Almost a century ago, if you lived in The Ansonia, a residential hotel on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, you would have had access to a variety of very interesting amenities that make the screening rooms and tennis courts of today's condo communities seem mundane by comparison. Ansonia residents lived in luxurious apartments with multiple bedrooms, parlors, libraries, and formal dining rooms. They enjoyed a central kitchen and serving kitchens on every floor, tea rooms, restaurants, a grand ballroom, and Turkish baths—all in-house. Even more spectacularly, the building was home to a rooftop menagerie that included a huge flock of chickens and ducks, some goats and a small bear (yes, a bear). To top it all off, the grand lobby fountain came complete with live seals.

It’s doubtful you’ll find any condo buildings or suburban HOAs with live seals in the lobby today (imagine the liability issues!) but even just a few short years ago, condo developers were throwing everything—including the double-wide, zinc-lined, top-shelf designer kitchen sink—into their projects to attract buyers and drive up unit prices. For a brief moment during the market boom of the early aughts, anything went when it came to amenities offered to new residents.

Dialing it Down

Today however, things have changed. Thanks to the sluggish economy, many luxury condo developers are paying more attention to the operating expenses and carrying charges of the communities they construct. Boards must maintain and staff these amenities once they’re built, so those costs must be added in before determining whether or not the amenity will succeed.

“At the height of the market, it wasn't uncommon to offer private restaurants, wine cellars and so forth—amenities that are very expensive to operate but were rarely used,” says Edward Azria, manager of sales at Rose Associates in Manhattan. No one needs a full-blown pet spa anymore; so it's back to the tub for Fido. And swimming pools may be very desirable, but they are expensive to build and maintain. On the other hand, a fitness center is often considered a must-have, and those costs can easily be substantiated.”

In some buildings, Azria says the rarely-used wine caves and pet spas or other unsuccessful amenities are rapidly being converted to what suburban residents actually need: storage. “When we had a hiccup in the market, residents took a step back and all of a sudden wondered if [the over-the-top amenities] were worth the extra money on their common charges, so everyone is scaling back,” he says.

Keeping it Real

So what do post-recession buyers want? Fitness facilities are always a hot item—even without monogrammed Egyptian cotton bathrobes. "There are two aspects to amenities that really have great impact for residents," says Jodi Stasse of Stasse & Company, a Princeton-based real estate firm that handles sales and marketing for CANCOlofts and the Trump Plaza Residences in Jersey City. "One is health and fitness, and the other is entertainment. Some properties are going beyond just the fitness centers and having spa treatment rooms. So you can not only work with personal trainers in the gym, you can take organized yoga classes, or get massages right there in the building.

Spa/fitness centers are the biggest growing sector for us,” says Suzanne George, new business manager for New Fitness Concepts Amenity Management in Jersey City. “Fitness center re-design is a growing sector for us as well."

"On the entertainment side," Stasse continues, "you have activities that people can do in groups with friends and families. Like billiards areas where people can get together, or activities like virtual golf, or a half basketball court, or multi-use courts. Those are amenities you don't see everywhere, but they are tailored to enhance the whole fitness lifestyle experience, and the residents love them."

Lori Ordover, managing member of The Ordover Group, agrees. At 20 Pine, a property in Lower Manhattan managed by her firm, such amenities are still a strong attraction for buyers. The building was designed by Armani/Casa, and includes a billiards room and golf simulators—as well as a library, terrace lounge and outdoor reflecting pool, a 60-foot indoor pool, a full-service spa and yes, a Turkish steam bath.

Ordover says that screening rooms with big screen TVs, surround sound and comfy seating were extremely popular for a few years, but now most people have those amenities in their own apartments. “The same thing was true for business rooms with computers and fax machines-there was no continued need to offer a product to customers if they already have it in their private homes,” she says. “Many buildings have also stopped offering papers and magazines in lobbies and libraries as a way to cut commons charges.”

Elizabeth F. Stribling, president of Manhattan-based Stribling & Associates, Ltd., agrees, and says that residents today want a return to ‘quality of life.’ “Residents are more concerned about whether there is wiring available for their mobile devices,” she says. “They want effortless living around their wireless gadgets.”

Ordover is also seeing such gadget-friendly amenities as mini-cellphone antennas that improve cell phone service. “You find more unconventional amenities in condos than in co-ops," says Ordover, "but regardless, developers have to be smart with their amenities in order to attract buyers. They want to make homeowners happy, while also being careful not to compromise too much selling space in favor of amenities.”

It may also help to hire a coordinator or concierge to help manage in-house amenities and assist residents in getting maximal use out of them, says Stasse. "Bringing in an amenity concierge provides a certain level of service. It gives you the ability to schedule a fitness instructor, or organize yoga or aerobics classes, things like that. That's something that has evolved, and from what I can see, where it exists it gets good use."

Talking to Buyers

To determine what amenities are hot and what’s not, real estate agents and developers have a variety of ways to keep their thumb on the pulse of the market. They may conduct focus groups, speak with other brokers and property managers and travel around scouting out trends.

“We have 200 agents, and we ask them what the buyers want when they are bringing them around,” says Stribling, who also founded Stribling Marketing Associates, a consulting and marketing agency for residential development projects of both conversion and ground-up construction. “So we go right to the source and talk directly to our buyers.”

Other firms may conduct market research on the building and determine their amenities based on, for example, where the building is located. “If you’re right next door to a gym, for example, you’re not going to add one in your building,” says Azria.

"When an existing property is being run by the HOA board," says Stasse, "one of the main things is making sure that the technology—things like having the right music system, or WiFi Internet access—is up to speed. Also, keeping current with things like fitness equipment enhances the lifestyle experience in these existing or older buildings."

Always a consideration is how much the amenity will cost to maintain and staff. “That’s why many buildings don’t have pools anymore—they are pricey—and the ones who do have them the people are specifically interested and the maintenance costs and the work that needs to be done with them are worth it,” says Azria.

"An amenity that's valued by the residents helps maintain resale value and appraisals for the community," says George. "Some may view [a particular amenity] as an expense, but it's more of an investment in a lifestyle. How fun is it to exercise in a room by yourself? Anyone can watch a DVD of an exercise class in their home but a well-run organized professional program has a social component that is priceless."

The bottom line, say the pros, is that buildings have to attract buyers, so amenities must be included. If a developer or board believes that a particular amenity will work in a building and it doesn’t, Stribling says that it's relatively easy—and more valuable in the long run—to just turn one room into something else that will be more practical and appreciated by residents. And in this economic environment, those two factors are worth more than any fancy doggy spa or in-house four-star chef.

Lisa Iannucci is a freelance writer and author living in Poughkeepsie, New York and a frequent contributor to The New Jersey Cooperator.