Luxury apartment complexes are offering spiritual services as part of “wellness” amenities to residents, especially in the wake of the pandemic, reports Candace Jackson in the New York Times (July 18). “Several new developments around the country are offering meditation, healers, shaman and spiritual concierge programs—taking wellness several steps beyond on-site yoga and Pilates. In an age of self-care and mental health awareness, developers are hoping the offerings will appeal to those who have embraced spirituality as part of a wellness lifestyle,” Jackson writes. The Gardenhouse development in Beverly Hills will have monthly spiritual experiences related to lunar cycles and a healing ceremony led by a shaman, while the Maverick complex in New York City has a spiritual concierge on hand who provides residents with a “one-stop shop” for those unfamiliar with navigating and vetting the spirituality marketplace. The concierges are often not paid by residents and don’t have fixed desks in building lobbies. Other developers incorporate distinctive spiritual practices for their residents. Gravity, a sprawling new development in Columbus, Ohio, includes a Transcendental Meditation (TM) center. Developer Brett Kaufman is a TM practitioner himself and says that his development is a “conscious community” that treats mental and spiritual health in the same way as physical health and the provision of running clubs and yoga studios.
