When Pendry Hotels & Resorts launched its members-only The Elwood Club in 2023, it was touted as a new venue that would contribute to the nightlife scene lacking in Orange County.
Three years later, Pendry is looking to build on top of its social offerings and level up the exclusive club’s programming and membership tiers.
“We have established a robust and thriving social membership which has always been our first priority,” Director of Sales & Marketing Elisa Wong told the Business Journal. “Now, we have the opportunity to layer in corporate membership accretive to the vision of our social club.”
The private club, located within Pendry Newport Beach, is not yet at full capacity as the hospitality company said it still has room for more executives and hotel regulars.
“If we opened and were at full capacity in year one, I think the member experience would have suffered because we’re trying to make changes and adapt and pivot as quickly as possible,” Wong said.
The Pendry is located next to several high-profile firms famous on Wall Street, including Pimco, an asset manager with $2.26 trillion in assets, Pacific Life Insurance, which has $1.5 trillion life insurance in force and Chipotle Mexican Grill (NYSE: CMG). The Pendry is also across the street from Irvine Company-owned Fashion Island, a shopping center well known for its high-end stores. Irvine Co.’s HQ is also nearby.
One of the requests from existing members came to fruition last year when Pendry introduced corporate memberships, which requires three or more people to sign up backed by their company. According to Wong, this has been a notable evolution for the club.
“Because it’s our first time in the private club space, we have learned a lot,” Wong said. “I think we have learned a lot from our members—what the members want and what they’re looking for, and how we are able to really make it a club that the members truly enjoy.”
Though Elwood will go after new corporate members in 2026, Wong doesn’t want to dilute the social accounts either. She said that even three years later, the hotel will analyze how an event at Elwood resonates with its current members and will make changes when something doesn’t work.
“Or if we’re selling out of this specific genre of events, maybe our membership is not as diverse as we need it to be, because we need to create different events to appeal to different people,” Wong said.
As for future iterations of The Elwood Club at other Pendry locations, Wong said the company is focused on Newport Beach for now.
“When the next Elwood Club happens, it’ll be when we have a perfected playbook from Newport Beach.”
55,000 Sq. Ft. of Event Space
The current Elwood Club space spans 11,000 square feet and was converted from former staff offices and meeting rooms when it operated as the Fashion Island Hotel. Pendry took over the 20-story luxury hotel following its sale in 2022 to Newport Beach’s Eagle Four Partners.
The club’s makeup of restaurants and venues consists of a pub called The Living Room, The Cabaret entertainment space and Viamara. Last year, Pendry opened public reservations at the club’s Italian-inspired Viamara for nonmembers who can order from a special menu.
Elwood holds a variety of events each week from Mahjong game nights to artists talks sometimes moderated by Pendry co-founder Michael Fuerstman.
Wong has led the sales and marketing team since the hotel and club opened and before that, she worked at Montage Healdsburg for three years.
A recent priority for Wong this year is to educate all Elwood members that the rest of the Pendry hotel is available to them.
“I always want to make sure that they’re seeing value beyond the club space,” she said.
The Newport Beach property has 55,676 square feet of meeting and event space which members can book with preferred pricing. It ranks No. 11 on the Business Journal’s annual list of hotel meeting spaces.
Wong noted that the hotel has even used the front driveway for large-scale, buyout events.
“Basically, that 55,000 square feet encompasses everything that we would convert for a meeting,” she said.
Wong added that The Pendry has corporate accounts with several locally based companies, many of which are headquartered in the surrounding offices by Fashion Island.
“We will continue to identify great clients, whether they are local or not, to come and experience, yes, the Pendry, but truly experience Newport Beach,” she said.
