Exclusive | NYC luxury rentals have a new offering to lure social-hungry residents: Adult Field Trips

Long after COVID-19 is over, New Yorkers can still find it difficult to mix and mingle in real life — even with their apartment neighbors.

Now, the best amenity offering in luxury rental homes in the city sees residents leaving their buildings to meet new friends. Called excursions, field trips and resident events, these off-property experiences are shaping up to be the latest perk of living in a luxury building. They invite residents to participate in wine tasting, apple picking, boating and even restaurant hopping – all with their building buddies in tow.

The Brodsky Organization, a developer of more than 50 apartment buildings in New York, is just one local name that offers these tours.

It debuted these getaways last fall in a partnership with outdoor activities company Sourced Adventures. The start was a day trip to Pennings Orchard in Warwick upstate to pick apples and pumpkins.

Joe Porritt, Brodsky’s director of leasing and marketing, says the developer arranged round-trip shuttle bus transportation to two different pickup points in the city. The cost was $70 per person – a significant discount from Source Adventure’s listed price of more than $115.

Porritt says the excursion sold out almost immediately. Since then, Brodsky has offered two more: A summertime North Fork tour that visited three wineries, including lunch and more than 10 tastings. There was also another trip to Pennings Orchard this past fall. Both were also sold out.

“The purpose of these trips is to create a community for our residents that you don’t understand as much with the amenities of the buildings,” Porritt told The Post. “The residents on these rides are there because they want to be social.”

Case in point: Fannie Santana, a teacher who lives in Brodsky’s Brooklyn Crossing, signed up for the summer walk to bond with her neighbors.

“I live in a different building with neighbors from different backgrounds and I wanted to get to know them,” she said. “Everybody in New York can be upside down. The trip was perfect because I had wanted to visit the wineries anyway.”

Santana also went on the Pennings Orchard trip with her daughter and says it fostered a sense of belonging, which can easily get lost in her 51-story building.

“I would definitely do it again,” she said.

Gotham Organization’s One Park Point in Brooklyn’s Windsor Terrace neighborhood and RXR’s Maven in Mott Haven in the South Bronx are other properties that host these adult field trips.

They include sailboats around Manhattan, rooftop concerts and tubing on the Delaware River—an adventure capped off by a riverside lunch and brewery tour.

The company’s marketing director, Natasha Mazeau, says off-property raids are tailored to each building – and are always at capacity.

“They have become a cornerstone for us,” she said.

Dianette Caraballo, who rents at Gotham’s The Suffolk on the Lower East Side and works as a data analyst, took part in the cruise option and also took a historic walking tour of her neighborhood. Given the chance, she said she would “definitely” sign up for more.

“The tour was great,” she said. “It made me appreciate how rich the neighborhood is.”

One Park Point, located directly across from Prospect Park, partners with Prospect Park Stables to host building-wide horseback rides on the park’s trails. Bobby Dweck, a principal at Focus Property Group, the building’s developer, says the excursions have been so well received that he plans to expand them in the new year to include scavenger hunts, sledding and an adult running club. and teenagers.

Food was the focus at Maven in the Bronx for “Taste of Mott Haven,” a culinary adventure through the neighborhood. The casual event invites residents to hit up three restaurants in one night and enjoy an appetizer and cocktail at each paid for by developer RXR. The next one is in November. 20.

Douglas Elliman’s Deepti Mittal attributes the recent rise in these field trips to the high cost of rentals, which continues to rise. In September, the median asking rent in New York City hit $3,419, according to MLS data, a 2.7% year-over-year increase.

“Excursions are a nice perk of living in a building,” she said. “Given how expensive rents are, people are buying more than they normally would before they decided. Instead of lowering the price, developers are trying to stay competitive by giving you more benefits.”