The Wing founder lands in Hudson Valley for hospitality venture

After clipping the wings of her previous real estate venture, Audrey Gelman is taking flight with a hospitality concept.

Gelman, founder of the female-focused co-working company The Wing, is planning an 11-room room inn at a historic building in the Hudson Valley, the Wall Street Journal reported. The Six Bells hotel is set to open in Rosendale next spring.

Rooms will start at $400 per night. The property will also include children’s amenities, a cafe and a retail shop similar to the homewares store she’s been running out of Brooklyn for the past two years, which Gelman claims is set to become profitable this year. 

GrecoDeco is designing the hotel, which Gelman billed as the result of her exploring the “space between luxury hospitality and theme hospitality.” 

While Gelman doesn’t appear to have much in the way of hotel experience, some of her backers do. Early investors include venture firm Lerer Hippeau and Airbnb co-founder Brian Chesky. She’s partnering with HN Capital Partners’ Jeremy Selman, who will develop and operate the hotel.

The Wing is Gelman’s claim to fame, but it came to an ugly end. 

Since creating the company in 2016, Gelman raised more than $100 million in funding and opened 11 locations, including spots in New York, London, and Washington, D.C. The company was valued at $365 million in 2018, but it plummeted to around $200 million after WeWork divested its stake following its own botched IPO. Fallout from the pandemic compounded its losses.

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Gelman resigned from the company in June 2020 after employees publicly condemned the company over claims of mistreatment and racism. Hours after her resignation, employees staged a digital walkout to protest the Wing’s “dysfunctional company structure.”

Gelman was replaced by a three-person “office of the CEO,” held by Lauren Kassan, Celestine Maddy and Ashley Peterson. Two years later, the company shut down.

— Holden Walter-Warner