Living Well
Where you choose to call home can have quite an impact on your health and fitness. From high-rise condos to sprawling luxury homes, many people are discovering the benefits of
spa-like living. By Ellise Pierce
When television producer Nely Galan needs a break from the long hours in the edit booth, she hops a plane from Los Angeles to Tucson and visits her favorite spa retreat, Canyon Ranch.
But not anymore. She won’t have to. This summer, Galan will have her own condo at Canyon Ranch’s new residences in Miami Beach, which is where she often works for up to three months at a time.
“I’m a big Canyon Ranch fanatic,” says Galan, 43. “I’ve been going to Canyon Ranch for 15 years, and I understand their whole system of health and eating healthy. That’s the kind of life I want to live. So why wouldn’t I want to have an apartment and have that food and all that stuff at my disposal all the time?”
Dinner at 7 p.m. Massage and manicure to follow. Why not?
Galan, it turns out, is not alone. She, along with thousands of others, is helping to fuel the growing trend of communities built around the idea of healthy living. According to Spa Finder, a media and marketing company for the spa industry, Canyon Ranch Living, a luxe three-tower complex built right on the beach, with a 70,000-square-foot spa, 23 treatment rooms, three swimming pools, medical services, a restaurant, and a concierge is one of more than 200 similar communities that are popping up all over the country. Each has its own variation on the theme — Canyon Ranch’s philosophy and programming is slightly different from that of Deepak Chopra, for example, who’s partnering with Westin Westminster Hotels to open Myananda Inspired Living in Colorado next year, but the basic premise is the same: Wellness isn’t a one-week retreat; it’s a way of life.
“When we asked the consumer to define wellness, 63 percent said ‘more hope, joy, energy,’” says Kevin Kelly, president of Canyon Ranch. “What’s exciting about that is that wellness is measured as an emotional outcome — wellness defined as an aspiration. How do you get to this? Well, sometimes it’s about fitness, sometimes it’s about finding time for yourself, sometimes it’s about eating right, pampering yourself, or working out every day.”
In 2005, there were only 70 healthy living communities in the U.S., according to Susie Ellis, Spa Finder president. “Now, it has more than doubled, and I talk to developers and consultants who each have 30 or more on their books.”
When the trend first emerged, Ellis says, the sense was that aging baby boomers looking to retire were driving the trend, and that these healthy communities were replacing the golf communities. Now, though, it appears that baby boomers are only part of the story. While they represent a major segment of the buyers of these homes, they’re by no means the only demographic.
At Canyon Ranch in Miami, the average age of buyers is 44, which is slightly younger than the bulk of the boomer generation. Other properties are focusing on attracting young families to their communities, and equipping them with schools, too. The message? These places aren’t just for retirement; they’re for living in now, and as a primary residence.
John Vanderslice, CEO of Miraval Life in Balance spa in Tucson, which will be opening Miraval Living, a 41-story residential tower, in Manhattan in the summer of 2007, looks at the phenomenon more broadly. “It’s not a demographic target; it’s a psychographic — anybody who’s over 35 that wants to live a more balanced, stress-free life.”
Like Canyon Ranch, and others, Miraval is banking on its brand, and its association with alternative medicine star Dr. Andrew Weil, to fill the 365-apartment high-rise, located on the Upper East Side. There will be 107 different programs, the Miraval spa and cafe, and a place to experience its signature Quantum Leap, a 25-foot pole that people are hoisted on top of, and then, bungee-style, when they’re ready, they let go and jump. And that’s not all. “Every resident will have a Miraval advisor to help them discover their objectives in life and help navigate the program, say, if they want to lose weight or be less stressed,” says Vanderslice. “Sort of like a life coach.”
The Miraval model is typical. Healthy living communities are conceptualized much like a luxe spa retreat, with a great fitness center and an extensive menu of classes — from healthy cooking to Pilates — weekend workshops and lectures on health, and spa cuisine delivered right to the door. Then, there are the add-ons — the parts that make them unique.
“They all have a different personality,” says Ellis. “Miraval has a different philosophy. Chopra has a unique approach. People have different personalities, and they are attracted to these communities for different reasons.”
Some communities, like Red Mountain Spa in St. George, Utah, and The Cliffs Communities in South Carolina, have a strong nature element. Red Mountain Spa is at the base of Snow Canyon State Park, and offers daily morning guided hikes on more than 50 nearby trails. “We have the most extensive hiking program in North America,” says Denise Perkins, Red Mountain Spa director of sales and marketing. “If you’re looking for a hook, that’s it. We’re in a setting that can’t be beat. It wasn’t in some monstrosity that someone built. It was something that Mother Nature built, right here in Snow Canyon State Park.”
Perkins says that at this point, Red Mountain condo owners are using their Red Mountain residences (there are currently 12 condo units, and 16 more are planned for the fall) for getaways and holidays. Later on, they’ll probably make it their permanent home.
The seven Cliffs Communities, made up of 700 to 1,500 homes at each location, are dotted along the edge of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and surrounded by 14 state parks and four national forests. “Our number one amenity is the parks, trails, and outdoor recreation,” says Scott Beville, senior vice president of sales and marketing. “We’re anything but retirement.”
As the name implies, spirituality will be one of the key elements of the Myananda Inspired Living community in Westminster, Colorado, a Denver suburb. In the planned seven-story high-rise, there will be a meditation room along with a 17,000-square-foot wellness center — the Rocky Mountain Chopra Center & Spa, conceived by Dr. Deepak Chopra — with ayurvedic practices, the 5,000-year-old medicine practice of India, which stresses diet and exercise based on the diagnosis of one’s dosha, or particular body/personality type. Chopra-trained physicians will be on staff, too. “What Chopra Center teaches is that you can’t separate body from mind and spirit, and all three components need to be recognized,” says Julie Spencer, director of sales and marketing for Myananda.
Other communities, such as the planned Cooper Life at Craig Ranch community north of Dallas led by aerobics guru Dr. Kenneth Cooper, will serve up fitness with a strong medical component, with boutique medicine via an on-call doctor delivered to each resident’s door, 24/7. There’s already a new extension of Cooper’s famed Aerobics Center in place. Two more medical buildings, staffed with physicians ranging from internists to cardiologists, will follow. Unlike the healthy living high-rise communities built within existing cities, Cooper Life will be its own self-contained mini “city,” with retail, cafes, and a health-food store as part of the mix. The idea is that residents can live, work, eat, and hit the hiking trails here, without ever having to leave the area. Each resident in the 815-unit community will also have his or her own personal trainer and dietician, along with a home computer to log in exercise and calorie counts for the day. “It will be Utopia,” says Cooper. “People will live longer, healthier lives. This isn’t just for old people; this is from birth to the grave. The real emphasis is to try to make healthy living an easy choice.”
Other developments are focusing on medicine, too. Canyon Ranch is teaming up with the renowned Cleveland Clinic to launch a new “wellness hospital,” and plans to staff its residential properties with internists, nurses, behaviorists, and nutritionists. The rest of the amenities are classic Canyon Ranch. Like its flagship Tucson location, both of Canyon Ranch’s residential properties (a 67-story high-rise off Michigan Avenue in Chicago will open in 2010) will offer programs that facilitate lifelong healthy habits — behavioral and spiritual counseling, preventive medicine, movement therapy, fitness, and nutrition. And, of course, its famous super-posh spa.
According to Kelly at Canyon Ranch, healthy living communities are an idea that just makes good sense. “People are living more consciously and they know that healthier choices will help them make an easier life,” he says. “Then, the diagnostic aspect of healthcare is so costly and so personal. You have the economic and systemic problems within the healthcare industry, and the most logical way to go is the preventive mode, and these two tracks are beginning to converge. It’s literally a new consumer category, called wellness lifestyle.”
One that will, no doubt, continue to grow. Canyon Ranch is planning to open two more Canyon Ranch Living properties in the U.S. (beyond Miami and Chicago), and two international locations. Miraval will open 10 to 12 more Miraval Living communities in the next five years, and is looking at New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and Atlanta as possible locations. Several more Myananda-style communities are planned in the next few years. And next for Cooper Life? Possibly Dubai.