Other developers bring their own spiritual practices to their clients. In Columbus, Ohio, Gravity, a sprawling new development on a 10-acre site to date, includes a Transcendental Meditation Center. (Transcendental meditation involves a silent, repeated mantra.) Brett Kaufman, the developer, has been practicing for 20 years, he said.
He described the development as a “conscious community,” which takes a holistic approach to a wellness-oriented lifestyle. “The issue of physical health is important – we have gyms, we have yoga trainers and studios and running clubs,” he said. “But we think we have to treat the sanity and the spiritual side of things with the same level of importance.”
Mr Kaufman said plans also include a location for mental health professionals, therapists and life coaches called Innerspace, a convenient on-site facility for residents that will also be open to the general public. (Gravity has retail space, office space, and will have over 1,000 residential units when completed, including rental apartments and cohabitation spaces.)
Some developers and real estate agents say that following the Covid crisis and a year spent in near isolation, wellness messages are more appealing than ever. “There is a national conversation around mental health,” said Justin Alvaji, senior community director for Jardine. “We wanted our tenants to feel the building was a sanctuary and wanted to go the extra mile. “
Aree Khodai, a spiritual concierge, said she would work as a connector and coach for residents participating in the new program. This is something she has been doing informally for friends and acquaintances for years, introducing them to various approved shamans and spiritual practitioners that she knows personally through her work as a yoga teacher and healer.
“We are exploiting something that is already happening,” she said. In her previous work, she has connected clients with everything from movement classes to more daring experiments like microdosing mushrooms, which she described as “a journey,” with “an intention behind her and a sense of meaning. lessons and ideas ”. (Gardenhouse and several others are partnering with a third-party vendor that Ms. Khodai works with to provide spiritual concierge services.)
