Living It Up in the Ritz - condominiums associated with hotel chains offer such amenities as room service - Brief Article

Kiplinger's Personal Finance Magazine, July, 1999 by Elizabeth Razzi

* Welcome to the five-star condo, where the living is easy and the fees high.

For Gay Yellen and her husband, Don Reiser, staying at home is a little like going on vacation: Their two-bedroom, park-view condominium, which is connected by a tunnel to the Park Plaza Warwick Hotel in downtown Houston, includes use of a spa and tennis courts--and a hotel full of "spare bedrooms," where they can put up guests. The commute is easy, too: They're just four miles from the office--the headquarters of life insurer Ameritas Direct Consumer Services--where Reiser is president and Yellen handles public relations.

But the best amenity, Yellen says, is room service. "We're a working couple. Our cupboard is usually bare. They can just wheel that little room-service cart through the tunnel and deliver to us." And after a dinner of steak Diane and a bottle of wine comes a truly rich dessert: "They come and pick up everything when we're through."

Condominium apartments affiliated with five-star hotel chains such as the Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons are springing up in Boston, New York City, Washington, D.C., Chicago and San Francisco, as well as Houston and several other cities. These homes cater to professionals who have the means to buy top-flight service and want to live right in the heart of the city. Besides room service and access to spas, there may be on-site laundry service and a concierge who can take care of errands.

To be sure, prices can soar as high as the skyline. Donald Trump built one in Manhattan--the Trump International Hotel and-Tower--at the southwest entrance to Central Park. A 1,599-square-foot apartment with two bedrooms, two and a half baths and a good view can be had for $1.8 million, says Michael Goldenberg, a sales director for the Halstead Property Co. (There's also a monthly condo fee of $988.) In exchange you get a concierge, room service and your fill of workouts at the hotel's spa and fitness center.

At some of these condos you can get in for a price comparable to that of a large, new "executive" house in the far suburbs of the same city. For example, in Yellen and Reiser's Houston complex, a two-bedroom apartment with a study was recently put on the market for $369,500. The monthly condo fee of $1,072 includes air conditioning, cable TV and valet parking. The couple says their condo fee is not so onerous when they compare it with the actual costs of maintaining their old suburban home (with swimming pool), where electricity bills alone sometimes hit $500 during the hottest months.

COMING TO A CITY NEAR YOU. More such developments are on the way. Sales are scheduled to begin later this year for a building under construction in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with a Ritz-Carlton hotel. Residents, who are expected to start moving in next year, will have full use of the hotel's concierge, spa and health club. Prices, which have not yet been announced, will be competitive with those of townhouses in historic Georgetown, a few blocks away.

That puts you at least in the $650,000-to-$950,000 ballpark, according to William Moody, regional director for Sotheby's International Realty. The buyers will likely be people who have enjoyed strong home-price appreciation in Washington's affluent suburbs but want to trade in their yard, garage and commute for comfortable city living.

The developer, Millennium Partners, based in New York City, has plans to build similar developments over the next two years in Boston, Miami, New York City and San Francisco. Atlanta, Chicago and Toronto are also candidates. Each will be based on the same formula of an in-town luxury condo wrapped in the label of a five-star hotel. A key ingredient, according to the developers, is that the condos be built in an area that's vibrant 24 hours a day.