Status Clubs: Inside the Big Apple's Core

Perhaps the most ambitious club of all is the Core Club, a private establishment to be designed by Studio Sofield (the team behind Gucci's boutiques). Originally scheduled to open in Manhattan this fall, the club now plans to open in spring 2005. The idea is to offer each of its 500 invitation-only members a Core consultant to orchestrate the experience--from booking spa treatments to arranging a meeting with the club's art consultant. Butlers will help members in the gym, chef Tom Colicchio will run the restaurant, and the Core consultants will set up screenings and business meetings--all for an initial fee of $100,000 for elite founding members (supposedly 100 people have already signed up) and $25,000 for other members. "This is for people who are at a place in life where there shouldn't be any compromises," says Jennie Saunders, the club's president and CEO. "We're editing out the noise in their lives." --M.C.