1 Oak Founder Plans Exclusive New East Village Club

EAST VILLAGE, NY — The founder of 1 Oak, one of New York City's most exclusive clubs, is planning a new members only venue in the East Village. Scott Sartiano wants to open a three-story spot where members could work, hold meetings, eat dinner and drink.

Sartiano is envisioning something similar to the ultra high end – and pricey – Core club in Midtown Manhattan, he told Community Board 2 Tuesday. The new space, which would be located at 0 Bond St. and called Zero Bond, would include a bowling alley, a gaming room, three bars and a restaurant. Current plans would make it about 15,000 square feet.

Sartiano plans to build a structure on the top floor of the building, creating an enclosed sixth floor that would cost about $10 million to construct, he said during a presentation to the board's liquor licensing committee. The club would fill the fourth, fifth and sixth floors, he said.

The club’s membership fee? Probably around $2,500 a year, something Sartiano described as similar to the membership fee at the nearby Equinox gym. (For more information on this and other neighborhood stories, subscribe to Patch to receive daily newsletters and breaking news alerts.)

“It’s not expensive, it’s not supposed to be exclusive,” Sartiano insisted on Tuesday.

Although the membership fee is “not expensive” by Sartiano’s standards, his representative on Tuesday night said that prospective members would be thoroughly vetted before being admitted to the club.

“There is a very deliberate determination as to who and who may not be a member,” he said.

The club, which would likely be open between 9 a.m. and 2 a.m., would not be member only with a limited number of guests allowed for a meeting or a meal. Sartiano estimated that the club’s total membership would be about 1,500 people with a max occupancy of 450 people inside the club.

Tuesday night’s meeting grew heated at times as community members and Zero Bond reps bickered over the club’s impact on noise and traffic flow in the area. This was Sartiano’s second presentation before the committee, after addressing concerns over noise and operating hours.

Sartiano gave committee members and neighbors a tour of the space and came back with a number of adjustments to address community questions. He also reduced the maximum occupancy inside the club and promised to hire two people to work in the evening hours for security and traffic control.

But multiple neighbors expressed concerns.

“This is a lot of people to bring in to what is a quiet, residential street,” said Denise Martin, who lives on Bond Street and is a member of her building’s co-op board.

Sartiano, 42, has launched some of New York City’s most successful — and exclusive — restaurants and clubs. 1 Oak on West 17th Street in Chelsea, which Sartiano left in 2015, is a regular hotspot for actors, models and professional athletes.

It's also been the site of multiple celebrity fights and mishaps. The club is the spot where Lindsay Lohan was accused for stealing an $11,000 fur mink coat from a woman in 2008. The rapper Azealia Banks was arrested in 2015 after police say she bit the breast of a security guard who was escorting her from 1 Oak.

On Tuesday, Sartiano reiterated that he had parted ways with his former business partner and the parent company of 1 Oak.

“This is what it is, this is not a Trojan Horse,” he said on Tuesday.

Image credit: Dimitrios Kambouris / Staff / Getty Images Entertainment. Image caption: Scott Sartiano and TV personality Scott Disick attend A Night of Style & Glamour to welcome newlyweds Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries at Capitale on August 31, 2011 in New York City.