Photo: Hugh Hefner, surrounded by a dozen Playboy Bunnies, at the original Chicago Playboy Club in 1960.
Chicago, IL - Plans are in the works for a new Chicago Playboy Club just blocks away from where the original opened 51 years ago.Playboy Enterprises Inc. has signed a licensing deal for a Playboy Club on the Near North Side. The licensee, Boston-based real estate capital and advisory firm Tremont Realty Capital LLC, is eyeing the mansion at 1150 N. Dearborn St., now the site of Il Mulino restaurant, Crain's has learned.
Playboy CEO Scott Flanders confirms that the company has a deal for a Chicago club with a partner who is “in the final stages of selecting a site,” adding that the club is expected to open by the first quarter of next year.
Playboy is resurrecting the clubs through licensees some two decades after closing down the last of its company-owned clubs. Since 2006, clubs have opened in Las Vegas, London, Macau, and Cancun, Mexico. Each is attached to a hotel or casino that attracts a steady stream of potential customers.
The Chicago location, however, would stand alone, making it a tougher test of the viability of the 1960s-era concept today. Success here would bolster the licensing business Playboy executives are counting on as a growth engine for the struggling company. Clubs are expected to be a major source of licensing deals.
