Splash cash: New York renters pay top dollar for access to pricey rooftop pools

Before she moved into a Midtown West apartment last July, Alexandra Port had never lived with a swimming pool.

“My understanding of a pool is a vacation,” says the 27-year-old sales associate. “So when I saw the pool with the cabanas, I thought I might have to start working from home because they felt like a mini vacation.”

Port can go from her one-bedroom rental on the 18th floor of 555Ten to lounging poolside on the 56th-floor deck in less than 7 minutes.

“If you think about how far we’re willing to fly just to get somewhere so we can have beautiful views and a place to swim, 7 minutes isn’t bad,” Port says.

Developed by Extell and opened in 2016 at West 40th Street and 10th Avenue, 555Ten has one of the city’s highest rooftop pools, with knock-out views of the Hudson River, Midtown skyline and Hudson Yards. A one-bedroom is currently asking $4,385.

Tenants on lower floors, like Port, pay a $500 to $750 fee to use the pool, plus $150 for two hours’ use of a cabana Guest passes are free, but only 10 are given out per day.

Port says the pool is “definitely” worth the expense. “Even if you love your friends, it’s hard to see them. The city is just super chaotic and super busy,” she adds. “But when you have something like a pool, that’s really special — I essentially bribe my friends is what I’m saying.”

And for developers, that’s the goal: to create something unique. “A rooftop pool is a rarity,” says Citi Habitats’ David Maundrell, who is marketing two developments with the amenity: Spitzer Enterprises’ 420 Kent on the East River at South 8th Street in Williamsburg and OTTO off McGuinness Boulevard in Greenpoint.

Click Here: highlanders rugby gear world

Indoor pools are fairly common, especially in new construction, but they’re often on lower levels or even in the basement. While they can be used year-round, they lack the elements that make a rooftop pool feel so coveted: views, sunshine and the fact that you can’t have it all the time.

“There’s less time you can use it, but that makes it that much more precious, not less valuable,” says Simon Koster of JDS, developer of the pool-topped American Copper Buildings at 626 First Ave. in Murray Hill, where rents start at $3,795 for a studio. “Summer is fleeting, and you really want to cherish those months. For people who live and work in Manhattan, enjoying your summer in the right way can be really challenging if you don’t want to spend hours in traffic every Friday and Sunday.”

Residential real estate often takes cues from hospitality, and that’s evident in the hotel-like feel cultivated by buildings with rooftop pools. “People in the city work so much. They don’t have the chance to get away, but they want to relax, and this gives them that,” says Maundrell, standing on the deck of the just-opened 7th-floor rooftop pool of the 420 Kent complex. Its first of two buildings opened in January with 225 units. Rents start at $2,800 for a studio; just five units are unclaimed. The amenity fee was waived this year, so tenants incur no extra cost to use the pool.

Looking out over the East River and Manhattan skyline, Maundrell adds, “And honestly, a rooftop pool is just sexy.”

But you can’t just throw a pool on the roof of any building. “A pool is always considered on the list of amenities,” says Hilary Feshbach, partner at Algin Management, which owns two buildings with rooftop pools: 300 Mercer and ARO. “But for an outdoor pool, you have to weigh factors like the view. You consider how spectacular it would be, and if you have the space.” The roof area needs to be large enough to accommodate the pool, all of its mechanicals, as well as anything required by the Department of Health, like showers and a deck with an unobstructed 5-foot-wide pathway around the entire width of the pool.

A rooftop pool typically adds about $1 million to the overall cost of construction. Operating costs include regular cleaning and maintenance, plus a lifeguard. It’s not a huge amount in the grand scheme of a new building project, but it doesn’t make sense for smaller buildings as the cost needs to be spread out across the units. “In a luxury high-rise, it’s typically worth it,” adds Feshbach. “To gauge whether or not it will have an impact on people renting, it depends on how many tenants you have and where the building is located.”

It was the right call at the 35-story, 480-unit 300 Mercer St. in Greenwich Village, which opened in 1976 with a 20-by-40-foot pool (one unit is curently on the market for $5,050/month). And, decades later, it was the right move for the 62-story tower ARO at 242 W. 53rd St., where move-ins started in December (rents from $3,995). Both buildings charge a fee for the pool, $475 per season for an individual at 300 Mercer and $3,000 annually for access to the Sky Club at ARO.

At Greenpoint’s OTTO, which opened in September 2018 and has apartments on the market from $3,130/month, tenants shell out $400 to use the pool for the season, which, like all outdoor pools, is guaranteed to be open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, but management can extend in the event of good weather.

For OTTO renters Quinn McCann, 26, and Lucy Clare Beuchert, 27, a pool wasn’t initially at the top of their must-have list. But, says McCann, “it’s a really excellent perk and definitely made it more appealing.” The pool makes up just one section of an expansive landscaped rooftop — arguably one of the best in Brooklyn — and the couple, who both work in the restaurant industry, regularly take advantage of the grills as well. “We love inviting friends over. Everyone we bring up here just look at us like, ‘Really?!’ ” McCann adds.

Having a wow-worthy place to host was a main reason John Rapisardi chose to move into the American Copper Buildings, where the rooftop pool is part of a members-only club called The Sentry. “I’d much rather have a meeting with a client on the 42nd floor, facing the East River, with a nice pool and food and drink service, rather than pretty much anywhere else,” says Rapisardi, 26, who works in real estate for a global consulting firm. “I saw it as a big value add.”

Since it’s part of a club, the pool at the American Copper Buildings is one of the few that’s available to people who don’t live there. That’s not to say it’s readily accessible. Non-residents have to pay at least $3,000 for a “gold” membership. The cheapest of the three membership tiers, “silver,” is $1,600, which comes with six guest passes for the season, and is only available to tenants, like Rapisardi, who rents a south­-facing studio on the 28th floor of the 761-­unit rental. The priciest, “copper,” costs double that and offers unlimited guest passes as well as a 20 percent discount on events. Some may balk at the price, but Koster says they’ve sold “a few hundred” memberships, and about 85 percent of members are also tenants.

According to Koster, the decision to make it a members-only club was easy. “We have 1,500 people living here,” he says. “We wouldn’t be able to accommodate even a quarter of them on any given day.” The maximum capacity of the rooftop lounge, which is roughly 6,200 square feet, is 225.

Perhaps the city’s most jaw-dropping swimming spot is yet to come: Brooklyn Point, where condos start at $900,000. The 68-story Extell tower currently under construction in Downtown Brooklyn will have what the developer claims is the highest residential infinity pool in the Western Hemisphere. The 27-foot heated saltwater pool will be part of a “rooftop retreat” 680 feet up overlooking the Manhattan skyline, open all seasons except winter when complete in 2020.

“We had people come in and say they’re buying in the building specifically because they want to swim in that outdoor pool,” says Ari Goldstein, senior vice president of development at Extell. “Everyone loves pools. I think it’s as simple as that.”