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THURSDAY, N O VEMBER 2, 2006
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Photographs by Getty lmag~~
By PHILIP NOBEL
REATHE. It 's been a busy day. Your husband
woke you as he raced to the steam room at 6 a .m.
Then your own serene morning began with Zen
13oot Camp at 7 and some Cardio Dance before you bundled the kids off to their Aqua Fun class in the pool.
When they were back home with the nanny you s tole a
moment for your own quick steam on the way to Balletone at 11. After Pilates it was time to collect the little
ones for Children's Self Defense. The late afternoon
found you contemplating mindfulness in a communal
meditation room and stopping by a nutrition-conscious
cafe to order dinner, delivered. Your husband reappeared for Ballroom Dancing at 6 p.m., but the two of
you had to sneak out early to catch a lecture on "The Essential Components of Healthy Aging." Somehow you
B
Condos with all the comforts, for
those who prefer their cosseting
without the commute.
still had the energy to do your personalized Tantra
homework.
Good thing you never had to leave your building.
Such are the possible rigors of a balanced urban life
a s envisioned by Miraval, the Tucson-based destination
spa. Beginning in early 2008 those who choose to relocate to 515 East 72nd Street will be able to experience
Miraval's spa, fitness, nutrition and general wellness
programming from the comfort of their own high-rise
condominium homes. The project will be known as
Miraval Living ; the company is billing it as New York
City's first "inspired living residence" and the first of
what John Vanderslice, the chief executive, said would
be IO to 15 similar developments in the next decade in
cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago,
Miami and Washington.
The age of the "spadominium" has arrived. In the
last four years Susie Ellis, the president of Spa Finder, a
research clearinghouse and information service, has
identified more than 200 "spa lifes tyle communities"
across the country, most of them s econd-home condominiums at destination resorts like Sundara Spa in Wisconsin Dells or Red Mountain Spa in Ivins, Utah. But the
expansion of Miraval Living into New York City - and
the condominium projects that Miraval's principal rival, Canyon Ranch, has under way in Miami Beach and
Chicago - represent a new twist: primary-residence
spa living for urbanites.
"We started in the city that we thought needed
stress relief most," Mr. Vanderslice said last month , a
few weeks before the opening of Miraval Living's on-site
sales office. Thousands of apartments are for sale in
Manhattan at any given moment, he said, but "the way
we like to think about it is that only 350 of them can
change ynur life."
Today's condominium market is an arms race in
which each new development tries to best a crowded
field of competitors with ever more lavish materials
and thick bundles of exotic amenities, or at least the reContinued on Puge 4
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THE NEW YORK TIMES, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2006
Living in Zen: The Spa Life, 24/7
Continued From Page l, This Section
WELLNESS,
ANYONE?
fleeted glory of a star architect like Richard
Meier or (coming soon to West 19th Street)
Jean Nouvel.
Renovating and adding spa services to an
undistinguished 1985-vintage apartment
tower on the Upper East Side, as Miraval is
doing, might seem like just another elaborate come-on. Sales literature for other recently announced condominium projects
like the Caledonia in Manhattan and Mezzo
in Atlanta highlight their soothing green fealures and, respectively, the "Zen luxury"
and pleasantly scented air that will promote
''a centered lifestyle."
But Miraval Living is notable for the intensity - one might call it invasiveness - of
its concept. Staff advisers will design a
custom regimen for each new resident,
drawing from hundreds of in-house services
that include things like sessions witl) Dr.
Lana L. Holstein, a sex ttierapist, and the
chance to experience the Quantum Leap, a
tethered, sometimes blindfolded jump from
a tiny platform affixed to the top of a telephone pole. The flagship Miraval Living
project in New York may offer a window
mto an entirely new market at the intersection of two of America's most lucrative obsessions: comfort, in the form of luxury real
estate, and "wellness," which encompasses
health, fitness and all the so-called alternative practices once known as New Age.
Miraval and Canyon Ranch are both trying to appeal to buyers of all ages, but "the
whole trend 1s supported by aging baby
SPIRITUAL
HOME
"Spadominiums"
bring a New Age
flavor to apartment
life. Right, Canyon
Ranch Living Miami Beach, opening next year.
Renderings of a bathroom in a Miraval
Living condo, right,
and the building's
garden, far right.
A vast menu of spa
s~rvic-f"s ancl c-lassf"s
will be offered.
boomers," Ms. Ellis said. As adults in that
active and affluent demographic glut reach
their golden years and eschew a remote,
quiescent retirement, high-end urban residences with easy access to life-enhancing
therapies may be the retirement homes of
the future for the very well off.
"Retirement?" Ms. Ellis asked. "They're
not interested in that term. Retirement
community? Forget it! But a spa community? That's something they can relate to very
positively."
Next June Canyon Ranch will open the
doors to the first of several Canyon Ranch
Living condominium developments: more
than 600 units of spa-served luxury residences in three towers on the ocean side of
Collins Avenue in Miami Beach, intended as
both primary and second homes. Canyon
Ranch said the project 1s 87 percent sold
out; a second Canyon Ranch Living,
planned to open in Chicago in 2010, had a
waiting list of 600 even before pricing was finalized, according to Kevin Kelly, the Canyon Ranch president.
And Miraval Living may soon have direct
competition in Manhattan. For several
years Canyon Ranch has been looking for an
appropriate property there; Mr. Kelly said
that as recently as last year the company
had an option to buy the 72nd Street building
that Miraval is now developing. (The ambience of the neighborhood, the building's pool
and its huge garden gave 1t obvious appeal
to both companies.) Canyon Ranch passed it
up, Mr. Kelly said, to focus on properties in
other neighborhoods, like TriBeCa, where
he said his customers are already clustered.
"Here are the facts," Mr. Kelly said.
"Three out of four Americans think their life
is out of balance, and one out of three is looking to do something about it."
His company's research, he said, suggests that by 2025 fully half of all Americans
will be actively pursuing a way to live
greener, healthier, more psychologically
satisfying lives. Mr. Kelly predicted the
emergence of a $400 billion to $1 trillion
market in "wellness lifestyles" that will
comprise segments of the health, beauty,
food, fitness, medicine, spirituality and, of
course, spa industries.
Steve Case, the former chairman of AOL
Time Warner, seems equally confident. In
2004 Mr. Case, now the chairman of a new
health-centered holding company called
Revolution, bought a ma1ority stake in
Miraval. "I saw it as a much bigger brand
that would reach more people," he said. "A
kind of Nike of wellness."
"The market has been building for 20 to 30
years, and certain things that were once
fringe are now mainstream," he continued.
"It's no different than my experience with
AOL: when I got involved, the Internet was
a fringy hacker hobby."
In addition to the Miraval Living projects
Cardio dance, children's
self defense and tantra
homework afterward.
planned for cities, Mr. Case said the company would build developments in suburban
areas. His competitors are looking at the
marriage of spas and subdiv1s1ons as well.
Mr. Kelly said that Canyon Ranch 1s considering the development of several "horizontal master-plan communities" in the Sun
Belt - therapeutic villages that might resemble new-urbanist towns with spas, clinics and recreational facilities at the center,
where one might expect the town square.
Ms. Ellis of SpaFinder is guardedly
thrilled about the potential integration of
real life with spa life.
"I think it's one of the most exciting
trends we've seen m the industry in the last
20 years," she said. But Miraval's plan for 10
to 15 such developments "is very ambitious," she added. "I think it's a matter of
proving the concept in practice."
How, for instance, does one translate the
spa experience from a distant desert retreat
to an apartment building on the less-than·
serene Upper East Side? Will one feel the
same sense of inner refreshment from a Detoxifying Seaweed Body Mask or a class in
Fletcher Towelwork when it is available all
the time just an elevator ride away?
Dr. Holstein, who directs Miraval 's medical programs and, with her husband, Dr
David J. Taylor, conducts a popular intimacy workshop at the Arizona spa, said she
sees only opportunity.
"I'm not worried al all about translatmg
our programs from Tucson to New York,"
Dr. Holstein said. Because of the time constraints involved m working with people
who are not on vacation, she said, the intensive four-day program - with its emphasis
on breathing, soul-gazing and mutual worship - might be pared to a two-day introduction, followed by individual consultations
in residents' homes.
"We might offer one homework assignment, focusing on the female, say, and then
come back in a couple of weeks and focus on
the other side of the dyad," she said. "We're
coming to where you live, so we can come
back in a week or six months and say, ' How
are you doing?' "