Editors’ Note

Upon concluding his professional baseball career, Brian Packin landed a coveted position with esteemed nightlife innovators, the Gerber Group. During his tenure with the company, he was integral to its success as opening General Manager of Stone Rose Lounge in Manhattan’s Time Warner Center. In 2009, Packin, with wife, Carrie, launched City Nights Hospitality opening its flagship award-winning 48Lounge. In 2015, Packin and City Nights Hospitality were asked by world-renowned developers, Related Companies, to join the distinguished Time Warner Center restaurant and bar collection, as Operating Partners and Creators of the Award-Winning Ascent Lounge. City Nights Hospitality’s success and numerous accolades can be directly attributed to Packin’s multi-faceted experience within up-market nightlife and dining, as well as his exceptionally high standards for product and service quality.

Former dancer, model, and FIT fashion consultant, Carrie Packin, values her relationships throughout the entertainment, television and fashion Industries. Her extensive network and experience in production have all helped attract City Nights Hospitality’s consistently trendsetting, sophisticated and discerning clientele.

Company Brief

City Nights Hospitality (citynightshospitalitynyc.com) is committed to providing an experience where luxury meets comfort, product meets quality, and service meets kindness. Every City Nights Hospitality location is designed to be a hybrid lounge and event venue that provides a uniquely transitional, entertaining atmosphere, set to impress the most refined professionals as well as the most sophisticated late-night and weekend social celebrators. Every detail, from the venue’s lighting and interior design to the progressive food menu, invites a refreshing and all-encompassing approach to upscale cocktailing, dining and entertaining.

Will you discuss your career journeys?

Brian: Having had a successful amateur baseball career breaking records at the University of Connecticut, I had ambitions of becoming a major league baseball player. I played one year of minor league baseball and had trouble hitting the curveball. I knew it was time to find a new career path. I instantly fell in love with nightlife after my playing days were through and started working for Rande Gerber at Whiskey Blue at the W New York on 49th and Lexington. I was immediately hooked on the industry and quickly became a student of the business. Shortly after beginning my nightlife career, I became the youngest GM in the company opening Stone Rose in the landmark Time Warner Center in 2004. During that same year and in that venue, I fell in love and asked Carrie out on our first date. Carrie and I said “I do” in 2006 and opened 48 Lounge, our first cocktail lounge and event venue, together in 2009 and won the Zagat Award of Excellence for product and service. We were asked to come back to Time Warner Center and take over the Stone Rose operation by Ken Himmel, then with Related Company, to partner and launch Ascent Lounge in 2015, which has since become our most successful and coveted hospitality location to date.

Carrie: Many years of dance training and my love of being on stage led me to become a professional dancer and model. I won competitions such as Talent America, filmed television commercials and music videos, as well as traveled domestically and abroad for various editorial, runway, and FIT jobs. Through this successful career, I developed strong skills for marketing myself by remaining consistent and working hard. As a FIT model, I focused my efforts on learning as much as I could about design, production, and the inner workings of corporate brands. I worked for both successes and failures all while getting paid to do it. New York became my largest market for accounts and being in my early 20s, I got to experience the vibrant New York nightlife scene which gave me the opportunity to meet and fall in love with Brian and with hospitality.

What do you feel are the keys to building a leading hospitality company?

Brian: We have always made the guest experience first and have hired teams that care and focus on the same overall goals that help consistently execute our visions and create lasting memories. Having a powerful and ever-expanding network who have supported our businesses for nearly 20 years has been a key ingredient to our success. The love of traveling and experiencing new things has allowed us to evolve from a market standpoint giving us goals, inspiration, and vision on how we can continue to enhance and elevate from a product, aesthetic and service standpoint.

How do each of you focus your efforts leading the business?

Carrie: Brian and I wear various hats when overseeing our business and are constantly cross-checking with one another on a daily basis about the week’s most important tasks. However, we do keep some separation of responsibilities: I focus on brand development, product, marketing, aesthetics, and finance and Brian’s focus is on sales, operations, and new business opportunities. One thing we both focus on together – and is part of our secret sauce – is the guest experience and love of networking within our venues. You will often find us on the floor meeting new guests and sending out food and beverages for our friends to build new bonds and build loyalty.

What was your vision for launching Ambassador by City Nights Hospitality?

Carrie: With 16 years of experience in Midtown Manhattan servicing elite corporate clientele for presentations, network receptions, and large-scale events, the owner of 1251 Avenue of the Americas, Mitsui Fudosan, and the property manager, Hines, approached us with an opportunity. After being tasked with getting tenants to fully return to the office as well as building recognition and appreciation for the building’s most precious investments – its premiere state-of-the-art amenities – Ambassador by City Nights Hospitality was conceived.

Ambassador by City Nights Hospitality is a full-service hospitality concierge and production company that provides a warm and inviting approach to cultivate a thriving community within world class corporate buildings. At 1251 Avenue of the Americas, which is one of Ambassador’s premiere accounts, we focus on providing the building reception, concierge, and messengering services as well as producing building events for celebrating milestones and holidays as well as presentations and reveals of their newest and best building amenities. We are creating a warm, inviting, elevated approach to their day-to-day tenant interactions and experiences by cultivating a community that not only comes back to the workplace, but enjoys it.

Did you always know that you had an entrepreneurial spirit and desire to build your own business?

Brian: My father was an entrepreneur and I always respected that he worked for himself and was a self-starter. I witnessed the dedication and commitment it took to be successful working for yourself. Being an entrepreneur was exciting to me and something I thought I could be successful at by utilizing some of the key skills and focus that it took to be successful at such a high level in baseball. My goal was always to branch out on my own and, as our careers progressed, Carrie and I shared the same vision of hospitality and success so when the opportunity presented itself to open our own space, it seemed like a natural graduation for us to join forces and open our first venue together. This was 48 Lounge that we operated for nearly 16 successful years, winning various awards for our product and service.

You are engaged in philanthropic work and support many causes. Will you discuss this work?

Carrie: We use the venues as a vehicle to host various nonprofit events that support worthy causes, and the reality is that we get such a sense of fulfillment when we are able to do this. One such organization is the Navy Seal Foundation. For the past five years, we’ve been fortunate enough to host their annual welcome reception for active and retired Navy Seals and their families along with gold-star families at our premier venue, Ascent Lounge. Seeing such heroes and their loved ones enjoying themselves in our home for that one night is so rewarding and has inspired us to accept the honor of being on the Navy Seal Foundation’s host committee for the New York Gala. These warriors and their families lay their lives on the line on a daily basis and sacrifice everything and ask for nothing in return. To be able to help raise awareness and funds to support such heroes and their families has become part of our life’s mission.

I am most proud of being a founding board member of the Silverstein Dream Foundation which focuses on supporting research for medical advancements and cures as well as education and prevention in the medical and pharmaceutical spaces. This has given us the opportunity to continue to work with amazing people such as our best friends, Patricia and Roger Silverstein, as we help to support and raise funds for incredible organizations and foundations such as the Diabetes Research Institute, National Jewish Health, Institute Marie Curie, and the Iowa University Institute for Vision Research, just to name a few. The Silverstein Dream Foundation is inspiring a new generation of givers and leaders which will keep our and our family’s passion and commitment for philanthropy burning for many years to come.

What has made the working relationship between the two of you work so well?

Brian: Having just celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary and 17th year of being in business together, the key ingredient is love – the love and respect for one another, the love for raising our two daughters together, the love for hospitality, and the love for our partners, teams, and guests and creating lasting memories for all who have come through our doors in the past, present and future.