10-Feb-16 – They closed and then tore down the nightclub he managed, but Arman Razavi is back at Marina City, hired to be the first general manager of SPiN, River North’s soon-to-open “ping pong social club.”

Razavi (left) was hired in December. He is currently working to get the bar/restaurant, where guests can play table tennis, ready for a “soft” opening on March 4 and a grand opening on March 10.

In addition to the $2.4 million renovation at SPiN, work continues on both the east and west sides of Hotel Chicago. Patios are being built, one for a future retail tenant and the other for Katana, a Japanese restaurant that is taking over the old BIN 36 space in the southwest corner of the building.

(Above) A view of SPiN’s main entrance from a glass-sided patio built on the east side of Hotel Chicago. Through the double doors will be a bar and a warm-up ping pong table. The rest of SPiN is downstairs. A tenant space to the right will not be used by SPiN or its neighbor, Tortoise Club. (Click on images to view larger versions.)

Razavi was previously general manager of Celeste, a restaurant and lounge on West Hubbard Street. But before that he was general manager of Crimson Lounge, the Victorian style nightclub inside Hotel Sax that opened shortly after the hotel was sold to its current owner, LaSalle Hotel Properties, in 2006.

He managed Crimson Lounge from September 2010 to June 2013. The bar was demolished last year as part of a $10 million renovation of what is now Hotel Chicago. The space that was once Crimson Lounge was turned into a new lobby and a smaller lounge.

For seven years, Razavi owned a bar in the Bucktown neighborhood and he was food and beverage manager during the first year of Roof, the rooftop bar/venue at theWit hotel. For the past 16 years, he has had his own consulting firm, Midnight Oil Agency, working with businesses in the hospitality, food/beverage, and nightlife industries.

Sarandon to host Grand Opening Celebration

On Tuesday, SPiN announced that actress Susan Sarandon, a co-owner of SPiN, will not just attend a private “Grand Opening Celebration” at the Chicago location on March 10 but she will host the event, scheduled for 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Then at 9:30 p.m., SPiN will open to the public.

Sarandon is an Academy Award winner with a career in film and television that spans 64 years. (Right) Sarandon playing table tennis in 2011. Photo by Philippe Lopez.

She has been a fan of the sport since attending a ping pong party hosted by one of her business partners. SPiN originated in the Tribeca neighborhood of New York in 2009.

In 2014, she starred in Ping Pong Summer, a film in which she played a former ping pong champion.

(Above) Visitors to Marina City will have a new stairway on Wednesday. It is behind the glass enclosure at left for a wheelchair lift that will be assembled over two to three weeks, according to the general contractor, Bully & Andrews. The space at right was previously a Chase branch.