The Algonquin Club Seeks to Double Capacity Amidst $25M Renovation

The once-decaying property in Boston, Mass.’s Back Bay, which opened in the 1880s and is now known as ’Quin House, was bought by Hexagon Properties in 2018. Renovations that have prompted a request to double the club’s licensed capacity include a gym, new restaurants, bars and lounges, and private guest quarters.

The Algonquin Club in Boston, Mass. has requested to double its licensed capacity as it nears completion of $25 million in renovations that include a gym, new restaurants bars and lounges and private guest quarters, Universal Hub reported. The request to expand capacity comes not from additions to the building but from renovations that restored interior space that could no longer be used as the building decayed, club attorney Patricia Malone said.

The Boston Licensing Board will consider increasing maximum capacity of the building to 962 people, Universal Hub reported. The initial application requested a capacity of 1,350, but Malone said the higher number would likely require a new public-hearing process first.

Sandy Edgerley’s Hexagon Properties brought the decrepit club in 2018 after an uproar over her original plans to turn an 11-story office building into a social club, Universal Hub reported. After buying the Algonquin Club, designed by McKim, Mead and White and opened in the 1880s, Hexagon won city approval to turn the office building into nine condos.

Edgerley’s proposal for the Algonquin Club—now known as ’Quin House—initially raised neighborhood ire as well, mainly because of a proposal for a roof deck, Universal Hub reported. But Edgerley and the Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay eventually negotiated a “good neighbor agreement” covering everything from trash and noise to parking, and numerous Back Bay residents told the licensing board what a grand neighbor the club has been.

One nearby resident, Irene Olsen, even praised the construction workers who have been going in and out of the building for two years as being exceptionally considerate of the neighborhood, Universal Hub reported.

“There hasn’t been any noise,” she said. Another nearby resident, Carol Lindsay, agreed and said the club will bring the sort of liveliness to the area that Jane Jacobs wrote is the hallmark of good urban life, Universal Hub reported.

Another nearby resident, Dr. Aneesh Singhal, praised the careful vetting the ’Quin staff has done of impending members, Universal Hub reported. Coupled with the renovations, this has put him at ease: “I have no doubt this will be glorious addition to our beloved city.”

Nationally known event planner Bryan Rafanelli, whose office is nearby and who was signed up as one of the club’s first members, said the ’Quin’s General Manager, Matthias Kiehm, is “global expert in hospitality and understands how to run a property like this.”

He has previously worked in top management at the Ritz in Paris and at Four Seasons hotels in Boston, Los Angeles and Egypt, Universal Hub reported.

Carol Fulp marveled that club membership reflects “every generation” and ethnic diversity and culture. The ’Quin, she said, “represents the new Boston.”

Cathy Minehan told Universal Hub it’s good Edgerley bought the old Algonquin Club when she did, because its continued decline and fall otherwise would have had “unfortunate repercussions for the entire Back Bay.”

Annual membership rates will range from $2,000 a year for under-35 leaders, creators, innovators, rising stars and “wild cards” with that 21st-century It-Girl quality that you just know when you see it, rising to $4,000 a year for people over 50, Universal Hub reported. There are also initiation fees ranging from $1,250 to $4,000. But: Go-getters who work in the arts, civics or the non-profit sector and who make under $150,000 a year, can get in for just $500 a year, plus a $250 initiation fee.