without any athletic facilities, what will they offer other than an exclusive dining venue? 

The University Club had this plus a gym and couldn't survive after some 50 years or so.  I doubt the River Club is doing much to add to the fortunes of Gate compared to Ponte Vedra or even Epping.

I would think this would do better as an open high end restaurant like Cowford/Capital Grill/Ruth's Chris/Mortons.

I have read that these types of clubs in NYC have been struggling to survive so surprised that Morgan-Saks, coming from there, thinks it will work here in our struggling Downtown.

Wishing them the best.

Keep in mind one thing about the River Club is their event hosting. Yea the dining room may not be standing room only on a Wednesday night, but it's an unbelievable banquet facility and there's constantly things there. They aren't going anywhere.

IMO the University Club let their space get "tired", and the layout for banquets was weird. There definitely wasn't enough of a draw for both clubs for banquets, and the River Club was just better.

[Steve]

I don't see a floor that looks like it has the flexibility to be used for weddings or event rentals, but I could be wrong.

My first thought as well. Like I mentioned about the River Club, banquets are a huge draw for all of Gate's clubs.

[jaxjags]

Maybe the Four Seasons can buy a corporate membership. Then all of Khan's mojo customers can go to the June one night of their stay. I'm sure even the Four Seasons can get boring after a couple nights. Actually, corporate or business memberships probably will be offered.

[sandyshoes]

Heights Unknown:  https://www.disruptorawards.com/about
She got one of those.