Hugh Hefner is gone but Playboy is still very much alive — and will open a new club on Manhattan’s west side in September.
Hef’s 26-year-old son Cooper — Playboy’s chief creative officer — is trying to reinvent the brand as millennial luxury, sources said, and will turn the new digs at 510 West 42nd Street into Playboy Enterprise’s flagship.
And yes, the Playboy bunnies will be back — with bunny ears and tails. Though their outfits will still be skimpy, the women servers will be decked out in high-priced Roberto Cavalli designer duds.
And membership doesn’t come cheap.
Initiation fees run up to $250,000, which includes access to Playboy’s sleek black jet and 15 nights at the club, which has 30 rooms for its members, a source said.
“We’ve already sold $2.2 million worth of memberships,” a source said, adding that memberships are now on hold as a waiting list grows. “We didn’t expect so many members before our marketing began. We need to curate our list.”
Women have bought around 45 percent of all memberships sold so far, said an insider, who won’t reveal members’ names, except to say they are from Wall Street, Hollywood and foreign nations.
Inside the 14,000-square-foot space, there are top of the line interiors from New York-based, Cypriot-born designer Cenk Fikri, who designed Bar 190 in London and private membership clubs in Dubai.
The club will feature four separate lounges and different membership levels will buy access to different areas — like the underground Rabbit Hole Lounge, the Grotto lounge, the Royal Lounge and the Black Box, which is where events will take place.
“This is all about luxury,” he said. “It’s a beautifully designed, sexy, elegant space. This really is the new Playboy mansion. It will be over the top gorgeous and luxurious — a really special place.”