Triathletes Lured to Upper East Side Development

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The New York Sun

Athletically inclined residents at the Laurel, a 31-story development opening next year on the Upper East Side, will be able to train for triathlons in the building’s high-tech gym, where residents can circulate among treadmills, stationary bikes, and a nearby resistance pool.

The designers of the building’s two-story workout space, at First Avenue between 66th and 67th streets, are taking advantage of a rapidly growing niche of New Yorkers who are passionate about triathlons.

“It’s a really big fad,” one of the Laurel’s developers, Izak Senbahar, said in an interview. “I’ve seen this in the Hamptons and everyone loves it.”

The number of people participating in triathlons has soared in recent years, the organizer of the annual Nautica New York City Triathlon, John Korff, said. The 6,000 race slots for the 2008 triathlon were filled in 12 hours; when the first triathlon was organized eight years ago, it took 24 weeks to fill 600 slots, he said.

Triathlons traditionally are defined as a one-mile swim, 25-mile bicycle ride, and 6.2-mile run.

“It’s the new hot thing to do,” Mr. Korff said. “It’s an upper demographic sport with a lot of type-A personalities, overachievers, people who wake up at 5 a.m.”

A managing principal of a fitness center called the Verve, Mary Ann Browning, will oversee the center and help set up training regimes for Laurel residents.

Situated a considerable distance from the nearest subway stop, the Laurel is being offered at $1,850 a square foot, with studios starting at $700,000. The building, which is 30% sold, according to the developers, also has a 4,000-square-foot penthouse with four bedrooms, a fireplace, and a 3,000-square-foot terrace that is on the market for $13 million. The average for the neighborhood in the third quarter was $1,408 a square foot, according to an appraisal firm, Miller Samuel.

To get those prices, the development company, Alexico Group, is loading the building up with amenities.

Aside from the gym, it has a two-story recreational space called the Laurel Club that features a theater-style screening room, children’s playroom, game room with foosball and pool tables, arcade area, and computer room.

The 129 residences include white-oak floors, wine coolers, and Gaggenau stove appliances. In a futuristic touch, the bathroom mirrors include plasma television screens only visible when they are switched on. The marble mosaic floors in the bathroom have radiant heat.

But to Mr. Senbahar, the building’s engineering is its most appealing attribute.

The developer is aiming to achieve an environment standard from the U.S. Green Building Council known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design by using local materials and energy efficient construction. As an example, Mr. Senbahar cited the building’s planned four-pipe coil system, which will allow each apartment to have heat or air conditioning at any time of the year. “As a developer, you want to distinguish yourself,” he said. “For me this was an important project because it’s not very often that you get a chance to create something on the Upper East Side.”

Mr. Senbahar brought in Costas Kondylis and Partners to design the building, which will have an Indiana limestone and glass façade. Alexico Group originally bought the lot, which was the site of a church, four years ago for $50 million.

So far, single women, foreign buyers, and doctors have been especially attracted to the building, Alexico’s development director, Louise Sunshine, said.

“Fewer Wall Street bonuses mean more people are going to the doctors and shrinks,” Ms. Sunshine, a former broker who joined Alexico Group a year ago, said with a grin. Clients from Indonesia, South Korea, China, and Britain have bought apartments in the building so far. “They say it is very cheap because of the currency,” Ms. Sunshine said.

The Laurel is slated to open in fall 2008.


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