Elysee Miami to add wellness features to planned condo tower

Renderings of Elysee and Robert Thorne

Purified air, filtered water, non-toxic paint, circadian lighting - all are among the wellness features planned for Elysee Miami, as the health craze sweeping South Florida seeps into the luxury condo market.

The 57-story Elysee condo tower's developer, Two Roads Development, is bringing on the Wellness Habitat Company to outfit the project's common spaces - with packages also available for condo units - in a deal worth up to $500,000, Robert Thorne, CEO of the Wellness Habitat Company told The Real Deal.

The 100-unit Elysee Miami  at 700 Northeast 23rd Street in Edgewater, will mark the first condo tower for the Miami-based wellness firm, which has already brought its wellness systems to private residences in South Florida and hotels in Mexico.

“In today's environment, more and more people want to know what they are putting in their body, and the next logical step is what we are breathing…,” said Taylor Collins, managing partner of Two Roads Development, which is developing Elysee Miami. “As a responsible developer, and the way things are going today, it's just the right thing to do.”

Elysee Miami, which launched sales in November 2015, plans to break ground in January, Collins told TRD. Though he declined to provide the percentage of the tower's units that have been placed under contract, Collins said the team is traveling to Central and South America on a weekly basis, and has sold $28 million worth of units in the last two months.

Condo prices range from just below $1.4 million to $14 million, with sizes spanning 2,300 square feet to 11,000 square feet. The average price per square foot is $775, Collins said.

For Elysee Miami's common areas, including the lobby, health club and 30th floor owners' sky lounge, Wellness Habitat will be adding a host of health-oriented features. Among them, various levels of water filtration - for laundry, bathing and drinking, air purification, aromatherapy, aromatherapeutic shower diffusers in the spa that deliver Vitamin C and collagen, eco-friendly paint and LED circadian lighting, Thorne said.

The aromatherapy diffusers in the air conditioning system will use organic oils that are grown on a farm in Iowa that Wellness Habitat owns in a joint venture, he said. The scents will vary from more “motivating” tones during the day, like citrus, to relaxing scents like lavender at night.

In addition, the paint, primer and glue used for wallpaper in both the common areas and units will be non-toxic. “Paint is one of the most dangerous things, because with the switching of temperatures, when it gets hot and cold, the drywall breathes and its spits out toxins that come from paint,” Thorne said.

The lighting in the common areas will be geared to work with the circadian rhythm, to dim and rise at certain times, “so as not to have a shock from the inside to the outside,” he said.  

In addition to the alleged health benefits, the advantages can also spill over into higher prices for hotel rooms and rentals, Thorne added. “It's not only improving our health and eliminating hopefully all these allergies and toxic things that affect our health,” he said, “but doing something valuable by having your building a wellness building is also going to increase the value tremendously of your property.”