Since November, Stage 3 Properties—which designs, markets, and manages rental properties in partnership with developers and investors—has been leasing Ollie at Carmel Place, a 55-unit building that is New York City’s first micro-unit multifamily development, with apartments ranging from 260 to 360 sf.
Stage 3’s “Ollie” platform offers renters the option of fully-furnished studios and shared suites, as well as access to amenities in nearby facilities that include work spaces, juice bars, pools, gyms, spas, and lounges. Ollie will even help renters find suitable roommates through its Bedvetter service.
The “all-inclusive” experience that Ollie is marketing also includes hotel-like services such as housekeeping. This week, Stage 3 announced the signing of a multiyear agreement with Hello Alfred, a personal butler and on-demand concierge service that, starting next month, renters at Carmel Place can sign up for and access through a mobile app.
Hello Alfred is a weekly subscription service that sends a background-vetted “Home Manager” to a renter’s home to take care of basic house cleaning (bed making, kitchen cleanup, etc.), laundry, dry cleaning, clothing and shoe repair, package shipping, and grocery shopping. The service starts at $32 per week.
Ollie is now Hello Alfred’s sole micro-unit partner, and charges for the services provided are already included in the quoted rents for residents.
Alfred’s CEO, Marcela Sapone, told BloombergBusiness that customers at other apartment buildings have used the service for everything from organizing receipts and meeting a cable repair person to refilling a Koi pond. If the helper isn’t able to tackle a particular job—such as plumbing or professional cleaning—he or she will find someone who can for the renter.
Monadnock Development assembled Ollie Carmel Place with factory-built modules for the micro apartments. The building in New York will be ready for renters to move into in the first quarter of 2016. Photo courtesy Monadnock Development.
Rents at Carmel Place run up to $3,150 per month, but 22 apartments are more affordably leased. “Carmel Place is a perfect fit for Ollie,” Chris Bledsoe, Stage 3’s Founding Partner, told Curbed NYC. “With 40% of the units allocated to low- and middle-income New Yorkers, the message of ‘inclusiveness’ is already an integral part of the community and the experience at the building. Additionally, the small unit sizes at Carmel Place afforded us an opportunity to demonstrate to the world that efficient units don’t inherently require a reduction in quality of life.”
Ollie at Carmel Place—which was once going to be called My Micro NY—was designed by nARCHITECTS and developed by Monadnock Development, which assembled the building from modular components. The development cost was $16.7 million.
Stage 3’s next market could be Los Angeles, according to its website. Hello Alfred currently has locations in New York, Boston, San Francisco, and L.A.
Related Stories
| Nov 3, 2014
Novel 'self-climbing' elevator operates during construction of high-rise buildings
The JumpLift system from KONE uses a mobile machine room that moves upward as the construction progresses, speeding construction of tall towers.
| Nov 3, 2014
Cairo's ultra-green mixed-use development will be topped with flowing solar canopy
The solar canopy will shade green rooftop terraces and sky villas atop the nine-story structure.
| Oct 31, 2014
Dubai plans world’s next tallest towers
Emaar Properties has unveiled plans for a new project containing two towers that will top the charts in height, making them the world’s tallest towers once completed.
| Oct 29, 2014
Better guidance for appraising green buildings is steadily emerging
The Appraisal Foundation is striving to improve appraisers’ understanding of green valuation.
| Oct 27, 2014
Studio Gang Architects designs residential tower with exoskeleton-like exterior for Miami
Jeanne Gang's design reinvents the Florida room with shaded, asymmetrical balconies.
| Oct 21, 2014
Passive House concept gains momentum in apartment design
Passive House, an ultra-efficient building standard that originated in Germany, has been used for single-family homes since its inception in 1990. Only recently has the concept made its way into the U.S. commercial buildings market.
| Oct 21, 2014
Perkins Eastman white paper explores state of the senior living industry in the Carolinas
Among the experts interviewed for the white paper, there was a general consensus that the model for continuing-care retirement communities is changing, driven by both the changing consumers and more prevalent global interest on the effects of aging.
| Oct 16, 2014
Perkins+Will white paper examines alternatives to flame retardant building materials
The white paper includes a list of 193 flame retardants, including 29 discovered in building and household products, 50 found in the indoor environment, and 33 in human blood, milk, and tissues.
| Oct 15, 2014
Harvard launches ‘design-centric’ center for green buildings and cities
The impetus behind Harvard's Center for Green Buildings and Cities is what the design school’s dean, Mohsen Mostafavi, describes as a “rapidly urbanizing global economy,” in which cities are building new structures “on a massive scale.”
| Oct 15, 2014
Final touches make 432 Park Avenue tower second tallest in New York City
Concrete has been poured for the final floors of the residential high-rise at 432 Park Avenue in New York City, making it the city’s second-tallest building and the tallest residential tower in the Western Hemisphere.
