Within a 10-block radius from the Flatiron to Greenwich Village, there are three hideaways where high-powered urbanites can escape the toll of New York’s rat race: they can retreat to bed in the red-light district, take a qigong class or join the gang in a Himalayan salt sauna.
These members-only social wellness clubs vary in price and offerings by the thousands, but they all promise the same thing: convenient, curated experiences that blend wellness and community with expert help and luxury amenities.
Starting at $355 a month, THE WELL members can attend an alignment yoga class, then eat a bowl of organic buffalo chicken for lunch, soak in a cold bath in the downstairs Longevity Suite, sit in a meditation dome and consult with an acupuncturist.The peach-and-white aesthetic is as soothing as it sounds, blending modern medicine with ancient healing experiences, with softly curved walls, botanicals chosen for healing and cleansing, and custom scents of bergamot, grapefruit and frankincense.
“This is designed to be a one-stop shop for wellness,” said Kane Sarhan, co-founder and CCO of The WELL. luck“New Yorkers are great at life and at work. They’re Type A go-getters. But New York City’s sidewalks and subways aren’t healthy. We want to make it easy and convenient for people who put their health and wellness first.”
Courtesy of The Well
It first opened a 13,000-square-foot space in September 2019. Two months later, Remedy Place opened in West Hollywood, welcoming a celebrity clientele like Rita Ora and Kacey Musgraves to a sleek, masculine, gray space “designed to heal,” says founder Jonathan Leary. luckThe goal: to offer new social experiences with clinically-backed self-care, like social acupuncture and movie infusions, for between $300 and $2,250 a month, depending on package and location.
It was the end of a decade in which SoulCycle and green juices became status symbols for the $4.5 trillion global wellness economy. Private wellness-themed social clubs like Grace Belgerbeer and Mortimer House sprung up in London, and some public clubs even offered preventative programming like brain training programs. It was a natural progression to have dedicated members-only spaces for wellness in the U.S. The pandemic initially hindered the concept, but ended up strengthening it as people reprioritized community and health.
Social wellness clubs have become a booming niche in the post-pandemic private-club gold rush. As the world wakes up to a loneliness epidemic from health fears, THE WELL, which also has locations in Costa Rica, Mexico, and Connecticut, has expanded to Geneva and Miami (with wellness-oriented residences), with plans for more in the works. Remedy Place plans to expand to New York in 2022 and open 16 clubs across the country. And Continuum Club, which blends a “white-glove experience” with AI technology to help members reach their physical goals, just opened in May for $10,000 a month.
According to Private Club Marketing, which helps revitalize private clubs, New York has eight private wellness club brands and Los Angeles has five (though not all of them are geared toward socializing and fostering community.) “Wellness has now shifted from being interested in wellness to being a lifestyle choice,” says CEO Zach Bates. luckDriving this change are millennials, who “are prioritizing health and wellness and can afford to participate and thrive in these spaces.”
Health is wealth
Provided by Remedy Place
The first members-only social clubs emerged in 18th-century London as a way for wealthy men to socialize and network with like-minded peers. In the 20th century, barriers fell to allow women and other minorities to join. Today’s clubs seem like high-priced experiences designed for the young, wealthy and well-connected in glamorous cities. Think Soho House from the ’90s or the relatively new Casa Cipriani and Zero Bond.
Exclusivity has always been part of the appeal, explains Sylvia Bellezza, an associate professor of business marketing at Columbia University: “The smaller and more difficult to access the peer group, the stronger that sense of belonging signals,” she says. luck.
The wealthy used to show their status through tangible items like luxury bags and cars, but as more consumers have access to these goods, counterfeiters have improved their skills, and the world has become obsessed with quiet luxury, the wealthy have moved towards intangible assets like health and wellness, which coincides with the increasing dematerialization of status symbols, she says.
The way we spend and express time has also changed. Laziness used to be a sign of wealth, because rich people could avoid working. Now workaholism has become a sign of status, and leisure time has become more active, so it’s no surprise that social wellness clubs have emerged, she says. “Going to a club that’s tied to health and wellness speaks to the idea of more active leisure and more productive leisure,” she says. “You’re not working, but you’re also doing productive things – taking care of your body, your appearance, trying to stay young forever.”
But the wellness industry has been criticized for being exclusive and expensive, and social clubs are seen in the same way.
When THE WELL reopened after the pandemic, its founders felt that a members-only model wasn’t the right fit for helping people prioritize their health, so they offered a la carte services while still maintaining the members-only programs, like unlimited infrared experiences and discounts, which Sirhan said might even encourage customers to become members.
Members generally range in age from 25 to 75, but he said they are usually in their 30s making more than $250,000 a year, but “there is an entry point into our club for younger people and those who don’t have the income to be a member,” he said.
New Needs for Prevention and Longevity
Jeff Halevi has noticed three problems during his 20-year career in the health and wellness field. First, wellness is a vague term—to one person it might mean yoga or smoothies, while to another it might mean a gluten-free diet or meditation. “These aren’t necessarily wrong, but from an outcomes-based perspective, understanding what actually moves the needle in the right direction can help you separate the good from the bad,” says Halevi.
Second, wellness solutions vary in effectiveness and quality. Third, people need to not only understand how to use these solutions, but how to assemble them into “a game plan, a fluid mosaic that adapts and evolves to meet your changing needs.” Wearable devices such as the Oura ring are starting to achieve this, but parsing the information is another story, he says. “People don’t need data or dashboards; they need direction.”
That’s where Continuum Club steps in with precision health management, providing integrated datasets from sleep to exercise in a personalized wellness program built with AI for New York City’s 1%. Located in a 25,000-square-foot Romanesque Revival building with a contemporary yet warm earth tones and brick walls, it features “human performance experts,” a hyperbaric chamber, a state-of-the-art gym, and float tanks.
Courtesy of Continuum Club
Its science-backed, technology-based approach embodies this year’s key wellness trends, including biomonitoring, AI-based personalized wellness recommendations, products based on scientific and clinical validity, and physician recommendations, according to McKinsey’s Wellness 2024 report. How social wellness clubs can provide services that inspire members “trust in the validity and scientific backing” is key, says Anna Pione, one of the report’s authors.
Remedy Place has designed its services based on “direct clinical evidence,” including blood tests to create, in Leary’s words, “your body’s instruction manual,” and hyperbaric oxygen chambers to speed up the body’s biochemical healing processes and reverse the effects of aging.
After all, we are in an age of healthy aging, obsessed with optimizing our health habits and embarking on Brian Johnson-like quests for rejuvenation. More than 60% of consumers say purchasing longevity products is very or extremely important, according to a McKinsey survey. It’s no coincidence that this increased interest coincides with the pandemic that Peone and everyone else is facing. luck People we spoke to said we have become more aware of our own mortality and healthcare.
“These are all preventative measures, and there’s a lot of data and technology available today to help us do this better,” Bates said.
community teeth Wellness
According to a Harvard University study, embracing community is key to living a longer, happier life. The pandemic has also encouraged community to flourish. Bates says building a community for like-minded people is what drives the most successful private clubs, while the less successful ones have created beautiful spaces without soul. Health often drives people to such clubs, he adds.
“The desire for community goes hand in hand with health, so it’s only natural that a service that provides both wellness and community would resonate,” says Pione. That’s exactly why Halevi founded Continuum as a social club. But as part of the club’s commitment, he’s keeping it small to maintain a personal, intimate experience. It will host 100 members, expanding to 250 next year, with no plans to exceed that limit.
Leary is intentionally trying to change the narrative about how we socialize with what he calls “social substitution,” which replaces typical social occasions with self-care experiences. “This can be anything from a new way to date, to an alternative to happy hours, to a place to meet up,” he says, adding that members are craving meaningful experiences and connections that prioritize overall wellness over traditional indulgences like alcohol and food.
There’s also the convenience factor: Halevi says Continuum Clubs remove a “time and energy burden” for people juggling work, family and social commitments. This is especially true in big cities like New York, which Sarhan says “chews you up and spits you out.” People are running around, taking yoga classes and seeing acupuncturists, he explains.
There is a need to get more done in less time, he added. “Time is our most precious commodity.”
