Lavish Dining Areas, Souped-up Children’s Play Rooms and Secluded Workout Spaces Top Amenity Wish Lists for 2024

In luxury condominium developments, health amenities continue to rival the highest-end gyms and spas. Affluent buyers have spoken: They want private spaces within sprawling wellness floors to reach their personal bests, then actively recover in a sumptuous setting.

New York City and its latest crop of luxury new builds offer a weathervane for amenity trends in the year ahead, as developers compete for some of the world’s wealthiest buyers—and they’ve answered the call for wellness facilities in many creative ways. “Specificity” is the name of the game going into 2024, with private e-workout pods and spa-like amenities that provide residents with a private escape. Pools, including of the saltwater variety, are becoming a given in the luxury condo amenity lineup.

Younger residents, especially children and teens, may do double takes as they find spaces catered specifically to them. Activity rooms are becoming more intentional and activity-driven, allowing curiosity and exploration to flourish. The most competitive and exclusive residences are investing in outdoor playgrounds, giving young ones and their parents and caretakers a private oasis.

Work-centric amenities, like podcast studios and coworking spaces, have moved to the back burner, especially as the return to in-office work trends upward. Instead, developers are allocating more square footage for off-duty pursuits. This ranges from lavish dining areas to storage for bicycles and boxes of all the hobby accouterments that residents acquired over the last few years.

Dinner Parties Make a Comeback

_{The Treadwell. Rendering: DBOX}

Open-air dining may be an evergreen way of life for many, and beautiful outdoor kitchens are popping up at the Gild, a 28-unit building in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood; the Keller, a 28-unit building in the West Village; and Minuet, a 15-unit building in Midtown. Barbecues, landscaping and plush seating are musts. At Minuet, future residents are promised 360-degree city views from a landscaped rooftop. A rendering shows a plush lounge area surrounded by a variety of plants and neighboring towers.

The Treadwell, a 66-unit building in Lenox Hill, and 108 Leonard, 167-unit building in Tribeca, combine indoor and outdoor dinner hosting locations. Formal dining rooms, especially paired with demonstration or chef’s kitchens, are also on offer.

_{Olympia DUMBO. Credit: Pavel Bendov}

With over 20,000 square feet of amenities, 108 Leonard offers residents both al fresco and formal dining, including space for 10 people around a wood table fit for formal dinner parties. The room adjoins a wine cellar, a billiards room with a wet bar and a screening room for post-dinner entertaining.

“We have an amenity programmer, URBN Playground, that creates events and programming for our residents that activate and revolve around the amenity spaces that we have—specifically the chef’s demonstration kitchen and the marble room on the mezzanine of the lobby level,” said Alex Olsen, COO of Elad Group. “These are things that residents actually want. There’s a desire to socialize in these spaces so that they’re not empty caverns.”

_{Olympia DUMBO. Credit: Pavel Bendov}

_{The Gild. Credit: Visualisation One}

Space to Nest

Interests in at-home hobbies and nesting to make the most comfortable home skyrocketed in recent years. As such, luxury buyers are asking for more on-site space to store their belongings, seasonal decor and bulkier items that may no longer fit within their units. Bicycles, while a common fixture of city life, can be challenging to maneuver in and out of residences, not to mention blending into an apartment’s decor.

The Gild, Minuet and 9 Chapel, a 27-unit building in Downtown Brooklyn, have answered to the challenge.

At 9 Chapel, residents will be able to glide in and out of the building’s bike storage room via a ramp. From there, they’ll be able to securely store their bikes via wall-mounted, vertical racks.

“There’s a triple-height space you walk into via a meandering ramp through greenery. From the street, you can ride directly to the bike storage. We are code required to have 14 spaces, [but] we feel it’s going to be much more, maybe closer to 20 when we pack it tight,” Sam Zeif, project manager at Tankhouse, said. “It’s incredibly efficient and convenient that you’re not squeezing your bike into an elevator, and you keep all the dirt and New York City street out of the building.”

Reimagined Children's Play Areas

_{Olympia DUMBO. Credit: Pavel Bendov}

Children’s playrooms, while a ubiquitous feature in most luxury condo developments, especially the larger ones, have been getting more inspiring and more integrated with the buildings’ overall concept. For example, 108 Leonard’s youngest residents can explore an “Alice in Wonderland”-themed playroom. The Treadwell features a soothing jungle theme with sage walls, a mural by the artist Rebecca Romeo and diffused lighting.

The Harper, a 63-unit building on the Upper East Side, invites kids to create art, compete in arcade games and play live music in dedicated rooms. Each room features aspirational interior design, from the playroom with statement lighting and wooden archways, to the music room with sound-insulated walls, geometric furniture and a framed collection of records.

Olympia Dumbo, a 76-unit building, dedicates a portion of its 38,000 square feet of amenities to playdates. Along with an indoor playroom, the property boasts an outdoor shipwreck-themed playground and waterpark separate from the pool. Its weathered, wrecked wooden ship is connected by a rope bridge, and water cannons and bubble machines provide kids with hours of delight.

“Almost everyone has an indoor children’s play area,” said Casey Drake, VP of Marketing and Sales, Fortis Property Group. “We thought it was important to have a really cool, outdoor space for kids. It’s playdate central. In good weather and bad, you can’t keep the kids off of it, so it really struck a chord.”

_{One Manhattan Square. Credit: Evan Joseph}

_{The Harper. Credit: CORE}

Private Wellness Space

_{The Greenwich. Credit: MARCH}

Health continues to climb upward in buyers’ list of priorities, and developers are answering with hidden retreats throughout new properties. Spa-like spaces continue to look more appealing and modern, from the stylish tiled steam room and warmly illuminated sauna at the Treadwell, to the sophisticated 75-foot pool, hot tub, steam shower, and sauna at 108 Leonard.

At the Greenwich, residents can plunge into a 50-foot saltwater pool, take advantage of a sauna and a steam room and benefit from wellness services in private massage rooms and a beauty salon. To take things up a notch, the development includes a relaxation lounge with panoramic views of Manhattan in addition to its fitness center and secluded yoga and Pilates studio.

As subscriptions to fitness streaming services continue to rise, residents will finally have private workout pods where they can follow along with their devices at the Treadwell. The e-pods are tucked away from the weight machines and cardio equipment within the fitness center.

“The fitness center is designed for somebody not to just have your typical gym, but we also include what we call e-niches: two little breakout spaces with a TV monitor, so if you want to stream a class, you have privacy in this niche breakout,” said Robin Schneiderman, managing director at Brown Harris Stevens Development Marketing. “As it relates to the wellness experience, we’re working with Omacasa to curate wellness experiences on site, like meditation and yoga classes with partners throughout the city who they believe are best in class.”

Residents could also bring in their personal fitness instructors and use the private training room. “The idea is to have your whole experience for a workout within this gym,” Schneiderman said.