![]() A Realtor I spoke to had seen a similar dynamic with clients who she says might see a tiny one-bedroom and console themselves that, just outside their door, there’s “50,000 square feet of amenities” with “podcasting equipment and space for my laptop.” She also pegged the typical resident as single and generally working remote, someone who wants “options to get them out of the house.”Īt Hudson Yards’ newest rental addition, the Set, some of the studios are so small that the beds fold away to clear up floor space. In some buildings, the programming seems designed to zhuzh up the appeal of otherwise drab apartments - “I’ve been in huge, incredible buildings but the apartments are not nice,” the chef tells me. You can throw them a DIY lobster-roll-making seminar. ![]() But you can make residents feel like they’re special people with interesting taste. Although some LivunLTD concierges specialize in getting theater tickets and impossible reservations as if they were working in a hotel, “you can’t always just pick up the phone and get a table at Polo Bar or Carbone” for just anyone, Fazio says. Events are organized and staffed by LivunLTD’s “lifestyle managers,” who are one part camp counselor and one part attaché to their finicky clients. LivunLTD offers a monthly “menu” of programming that it sends to building developers and managers, who then pick and choose what they want: There’s an “I Scream, You Scream” party with Van Leeuwen ($1,650 for 100 people) and an “Italian Summer Night” with Aperol spritzes and negronis for $2,350. “So what else can they offer? They can offer a lifestyle,” says Michael Fazio, co-founder and chief creative officer at LivunLTD, which is contracted by developers such as Related and RXR for amenities programming across the city. As rents in Manhattan reach ever more deranged heights - despite inflation, continued whispers of a recession, and New York Post headlines about the city’s supposed descent into chaos - developers are seeking new ways to justify the sticker shock. These bubble buildings are selling New York without New York, an amenities oasis that promises to deliver the city’s very best without requiring residents to wade through any of its mess.ĭevelopers have good reason to pander to tenants who are willing and able to shell out money to be treated as if every day were first-year orientation. Or that they’re maybe just killing time until they move to Hoboken, as they kind of already want to. Or that they recently moved here and want to meet people without thinking too hard about it. And they’re betting that many of those prospective tenants would rather stay in than brave the subway. ![]() When every luxury building begins to appear indistinguishable - with the same attention to detail, the same high-end appliances and tasteful finishes - developers have to look elsewhere to lure tenants. There are opportunities to build terrariums in honor of Earth Day and to enjoy weekly happy hours with Brooklyn-based IPAs and cheese pairings. This is the slightly twee, extremely costly world of “amenities programming,” a recent turn in luxury real estate that goes beyond the standard rooftop pool or perfectly calibrated wine fridge to offer a social life and something like personal taste to tenants paying $5,000 for a one-bedroom. “It’s all very gentle,” the chef tells me. “Most of the people that come to the classes are between 35 and 60,” the chef says, “because people who are 28 already know how to have fun.” Light bites and sparkling wine are provided a smiling “lifestyle manager” is on hand to make sure the pre-chopped hazelnuts haven’t run out and to otherwise dote on the residents, pleasant questions at the ready: How was Pilates? Did you finish White Lotus yet? After two hours, the attendees head to the elevators and back to their respective apartments, the day’s confections in hand. A few times a week, she packs up her double boiler and brings it to a glass-façade high-rise in Soho or Hudson Yards or the Upper East Side, rides the elevator to what she says is almost always an identically appointed mid-century lounge, and teaches residents how to make espresso-dusted truffles and elevated s’mores. Photo-Illustration: Curbed Photos: Getty, GoogleĪ sought-after personal chef - let’s call her the small-batch chocolatier of New York City - has a lucrative side gig.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |