From Bocce to Dog Spas, NYC Rentals With Outrageous Perks

If you're a New York City rental building these days, a mere communal terrace and one-room gym just won't cut it. To charge the kinds of extravagant rents that are de rigueur, there have to be equally extravagant amenities. Think arcade games. Resort-style cabanas. Bocce courts and bowling alleys. A recording studio. A separate area for yoga and spinning. Lush decks with outdoor fireplaces and barbecue grills. Oh, and lots of pools. Luckily, buildings are stepping up to the challenge. Below, a selection of the ones with the most over-the-top amenities. Did we miss a biggie? Drop us a line and let us know.

↑ The massive MiMA—a.k.a. "Middle of Manhattan"—rental giantess in Midtown West is a pioneer of the extravagant amenity trend. When the building debuted in 2011, the amenities wowed, and they still do. A 44,000 square foot slate of 'em, called the M Club, includes an Equinox-run gym, heated indoor pool, basketball court, volleyball court, multiple terraces, an internet cafe, indoor and outdoor movie screening rooms, and a pet spa run by Dog City. [official site]

↑ Then there's Gotham West, whose 554 rentals were unleashed upon the world during the summer of 2013. And yes, the amenities outside are nothing short of impressive: a gym with its own spinning and yoga studio and schedule of classes; a big lounge with pool table; art gallery; fireplace and seat-on-a-swing; a funky neon-lit kids room; and a bike valet. On the ground floor of the building, Gotham West Market, which our sister site Eater has covered extensively, serves as a kind of built-in food court, bar, coffee shop, and grocery story for the building. Then there are the tricked-out outdoor spaces: a courtyard with a reflecting pool and an elevated bamboo frond-lined deck with fire pit and seating; and the 32nd floor space, with a movie screen, full bar set-up for parties, deck chairs for sunbathing, misting apparatus for hot days, and grassy lawn area. [official site]

↑ The newest giant rental building to open along the High Line is Abington House. Designed by starchitect Robert A.M. Stern, Curbed toured the rentals shortly after they went on the market in July of 2014. The main draw is the 30,000 square feet of amenity spaces, which range from a lounge with Mac workstations to a "sanctuary room" to an Equinox-designed gym to multiple communal entertaining and meeting spaces to several outdoor terraces, including one outfitted with barbecue grills under pergolas. [official site]

↑ The undulating New York by Gehry building has been a fixture of the downtown skyline since it opened in 2007. Given the shiny structure's starchitecutre status, its amenities are, as you'd expect, the schmanciest. They're large (22,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space) and include a private dining room and drawing room with a grand piano, connected to chef's demonstration and catering kitchen. There's a gym, private fitness studios, spa treatment rooms, and a pool with fully retractable glass walls surrounded by a sun deck. There's a separate terrace equipped with grills and picnic ables. The screening room's amphitheater-style seating is also designed by Gehry. There's not only a kids' playroom, but also a separate "Tweens' Den." And a library for adults to escape their offspring. Just beware, because the gym fees were suddenly raised a ton earlier this year. [official site]

↑ Downtown Brooklyn's 388 Bridge Street is (at least for now) the tallest tower in Brooklyn. Curbed toured the amenity spaces in September of 2014; check out the children's playroom, media room, gym, lounge, and fifth-floor outdoor terrace, and a small, mildly scary roof deck, complete with wind turbine-powered, color-changing LED lights. [official site]

↑ Lovers of the outdoors, look no further than one of Long Island City's East Coast rental buildings. 4545 Center Boulevard, a massive 820-unit rental, has a 50,000-square-foot amenity deck. There's your normal sun deck with grills and lounge chairs, plus two tennis courts, a dog run, a lawn, a sand volleyball court, and a reflecting pool. Since wintertime is perhaps not the best season to make use of these extravagances, there's also a gym, children's playroom, lounge, and 1,000-car parking garage. There's also a free shuttle bus to the nearest 7 train stop. [official site]

↑ Also in Downtown Brooklyn, but shorter than neighboring tower 388 Bridge, there's the building that eschews vowels. And lower-case letters. BKYLN AIR launched leasing in July of 2014, touting its amenities, many of which are high up. There's a heated pool on the roof, a lobby with a reflecting pool, and indoor valet parking garage. There's also bike storage, a terrace with built-in game boards, a two-story gym, a lounge with Wi-FI, and a landscaped roof deck. [official site]

↑ The Karl Fischer-designed rental building that swallowed an entire Williamsburg block is so huge because it has so much stuff packed inside it. 101 Bedford has a gym and a pool, hot tub, sauna, steam room, and spa rooms (sure), but it also houses a wine cellar, a game room (with a golf simulator), a screening room, a soundproof recording and photography studio, a business center and conference room, a library with fireplace, on-site parking, ATMs, and vending machines, and a pet spa (a.k.a. a "canine-cleaning station"). The rooftop is absolutely massive and even has hammocks and private outdoor dining areas with BBQ grills for dinner parties. Plus, the building just opened up in-house photography and recording studios—and it now has it's own kickball team. [official site]

↑ The Williamsburg waterfront's newest rental tower is also packed with extras, perhaps to make up for the small apartments. (Though 1 North 4th Place does have stellar views.) Renters get access to the vaunted outdoor pool (which also has a great perspective of Manhattan), the gym, the spinning and yoga room with "virtual fitness-on-demand classes" a lounge, another lounge with a pool table, a business center-library, private storage, indoor valet parking, bike storage, free Wi-Fi, and pet care and housekeeping services. Outdoors, there's a 8,500 sun deck surrounding the pool that has chaises, a movie screen, and an outdoor barbecue area. Remember, they're selling the view. [official site]

↑ Christian Portzamparc's Fortress of Glassitude on Park Avenue South has condos, of course, but there's also a rental component—269 of them, to be precise, which started leasing in October of 2014. A host of "Prism Apartments" are on the rental market. Starchitecture comes with a steep price tag, but that also gets you the same luxe amenities that the condo owners at 400 Park Avenue South get. That means a 60-foot indoor lap pool with steam room and sauna, a garden courtyard, a conference room, a lounge with a catering kitchen, a gym with yoga and spin rooms, a screening room, a children's playroom, a golf simulator, and a private dining room. [official site]

↑ Enormous Hell's Kitchen rental Mercedes House, made distinct by its stair-step exterior, first debuted in 2011. An entire fun zone worth of amenities opened up at the end of 2012, and it's pretty bonkers. The Enrique Norten-designed mega-complex boasts this laundry list of amenities: gym, on-site indoor parking, both indoor and outdoor swimming pools, two outdoor decks with green space for sunbathing, bocce and yoga, indoor basketball, BBQ grills, a boxing ring, a golf simulator, a screening room, a volleyball court, and spa facilities. [official site]

↑ Alongside Hudson River Park on the Upper West Side lies a row of fancy towers. In the middle of that line-up is a condo-rental hybrid, the Aldyn. The "Aldyn Athletic Club and Spa" sprawls at 40,000 square foot Aldyn Athletic Club and Spa, which includes a 38-foot rock climbing wall, a basketball court, a bowling alley, a squash court, a golf simulator, rooms for spinning, yoga, Pilates, kinesis and personal training, a lounge, a game room, and a 75-foot-long pool. Beyond that, there are the relatively ho-hum offerings of on-site parking, kids' playroom, a room for entertaining with a catering kitchen, private storage bins, bike storage, a lobby lounge, and a shuttle service. [official site]

↑ Next up, Long Island City's The Pearson. The building itself, which opened up in the middle of 2014 and touts the wind turbines on its roof, also has outdoor basketball and bocce courts, two landscaped terraces and a rooftop that come equipped with grills, a yoga studio, ground-level bicycle parking, and some indoor parking. The gym has a yoga studio with an outdoor stretching area. Even the laundry room has a landscaped terrace. [official site]
· All Renters Week 2015 coverage [Curbed]