March 3, 2016 – What may have started in your grandparent’s basement – and bounced into the Tribeca neighborhood of New York and New Downtown area of Los Angeles – will land in River North on Friday. Downtown Chicago’s first “ping pong social club” will open on the east side of Hotel Chicago at Marina City.

Although a “soft opening” has been underway since Monday morning, SPiN will officially open at 11 a.m. on Friday. A private “Grand Opening Celebration” at the Chicago location, hosted by actress Susan Sarandon, a co-owner of SPiN, is scheduled for March 10.

Almost exactly one year ago, Transwestern, which manages the commercial property at Marina City for LaSalle Hotel Properties, confirmed that a lease had been signed with SPiN for a 16,000 square foot space that had sat empty for six years. A Crunch fitness center was there from June 1999 to July 2008.

Chicago was “the logical next step” for SPiN, said its chief marketing officer at the time, Shawn Topp (left), “given the city’s history of passionate sportsmanship and vibrant nightlife, not to mention a long list of celebrity friends and supporters who make their home there.”

By June 2015, the company had raised $1.8 million for its Chicago location and thought it would open either last summer or early fall. A building permit was not issued until September 22, 2015, and over the next six months, Kern Konstruction of Tinley Park orchestrated a $2.4 million transformation.

The design by David Rockwell of Chicago includes a bar, coffee shop, and warm-up table on the level accessed from State Street, and a staircase from street level to a lower level with another bar, communal-style dining tables, three private lounges, stadium seating, “comfortable mid-century modern couches,” and 19 more ping pong tables.

(Above) One of two bars at SPiN, this one located on the lower level. Photo by Barry Brecheisen.

Location will attract young professionals

Ping pong may be a subculture but the company believes it is a very popular subculture.

“Certainly very popular with the tech industry,” says Joe Dziemianzuk, SPiN’s Global Director of Operations. “Techies really enjoy it. We have a lot of battles…between tech companies.”

Dziemianzuk describes his customers as “highbrow,” much like people in the 1970s and 1980s who were into tennis.

“We find that a lot of people that grew up playing tennis, because the time that they have now for leisure sports is so small, that they find this to be a lot easier to do,” says Dziemianzuk (right). “They can run down during lunch, they can play ping pong against somebody from the office, they don’t have to change their clothes, get out to a tennis court somewhere, they don’t have to go through all that pain. They can just come right down to our facility and play a very similar sport.”

SPiN started about five years ago after hosting weekly loft parties in New York attended by hundreds of people who not only liked ping pong but liked to eat and drink. SPiN expanded to Los Angeles and Toronto and after Chicago, they will open in San Francisco. (Left) Landmark Sign Group returned to River North last month to install a sign it fabricated for SPiN. The Chesterton, Indiana, company has made signs for Hotel Chicago and Bar Louie, also located at Marina City, and the sign near the top of the 41-story Kemper Building on Wacker Drive. Photo obtained from Landmark Sign Group.

The sport connects with many people, says Dziemianzuk, because growing up, many had a ping pong table.

“It was an inexpensive sport to put into your house,” he explains.

While SPiN has experimented with franchising, the Chicago location will be company-owned. They like River North because it has young professionals who like to play ping pong. They were attracted to Marina City in particular for its mid-century design.

“We replicate the idea of finding a ping pong table in your grandparent’s basement. A lot of our furniture is a contemporary version of that mid-century modern design.”

The old Crunch space has high ceilings, which come in handy in ping pong.

“We have a lot of issues in New York because we only have ten-foot ceilings and there’s a lot of times the pros are hitting the ceiling or hitting the lights.”

SPiN says it plans to offer annual memberships, lessons from professional players like collegiate champion Lukasz Fita, tournaments, and live music. (Above) Another view of ping pong tables on the lower level of SPiN. Photo by Barry Brecheisen. (Left) Chicago artist Max Sansing creates art on a wall next to a ping pong table. Photo obtained from SPiN.

Yolk to serve breakfast and lunch from former bank branch

A Chicago-based breakfast spot, thinking about expanding nationwide, will move into Marina City above SPiN.

Yolk signed a lease with LaSalle Hotel Properties in early February. They will serve breakfast and lunch to hotel guests and the general public in a 3,781 square foot space on the east side of Hotel Chicago that was a Chase branch until August 2014. In addition to a main entrance off State Street, Yolk will be accessible from the hotel lobby.

It will be Yolk’s sixth location in Chicago and second location in River North. They also have restaurants in Indiana and Texas. (Right) A patio for Yolk nears completion on February 9. Photo by Steven Dahlman.

A manager at Hotel Chicago says it will take six months to build-out the space.

On the other side of the hotel, construction progress is modest but the hotel confirms that Katana, a Japanese steakhouse, is still going to take over the old BIN 36 space in the southwest corner of the building. It will leave just one commercial tenant space vacant at Marina City, between SPiN and Tortoise Club.