It’s a smart move. The “fastest growing area in broadband is the telecommuter,” says Dan O’Connell, director of fiber-to-the-premises business development at Verizon, the provider of fiber and broadband services based in New York. O’Connell estimates there are 44 million telecommuters in the country today.
Residents who work from home do represent a lucrative market for property owners and vendors alike. Whether they telecommute daily or occasionally, such residents are more in need of advanced technology, particularly Internet access, in their apartments. “The U.S. has an economy that stays under the national census’ radar–contractors working out of their homes,” says Tara Thomason, a market intelligence consultant at the Tara Thomason Co. in Austin, Texas. “There are teams of contractors banding together, just like small companies, but [they] are not included in ’employer surveys,’ as they don’t employ anyone but themselves from a legal perspective. These folks are busy and are contributing to our economy in a big way. They demand high-speed/broadband connections in order to get their work done efficiently.”
Virtual Assistance
Other lifestyle technologies are less about practicality and more about convenience. They’re called virtual concierges or residential information systems, but the name makes little difference: The objectives are the same. These technologies can deliver building as well as local services (such as restaurant reservations) directly to residents, giving them wireless, push-button access to the good life.
At the three Paramount properties in the Miami area, for example, a wireless concierge links residents to restaurants and room service. “It’s a mobile panel–you can take it to the pool,” says Dan Kodsi, president and CEO of Royal Palm Communities, the developer of the Paramount properties. Known as the “P-link,” this wireless concierge device works anywhere that a resident gets Internet access and can be used to control a unit’s lights, televisions, video, and more. “One panel controls the entire home and lifestyle,” says Kodsi.
BAP-Newleaf, which developed The Cypress Club in Fort Myers, Fla., has created a “personal residential intelligence system module” (also known as “PRISM”), which is a remote concierge panel included in each of the development’s 292 units. The portable, handheld device lets residents reserve spa treatments; send for their cars, which are automatically brought around to the building’s porte cochere; switch lights off and on in their units; change CDs; and even see the bills covered by their monthly maintenance fee. It’s a completely technological experience: Residents can do all of these things without speaking to a single person, from anywhere in the building or the world, the development company says.
Others offer similar amenities. The Related Group of Florida calls the concierge system at its 500 Brickell project “IRIS,” for Intuitive Resident Information System. Part of the development’s “smart” condominium design, this wireless touchpad panel appears in each unit in the luxury building. It’s basically a portable, handheld device with a 12-inch color screen that weighs just two pounds, but it packs a lot into a small footprint.
Residents at 500 Brickell can think of the system as a concierge, using it to contact the valet, obtain information from the condo association, and control unit security. They can also use it as a portable home entertainment center, using the device to watch a DVD, view a show recorded by TiVo, play a CD, or manage just about anything that is linked to the audiovisual system in their unit. (Another plus in nearly bilingual Miami: The 500 Brickell system can communicate in Spanish as well as English.) And, just like their counterparts at The Cyprus Club, 500 Brickell residents can access these services and amenities anywhere in the world through a WiFi connection.
“Wireless concierge finally allows the residents to utilize all the amenities of the building wherever and whenever they want,” says developer Ugo Colombo, the president of Miami-based real estate developer CMC Group and the brainchild behind Grovenor House’s wireless concierge offering. “They are no longer tied down to the telephone or having to visit the spa desk or front desk to make a reservation.”
Residents also are no longer inhibited by language and other communication barriers. “It eliminates any possibility of miscommunication,” says Colombo. Ultimately that also should translate to happier, more satisfied residents.
The concierge concept also can raise a property’s profile among the buying or renting public. Paramount uses P-link as a branding tool, according to Kodsi. “We’re linking all the Paramount buildings together” so that residents of one property can access the amenities of any of the others, he explains. That includes the company’s newest property, a “condotel” under construction in Las Vegas. “You’ll be able to sit in Miami and reserve a VIP room in Las Vegas.”
But lifestyle applications extend beyond the wireless concierge. CMC Group’s Grovenor House uses the same technology to support a high-tech virtual sales center that gives prospective residents a view of a unit, the building, and their amenities.
Technology gets really personal at Bellamaré, a luxury high-rise condo on Williams Island in Florida developed by Florida-based WCI Communities. This property offers a “personal digital assistant” for owners who are into physical fitness. It works like this: Each resident has a personal code in the community’s server, which allows exercisers to track their health and workout regimen when they use the fitness equipment. The program also records the number of calories burned. The upside? No more time wasted jotting weights and performance levels onto oversized index cards that are stored where anyone (read: a nosy neighbor down the hall) can retrieve them. The downside for residents: No excuse to work so closely with those well-toned trainers anymore, either.