Norwood

In July 2006 Community Board 4 voted to recommend a liquor license for a new private-membership club on West 14th Street, whose plans called for staff trained to serve with the least possible noise and special polymer dishes that don't clatter like porcelain¹. It took the name of the family that built the house: the brownstone was built for the bond merchant Andrew S. Norwood, and it had been a city landmark since 1978 and on the National Register of Historic Places since 1979^{1, 2}.

A group including Alan Linn had bought the house from the heirs of the Borello family in 2006². Linn and Steve Ruggi, who ran the Citizens Arts Club in London, founded Norwood in 2007 as a modern take on the traditional gentlemen's club, and the British designer Simon Costin converted the interior^{1, 2}. Inside were a restaurant, two lounge bars, a screening room and a walled garden². Like the Century Association, it drew its members from the city's arts and creative community, about 1,100 of them, with a waiting list behind them².

The building was listed for sale in December 2020, and the club closed in February 2022². In 2024 Starwood acquired the townhouse following a $9.2 million foreclosure³. Our old review put the mansion at twelve million dollars; in 2026 Abdiel Capital paid Starwood $13.1 million for it⁴.