The Office Has a Guest List as Private Clubs Create Corporate Future

So long to smoky cigar rooms. While private members’ clubs are booming, they’re no longer the colonial-era, men-only spaces. A slew of exclusive new establishments are opening across the east coast , representing an evolution beyond the long-lunch model. Residential variants are emerging as work-from-home becomes embedded. But in Sydney, the latest plays are juggling high-end office fitouts with consideration of networking culture, privacy and cutting-edge amenity. It’s luxury (and it’s priced as such), but members may be more interested in organic community, wellness, or heads-down-bum-up work spaces. At 23-33 Bridge Street, The Sandstones Business Club by Florence Guild has occupied spaces in the heritage Department of Lands building, which completed a restoration in February. That restoration project of the Lands and Education buildings, known as the Sandstone Precinct , cost a reported $500 million. Florence Guild founder Soren Trampedach counts The Sandstones among a series of nested brands and enterprises that he runs. “I don’t really know what to call it. And I think that’s sometimes a little bit of a challenge because I don’t think we fit in a particular mould,” Trampedach says. ▲ Luxury retail, fine dining and events spaces will join the Sandstones Precinct. “To explain what we’re trying to do is a little bit difficult. In essence, it’s a modern version of what used to be the old members’ clubs. “But I think also we’re kind of the opposite to that.” Co-working business Work Club Global is at the heart of Trampedach’s operations, and has 13 locations in Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne. Creating a deliberate environment and the organic community that fosters is part of the proposition. Membership is not as simple as signing a lease—applications and vetting are part of the process, with a focus on diversity of experience and thought. ▲ The former Surveyor-General’s office is available as a single-occupancy. The Sandstones has about 160 members and will continue taking applications until management feels capacity has been reached. Trampedach tells The Urban Developer , as he’s told other media, that he doesn’t want “wankers” in a space “where you can have difficult conversations, and where you don’t need to agree but can still be very respectful of each other”. “In some of our clubs, like The Sandstones club, it’s also about work. But some people are actually not there to work; they’re there to socialise, and for the learning part, the events. “The kind of people that we want are curious, humble people.” Somewhere around 100 members attend The Sandstones on any given day. Work spaces include hot desks, dedicated offices, a piano lounge [ pictured at top ] and a private cinema. ▲ Two suites have been taken by businesses with headcounts of around 25 each. Trampedach denies that Florence Guild is a real estate business, despite counting revenue per square metre. “To me, it’s whether people stay and whether we are full. That is really the determining factor,” Trampedach says. “And they stay not because of the beautiful spaces we have built, but because of how they feel about it. “Florence Guild is an operating system … designed to bring people together... Either through having very hard intellectual conversations or fun experiences. “In my mind, I could apply this operating system to a small city.” Like Trampedach, the team behind Tajon Luxury Offices have a background spanning office fitouts, commercial and hospitality. ▲ Suites at Tajon Luxury Offices in Barrack House [ at rear ] have gunbarrel sightlines overlooking Martin Place. John Caldwell and Natashia Steed have put more than $12 million into a renovation and refurbishment of 3000sq m over three levels at 343 George Street, the heritage Barrack House. The resulting commercial spaces opened in October as “a premium product”, according to Caldwell, and Tajon is also operating an invitation-only private members’ club at the premises. The restoration was a labour of love, with a hands-on project management approach. “We’re very poor now,” Caldwell says. “It’s completely self-funded… I think it’s very rare you get to literally create something exactly as you want, with no one interfering. ▲ Tajon spaces are individually furnished and decorated, but thematically tied together. “There was a lot of blood, a lot of sweat and a lot of tears. “[The office] is really your home away from home.” The space had sat idle after Atlassian vacated and the City of Sydney purchased the building five years ago. The 10-year Tajon lease became the largest post-Covid commercial signing in the local government area. Tajon is offering flexible licenses, instead of subleases with make-goods attached on its office spaces. The model is finding particular traction among companies downsizing on their office space, rapidly growing, or unsure where AI will take them. “More than ever, the model is in need. With everything going on in the world, people just don’t want to commit to huge five-year leases and all that expenditure,” Caldwell says. ▲ A central bar and lounge area are accessible by members, but Tajon “is not a frat house”. While community might take root organically, the team are not offering yoga classes and foosball tournaments. “We’re not a frat house,” Caldwell says. “It’s very, very private and very discreet … we don’t want people walking into other people’s suites because they met them at an event we had.” For Trampedach, amenity is a key part of the contemporary office. Sprinkled into the Florence Guild mix are restaurants and hospitality, and Mirvac has signed over its 10 floors of amenity at 55 Pitt Street to be run by the company. Florence Guild also launched the Eir Liv wellness business at 88 Ebbley Street, Bondi, in August. Billed as a “human potential club”, it positions itself as a longevity offering using cryotherapy, doctors and AI personal trainers. ▲ The facade at Barrack House has been restored by the City of Sydney while the Tajon team is leading internal restoration. Eir Liv also operates a suite at The Sandstones, where members can use their office credits to book treatments. A hyperbaric chamber is due to begin operations there on November 6. However, the long-term success of a private work club relies on the human touch, rather than a gimmick. “Over the past three or four years, there’s a private members’ club popping up everywhere,” Trampedach says. “But how do you retain people? How do you make people want to stay, when the next shiny thing opens on the next corner? “It’s not about the interiors. I think that’s what landlords don’t appreciate.”

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Patrick Lau
Thu 05 Nov 26

The Office Has a Guest List as Private Clubs Create Corporate Future

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