Rental residents was content material with a pleasant pool, free foyer espresso, and even valet trash service. However the rich residing in right this moment’s ultra-luxe residences—largely in main cities— need extra. Now, some luxurious condo buildings within the U.S. have began providing med-spa providers like IV hydration and Botox.
“Property managers are venturing into facilities like well being care and aesthetics to fulfill the evolving calls for of luxurious renters and keep aggressive in an facilities arms race,” John Walkup, co-founder of actual property analytics agency UrbanDigs, tells Fortune. “Luxurious implies exclusivity, and builders consistently search to outdo one another by providing the most recent and most unusual facilities. Yesterday’s pool is right this moment’s pet spa—and tomorrow’s pool is the Botox [and] rehydration lounge.”
The facilities arms race has been brewing for some time as renters have come to anticipate extra from the rising price ticket of condo residing. Take Washington, D.C. residences, for instance, which have additionally began providing luxurious facilities together with Tesla leases, artwork galleries, greenhouses, and artistic studios, based on a 2023 Axios report. “Our pandemic shift to spending extra time at house has furthered the facilities arms race,” Axios reporter Paige Hopkins writes. The share of condo buildings in New York Metropolis providing well being and wellness facilities has additionally elevated nearly 3.5% up to now 5 years, based on UrbanDigs information offered to Fortune.
Take The Park Santa Monica in California, for instance, which early this yr began providing concierge IV drip providers for residents by way of a partnership with Drip Hydration. Residents obtain a reduction by way of the partnership for IV therapies for dehydration, hangover aid, vitality, immunity, and wonder that value as much as $399 per session.
Providing these providers, that are administered by registered nurses, on the condo constructing as an alternative of a med spa location, “makes a giant distinction for tenants who’ve a busy day or week forward, and makes it doable to prioritize wellness with out having to compromise,” a spokesperson for The Park Santa Monica tells Fortune. Residents pay for his or her service both in-person on the foyer or by way of The Park’s resident app, and still have entry to on-site salt saunas, steam rooms, and on-demand massages.
IV drips grew to become popularized by celebrities like Adele, Jane Fonda, and Chrissy Teigen just a few years in the past—particularly for enhancing vitality ranges and recovering from dehydration attributable to excessive temps in sunny California. These kinds of providers have turn into so common, in truth, the variety of med spas and hydration clinics has ballooned right into a $15 billion wellness business providing IV remedy, skincare, beauty procedures, based on The American Med Spa Affiliation. Whereas Adele reportedly obtained therapies that value about $200, some IV drips can value as much as $1,000 relying on the supplier and site.
Condominium buildings like 53 West 53 in Manhattan additionally accomplice with med spas to supply at-home luxurious providers. Celeb-beloved facialist Aida Bicaj presents spa providers at this luxurious constructing both within the property’s therapy room or their very own rental.
“Entry is the final word amenity,” Samantha Sax, chief advertising officer USA for Pontiac Land Group, tells Fortune. “With the ability to supply residents a degree of exclusivity with the manufacturers and providers which might be probably already a part of their day by day lives” is a technique to improve rental residing past typical facilities.
Residents can e-book appointments for greater than a dozen providers within the 15,000-square-foot wellness middle at 53 West 53, which is a Pontiac Land Group property, or can request in-home therapies.
“As partnerships of this sort have been well-received by our residents at 53 West 53, I might not be shocked if different properties observe go well with,” Sax says.
Are rich residents actually ‘too busy’ to go get in-person med-spa therapies?
Think about waking up in your lush condo in Los Angeles, Miami, or New York Metropolis. You spent the evening out along with your different ultra-wealthy mates—and perhaps even rubbed elbows or shared tequila photographs with celebrities. However now you will have a yoga class to hit this afternoon and are wildly hungover. That’s the place cellular IV drip providers can turn out to be useful.
Different luxurious condo buildings additionally supply Botox, fillers, and different extra invasive providers, making an in-home expertise much more interesting.
Sufferers “can return house instantly after therapy with out dealing with the crowds with pink, bruised, or blotchy pores and skin,” Elizabeth Donat, a licensed esthetician with 20 years of expertise in spas and med spas, tells Fortune. “Having the choice to retreat to the consolation of their very own house with out encountering plenty of onlookers is very interesting to these present process extra invasive therapies.”
At-home providers additionally profit sufferers as a result of they’re much less more likely to have interaction in actions that might hurt the outcomes of their therapy—like train or ingesting alcohol, Donat says.
“Sufferers who go to a standard offsite med spa throughout their day by day errands usually tend to have interaction in actions that jeopardize their therapy, equivalent to attending a yoga class, getting a facial, or going to blissful hour,” Donat says.
Is it protected to get med-spa therapies at house?
Like many issues within the medical world, there’s debate in regards to the security of receiving IV drips, Botox, fillers, and different med spa therapies at house. Some medical doctors and nurses sing their praises, whereas others are extra cautionary.
Whereas there’s been reviews of infections and different accidents related to IV drips and different beauty or vitamin injections throughout the previous few years, many sufferers find yourself simply fantastic and report optimistic outcomes equivalent to improved vitality ranges and a remedy for a hangover.
Heather Hinshelwood, a health care provider, medical director and proprietor at The Fraum Middle on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, cautions in opposition to at-home therapies from a affected person security standpoint. Whereas she’s “inspired” by the curiosity and lure of wellness choices supplied at condo buildings throughout the U.S., she says they need to be physician-led.
“I’m involved that these corporations could go for the bottom bid fairly than prioritizing affected person security,” Hinshelwood tells Fortune. Florida and South Carolina have began cracking down on these kind of providers with out a doctor on web site in response to “boutique clinics providing affected person care choices with out ever seeing a supplier and the overuse of distant clinic administrators that aren’t meaningfully concerned.”
What do property managers get out of those partnerships?
Whereas med spa providers are nonetheless a distinct segment providing, Walkup says, they’re nonetheless part of the “arms race mentality” for providing premier facilities.
“In the event that they efficiently entice tenants to pay increased rents, anticipate extra buildings to supply them sooner or later,” Walkup says. “These facilities assist entice and retain prosperous tenants keen to pay a premium for comfort and exclusivity as a result of they see the supplied providers as added worth. This makes the property extra aggressive within the luxurious market and sometimes permits for increased asking rents.”
In different phrases, condo buildings can make more cash in the long term by providing these kind of facilities with out having to spend money on renovations or installations of extra widespread facilities like a pool or membership room.
Luxurious condo buildings are additionally extra more likely to supply med spa providers to draw new tenants as a result of there are simply merely fewer housing choices for wealthier revenue brackets looking for an ultra-plush expertise.
“As a result of the pool of individuals searching for luxurious residences is considerably smaller than non-luxury residences, competitors is usually fairly a bit stronger,” Seamus Nally, CEO of TurboTenant, tells Fortune. “So, together with new, fascinating, and ingenious facilities like these are ways in which property managers will attempt to persuade luxurious condo consumers that their constructing is the easiest.”
