Playboy Club to Return to Chicago

Playboy Enterprises says it has reached a deal with Boston-based real estate capital and advisory firm Tremont Realty Capital to open a new Playboy Club in Chicago, where it all began in 1960. The club will occupy a mansion at location at 1150 N. Dearborn St. Tom Morgan, general counsel for Tremont Realty Capital, said "we think the time is now." "We think the Chicago market is going to react very favorably to what we're going to offer." The club will include a high-end restaurant and lounge "in the classic Playboy Club style," according to Morgan, and will include waitresses in costumes similar to the original cotton-tailed bunny outfits from the 1960s. "The Playboy Bunny is an iconic image, and that's certainly not going to change dramatically," Morgan said. Playboy revived the club concept in 2006 as a franchise at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas, and added clubs in London, Macau and Cancun, Mexico, all with casinos. NBC CMCSA will begin airing a fictionalized series, "The Playboy Club", in September, centered around the Chicago club and set in 1963. Playboy founder, Hugh Hefner, took the company private in January 2011, after a long battle against old rival Penthouse FFN.