We are building a private members club on South Congress for the people building the future — and hiring the three people who will run it. This page is the honest version of what that means.
Each of these people arrives before the building opens — early enough to sign off on the flow, the kitchen, and the service infrastructure before construction is locked, and to lead the pre-opening in full. You are not inheriting a running operation. You are setting the standard it will be held to.
Arena Hall is a private membership community rooted in a restored historic church on South Congress in Austin. Built on three years of active community in the city, it is where leaders connect through intentional hospitality, align around shared values, and collaborate on projects with real civic and commercial impact.
It is intentionally structured to resist transaction, spectacle, and anonymity — in favor of building relationships, trust, and continuity. The community is composed of people who carry real responsibility — founders, investors, artists, operators, and civic leaders — and who want their work, relationships, and lives to reinforce one another rather than compete for attention.
This is not a conventional hospitality operation. The quality of human connection is the core product, food and drink are social infrastructure, and every detail is considered with intention.
Five minutes on what Arena Hall is for, why hospitality is the whole thesis, and what I'm looking for in the people who come build it.
The house finds, convenes, and serves people in pursuit of depth and shared values — and gives them the physical and spiritual ground to be themselves, build life-long relationships, and unlock the collaborations that fulfill their life goals. Four pillars hold it up. Every menu, every shift, every introduction is measured against them.
Just behind Perla's on South Congress — a twenty-two-thousand-square-foot restored church on a fifty-thousand-square-foot campus, full member dining and bar service, a prep kitchen, and event spaces. Structural and design refurbishment began July 2026; the club opens February 2027.
Founders, investors, operators, and civic leaders — the membership is already three years in the making.
Partners at some of the country’s largest venture and private‑equity funds. The president of a flagship public university. The founders of companies you already use.
Members are not named here. Candidates who reach a second conversation see the full directory.
Learn from leading minds over meals in community. Eight ways the calendar comes to life — and eight kinds of night the house has to be able to deliver:
No layers to manage around. These three hires join a bench that is already carrying the business — finance, private events, membership, hospitality, facilities, and real estate — and each of them reports into it directly.
"Appreciative love is, I think, often so great and so firmly based that each member of the circle feels, in his secret heart, humbled before the rest. Sometimes he wonders what he is doing there among his betters. He is lucky beyond desert to be in such company. Especially when the whole group is together; each bringing out all that is best, wisest, or funniest in all the others."
"Those are the golden sessions: when four or five of us after a hard day's walk have come to our inn; when our slippers are on, our feet spread out toward the blaze and our drinks are at our elbows; when the whole world, and something beyond the world, opens itself to our minds as we talk; and no one has any claim on or any responsibility for another, but all are freemen and equals as if we had first met an hour ago, while at the same time an affection mellowed by the years enfolds us. Life — natural life — has no better gift to give. Who could have deserved it?"
To apply or express interest, send a brief note — not a form letter — describing what draws you to the specific role, alongside your CV.
lorena@arenahall.com · cc evan@arenahall.com