Metro

Swank and swell rule ritzy club

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The welcome mat isn’t out for just anyone at the exclusive Soho House club. The ritzy, six-story members-only club in the Meatpacking District caters to New York’s wealthy, beautiful and creative types.

The roughly 5,000 members, who pay up to $2,400 to join, must “have their cards verified by reception” when they enter the premises, according to the club’s Web site.

There’s also a 24-room boutique hotel that’s open to nonmembers, and where rooms go from $525 to $1,400 a night. Hotel guests have membership privileges during their stay.

PHOTOS: SYLVIE CACHAY FOUND DEAD

Soho House amenities include a top-notch spa, dining rooms, a 44-seat screening room, and a popular rooftop heated pool.

As part of its cultural mandate, the club creates programs for members, including film screenings and wine tastings.

One member yesterday described it as being an elegant spot to hang out and socialize with people in the entertainment and media industry.

“It’s like a private version of the W hotel,” he said.

Members interviewed by The Post say they’ve entertained movie stars and presidents of countries and companies at the club.

In past years, celebrities like Beyoncé, Nicole Kidman and Maggie Gyllenhaal were among the many A-listers spotted at the pool.

Any New Yorker would covet a chance to lounge poolside, and the club’s pool even had a cameo role on an episode of “Sex and the City” in which Samantha (Kim Cattrall) pretends to be a member — and gets booted.

The club is the soul of discretion, and rigorously enforces members’ privacy by forbidding people to take pictures except at public events.

Page Six reported earlier this year that a member was barred from the club after snapping photos of soccer stud Cristiano Ronaldo and his model girlfriend, Irina Shayk, by the pool.

In the past year, the club tried to shake off the notion that its membership was getting a little older and stuffier.

The club also didn’t renew the memberships of even some founding members, in a bid to keep true to its roots as a young, hip place.

The membership for those under 27 is deliberately lower — only $900.

“It’s all about the right mix,” founder/owner Nick Jones told The Post earlier this year.

The club can afford to be picky about its members: Last year, it generated more than $20 million in revenues.

New York’s Soho House, which opened in 2003, is part of a chain of clubs that originated in London in 1995. In the last year, it launched satellite sites in Berlin, Hollywood and Miami.

It’s all part of an expansionary vision that is in part funded by one of Britain’s richest men, Richard Caring — a moneyman-turned-restaurateur — who bought an 80 percent stake in the enterprise in 2005.

jennifer.keil@nypost.com