Convene Hospitality Group, billed as the largest single provider of non-hotel meeting and event venues in the United States and the United Kingdom, is opening an immersive event space in New York as part of its ambition to provide venues to “serve the full spectrum of the events industry.”
CHG, the Brookfield-backed parent of corporate event space provider Convene, signed a lease spanning more than 26,000 square feet across two floors at 120 E. 23rd St., a 250,000-plus-square-foot property owned by landlord Williams Equities, CHG said Wednesday in a statement.
The venue will house CHG’s new immersive event concept, called the Aperture, that the firm said will be among the largest projection mapping venues in New York and offer 270-degree projection mapping capabilities across 165 linear feet of digital canvas in its main hall.
The concept drew inspiration from pioneering photographer Jessie Tarbox Beals, whom CHG described as the first published female photojournalist in the United States. She maintained a studio at the address in the early 20th century.
Located in a terra-cotta and limestone building built in 1913 and designed by architecture firm Schwartz & Gross, the Aperture is geared “for brand activations, product launches, and multi-sensory conferences for up to 1,000 people,” CHG said.
In addition to projection mapping, the Aperture will have fully motorized theatrical truss and lighting, all managed by the in-house CHG production team.
The latest concept comes as CHG has expanded beyond the Convene corporate meeting and event space brand, which also includes flexible workspaces, in other high-profile neighborhoods in New York, including in Hudson Yards and SoHo.
CHG has introduced other concepts such as the Mallory, the company’s first that’s been designed to host social events such as weddings and award galas. The venue will open at Terminal Warehouse, one of the largest adaptive reuse projects in New York history.
This month, CHG said it bought NeueHouse, a members-only coworking and social club that filed for bankruptcy protection last fall, with plans to "operate, preserve, and nurture" the brand.
CHG has a network of 40 locations across nine cities in the U.S. and Britain.