Manager of New York’s first micro-unit development inks pact with ‘personal butler’ service

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.

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