Inside the downfall of an exclusive Hollywood club

When NeueHouse, the swanky members-only, co-working space debuted in Hollywood in the fall of 2015, two years after the brand launched its buzzy New York flagship, it arrived steeped in show business history and a wait list to get in.

- BY STACY PERMAN

Photographs by RICARDO DEARATANHA Los Angeles Times

INSIDE NeueHouse in the former CBS Studios in Hollywood in 2015. The location was the scene of celebrity-filled parties, movie premieres and art exhibitions.

The private club occupied the site of the fabled former CBS Studios on Sunset Boulevard that once hosted the radio shows of Orson Welles and was where the pilot of "I Love Lucy" was shot.

The location was the first of three impeccably hip spaces to unfurl across Los Angeles and it quickly became the nexus point for entertainment, media, art and technology, drawing members from the ranks of the city’s screenwriters, producers and filmmakers. The Hollywood outpost became the scene of celebrity-filled parties, movie premieres, art exhibitions and concerts.

It was a fledgling empire of cool with ambitious plans to circle the globe.

Then reality hit.

NeueHouse announced last month it was closing and filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

"Although NeueHouse has created an extremely valuable business that is prized by members and event hosts, unfortunately, it has been burdened by legacy liabilities. Despite our best efforts to find a sustainable path forward — including exploring every possible solution to address these challenges we have made the very difficult decision to wind down the business and close NeueHouse," the company said in a letter to its members.

What went wrong? Like other businesses, NeueHouse was hard hit by the pandemic, the dueling Hollywood labor strikes and the L.A. wildfires in January.

But NeueHouse was ultimately undone by problems of its own making, according to Times interviews with former employees, executives and members as well as a review of internal financial documents.