As lockdown restrictions begin easing in the U.S., the Malibu beachfront property owned by Soho House, a private members club for the jet-set, has reportedly begun to reopen.
That’s good news for the company, which also secured an investment of $100 million from new and existing shareholders, Sky News reported.
The British TV news channel said the funding round was led by the company’s largest investor, Ron Burkle, founder of the private equity firm the Yucaipa Companies.
Despite many of its locations remaining closed because of the pandemic, Soho House retained its valuation of $2 billion, established by a funding round in 2019, Sky reported. That 2019 round came with a $100 million investment from Simon Property Group and Raycliff Capital, which amounted to a 5 percent stake in Soho House.
Since 2018, when the company reportedly considered making an IPO in New York, it has expanded to new cities, adding clubs as well as co-working spaces for its members. The company is not yet profitable.
The Daily Mail reported in early June that the company was eyeing a farmhouse property in the Hudson Valley town of Rhinebeck, population 8,000, since the successful launching of its rural location in Oxfordshire, U.K., in 2015.
After Soho House opened in Oxfordshire, local residents reportedly complained of “noisy super cars” and SUVs belonging to “a specific type of person who is more upmarket.”
Rhinebeck is already accustomed to some celebrity presence. Paul Rudd co-owns a candy shop in the town of 8,000 people, and Chelsea Clinton married there in 2010. [Bloomberg] — Orion Jones