The Home Front: Animal House Meets the Empty Nest; Condos Built for Hipsters Draw Folks

The Home Front: Animal House Meets the Empty Nest; Condos Built for Hipsters Draw Folks Over 50; Showdown at the Pool

Ben Casselman May 11, 2007

Real-estate developer Lee Schaefer is hovering over a model of his company's latest swinging-singles complex in Nashville, Tenn. As he surveys the scene, complete with bikini-clad quarter-inch-figures frolicking by a pool, he plucks out a tiny plastic figure from a reject pile -- a senior citizen with white hair and a cane. "That's really not our target demographic," he says.

Mr. Schaefer's Bristol Development Group is pitching the project, Velocity, to twenty- and thirtysomething professionals willing to trade space (as little as 535 square feet) for affordability (as low as $165,000) and a chance to live in a hot urban neighborhood. Developers across the country are appealing to young buyers -- many of them single, almost all without children -- with buildings that promise not just an affordable first home but also a great social life. The amenities tell the story: videogame lounges and outdoor fire pits, rooftop soaking tubs, on-site bars and poolside drinks.

But it's not so easy to control demographics in the open market. Some of the buildings are drawing unexpected buyers: people old enough to be the parents of the kids down the hall. And that's leading to territorial conflicts, social snubs -- even planned boardroom coups.

Such concerns are multiplying as the new buildings fill up with a mix of residents who range broadly in age. In Denver, about half of the units in the recently completed Glass House sold to empty-nesters, despite youth-oriented amenities such as a videogame lounge and a Web site that promises "cool bars" and "a fresh vibe." In New York, even a hot tub above the lobby and a provocative marketing campaign couldn't keep boomers away from William Beaver House, slated to open next year. And when Viridian opened last October in Nashville, most locals expected the high-rise to draw young buyers looking for a chance to live downtown. It did, but it also attracted people like Julie Lammel, a speech pathologist in her early 50s who moved there from a suburb where most of her neighbors were in her own age group.

Ms. Lammel says that while the atmosphere at Viridian has been largely cordial, the building has already developed "cliques" and there have been some tensions. Ms. Lammel describes the pool scene, for example, as an "animal house."

"One time I went up there and the twentysomethings had the whole place monopolized," she recalls, "and I thought, Well, not today." Ms. Lammel says she and some of her cohorts have a strategy for reclaiming the space, at least temporarily: They're planning a covered-dish pool party. "Anyone is welcome," she says in her pleasant Southern drawl. "But we'll see who shows up."

The new developments are a throwback to the sort of singles-oriented complexes that were popular in the '60s and '70s. But unlike those rental projects, the latest iterations are geared to young people hankering to buy, not rent. Condo developers see opportunity in the demographics. According to a study by the National Association of Home Builders, "echo boomers" -- those born after 1978 -- are twice as likely as people ages 46 to 64 to be house-hunting in the next two years. At the same time, as Americans marry and have children later, the purchases of first-time home-buyers are more likely to be townhouses and downtown condos, not suburban ranches. Married couples now make up just 61% of all home-buyers, according to the National Association of Realtors, down from 70% a decade ago.

And many of the young buyers want their neighbors to be more like them. Ricky Florita, a 29-year-old mortgage banker in Nashville, says he avoided buying in Viridian in part because he heard it was attracting "an older crowd." Instead, he signed a contract for a $160,000 condo in Icon, another project by Bristol Development Group, that will feature a media lounge and a pool plaza with "grilling cabanas" when it opens next year. "I really think it's going to be a singles scene," Mr. Florita says. "Every time you were in the sales center, you saw really attractive women buying these condos."

Regardless of who's signing the contract, many of the condos targeting singles are selling. Atlanta's Novare Group says it has sold more than 4,000 units throughout the Sunbelt since 2002, most of them for less than $275,000, and all of the buildings have sold out within a year of opening. The 417-unit Icon, Bristol's first such development in Nashville, sold out in two weeks. And Lifestyle Communities in Columbus, Ohio, says it sold nearly 500 condos last year, even as area sales slowed overall. Two-bedroom townhouses start at $119,000.

It's 11 p.m. on a Friday night and the crowd at the Goat erupts as Jamie Blackford, 31, pulls off a rare 7-10 split in the bar's bowling videogame. Mr. Blackford accepts high-fives from friends as Will Kirchner, the bar's general manager, runs over to see what the commotion is all about. "Did you beat my record?" he asks. (Mr. Blackford has not.)

The Goat is located in Preserve Crossing, a complex developed by Lifestyle Communities in a suburb of Columbus, Ohio. Many homeowners there say the scene at onsite facilities such as the Goat, the pool and the volleyball court was a big draw. "That was half the reason I moved here," says Mike Prozy, a 27-year-old mortgage broker. "To meet people and have a great bar down the street." Many of the complex's residents are in their 20s and 30s.

But seated at the bar not far from the bowling game is John Heck, a 54-year-old senior district manager for Waste Management who says he visits the Goat at least once a week. He likes Preserve Crossing's gym and the quiet streets -- ideal for inline skating -- and says he has made friends in the development. Still, he recognizes that he's older than most of his neighbors. "I think I know my place," he says. "I'm not out looking to hit on the women."

Many younger residents, however, say they chose to live there precisely because there wouldn't be a lot of people Mr. Heck's age. Beth Paumier, a 29-year-old school psychologist, considered buying a place in other developments that attracted older residents. "They just kind of had that depressing feel," she says. Mr. Prozy's wife, Melissa, is even less charitable. Gesturing around the bar, the 22- year-old dancer for the Destroyers, Columbus's arena football team, says, "Would you want to live next door to a person who is 65?"

Such concerns illustrate both the opportunity and the pitfalls of targeting younger buyers. Get it right, and buyers will pay a premium for the chance to be surrounded by their friends. Get it wrong -- too expensive, too many neighbors that are mom and dad's age -- and developers can be stuck with a building that doesn't sell.

The William Beaver House, a planned 320-unit high-rise in Manhattan's financial district, has an R-rated marketing campaign featuring a martini-swilling beaver (the project is named for its location at the intersection of William and Beaver streets) and provocative, anime-style images of scantily clad men and women trading flirtatious glances. The building will feature a poolside bar, a residents-only penthouse lounge and a 44-seat movie theater that can double as a nightclub.

So far, though, the project has generated more buzz than sales. A year before the building is set to open, just 30% of the units -- studios start at $885,000 -- have sold, according to the developer, and those that have sold haven't necessarily gone to the intended demographic. The developer, hotelier Andre Balazs, says early buyers have been "quite a mixed group" with a wide range of ages. "It's not as young as I thought," Mr. Balazs says, though he adds that he is generally satisfied with sales thus far.

Some experts say developers -- many of them in their 40s and 50s -- don't always have the right idea about what this generation of buyers is really looking for. Condos replete with barbecue pits and hot tubs may actually be more appealing to boomers than to young home-buyers looking for a sound investment. A recent survey by the National Association of Home Builders found that price was by far the most significant factor among young condo buyers; location was a distant second. In addition, people under 35 were less likely than their older counterparts to say they take advantage of many on-site facilities.

"It was a slight attraction," says Lisa DiNitto, 31, of the offerings at Realm, a 406-unit development in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood, where she recently bought her first condo. Much more significant, Ms. DiNitto says, was the opportunity to buy a unit in a new building -- and the chance to become a homeowner after years of paying rent.

Indeed, on a recent Tuesday evening at Realm, the lounge off the lobby sat empty, its flat-screen televisions switched off and its pool table unused. An upstairs club room had more flat-screens but no one was watching them. Outside, jets sprayed arching streams of water into a vacant swimming pool, and the fire pit and barbecue on the terrace were unlit.

Eating dinner on the patio, Robert Burns, 24, and his girlfriend, Michelle Meyers, 22, said they had heard that Eclipse, another building by the same developers, Novare Group and Wood Partners, was a wilder time. "Eclipse is like spring break in Mexico," says Mr. Burns. But a trip to Eclipse found a couple of residents playing a quiet game of pool and not much else of a scene.

That's not quite the picture painted by Novare's marketing materials. At the sales center for Twelve Centennial Park -- the firm's latest Atlanta project, a 1,034-unit development where condos begin at just under $200,000 -- the walls are covered with images of couples kissing in a bar and lying together in the grass. (The high- rise will not feature a lawn.) "You're here for a good time," says the project's Web site. "That's why there's a cool lifestyle waiting for you to jump right in."

Other developments pitching sex, beer and videogames are coming closer to delivering on that promise. Brad Mayer, a 31-year-old financial adviser, says he bought an apartment in 1211 Light, a new condo in Baltimore, because living in the suburbs was "killing me socially." The building, a former hospital in the city's Federal Hill neighborhood, has "a Melrose Place vibe" complete with relationship drama, though none involving him. ("I'm 31," says Mr. Mayer, who paid $376,000 for his new place. "I learned the hard way not to deal with that.") Richard Cook, a 35-year-old software engineer in Atlanta who says he was "hoping to meet girls" when he bought a $240,000 one- bedroom condo in Novare and Wood's Spire high-rise in 2005, reports that there's a lot going on there, including monthly parties where residents gather in one condo for drinks before repairing to a local restaurant. It's a bit like college life, Mr. Cook says, "but you don't have an RA on your case."

Elsewhere, some older residents are readjusting to dorm life. Gayle Strong, a 53-year-old attorney, recently moved into a two-bedroom condo in Denver's Glass House. "I guess I have this mindset that I'm a youthful-looking 50-year-old," she says. At a recent mixer in the building, she wound up chatting about bicycling with several of her neighbors. "It was fun," she says. "But some of them are a lot closer in age to my kids."

At Viridian in Nashville, however, the party may soon be over. An insurgent group of 40- and 50-year-olds is looking to take over the condo board. Among them: Ms. Lammel, who says she intends to propose rules that would put the kibosh on spring break at the pool. "I decided I should stop just complaining and do something about it," she says.