Brandon Charnas and Scott Sartiano of Zero Bond (Photo-illustration by Kevin Rebong/The Real Deal; Getty Images).

For decades, New York’s private clubs were synonymous with wood-paneled dining rooms, academic affiliations and strict dress codes. Stuffy buttoned-up Midtown enclaves like the Penn Club, Harvard Club and Yale Club functioned more as after-hours boardrooms than places to meet up with friends for drinks.

That changed in 2003, when London-based social club Soho House crossed the Atlantic, opening its first U.S. location in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District. The club signed a lease for 45,000 square feet at the brick loft building at 29 Ninth Avenue, kicking off a new era of private spaces that were hip and exclusive.