Rolls-Royce NYC Private Office showroom caters to top-tier clients

Rolls-Royce has opened its first U.S. “Private Office,” a secret VIP design studio for ultra-wealthy clients who want highly personalized cars.

The Private Office, in Manhattan’s trendy Meatpacking District, is central to the fabled British automaker’s new strategy of growing sales and profits from selling more customized, higher-priced vehicles rather than boosting production. Rolls-Royce produced 6,032 cars last year, less than half the production of Ferrari, yet continues to generate strong profit growth for its parent company BMW.

While Rolls-Royce customers have been customizing their rides for decades, the Private Office brings the concept of a personalized Rolls to a whole new level. Once select customers order a car from a dealer, they can go to the Private Office to work with a designer to create an entirely personalized car — from special paint colors to their favorite fabrics, woods, lighting schemes and other materials.

“They may want the exterior of their Rolls-Royce to match the color of their dog’s eyes,” said Rolls-Royce CEO Chris Brownridge. “They may want to have interior panels in the car with the mother-of-pearl from their private collection. We can bring those sorts of requests to life through having direct access to the team. And the possibilities really are endless.”

Rolls-Royce calls its top level of personalization the “Bespoke” program. Creating a Bespoke Rolls can add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the sticker price, which for a Rolls-Royce Phantom is just under $500,000, bringing the total sale price of some cars to more than $1 million.

The Private Office is reserved for the most complicated — and expensive — Bespoke projects. It’s not a dealership and there are no actual cars displayed. To get into the Private Office, customers press a black security screen outside an unmarked building and take a secure elevator to the top floor.

With its sleek black kitchen, low sofas, a dining table, outdoor terrace, and turntable with stacks of classic rock and jazz vinyl records, the Private Office looks more like a billionaire’s pied-a-terre than a car showroom. The only hint that it’s a Rolls-Royce facility is a row of shelves along the back wall displaying samples of paint colors, threads, leathers, metals and a row of the famous “Spirit of Ecstasy” hood ornaments in different finishes.

The New York Private Office is the company’s third worldwide, following Dubai, United Arab Emirates, which opened in 2022, and Shanghai in 2023. The company is about to open its fourth, in Seoul, Korea.

The idea, Brownridge says, is to bring the expertise and design capability of its Goodwood, U.K., factory to clients around the world. That’s especially important as client requests become more unusual and complex.

One Rolls-Royce client wanted a car inspired by flowers. The Rolls team created an extended-wheelbase Phantom with a headliner covered…