Owners see services as lure to younger tenants
Dog walking, dish washing, doing laundry among amenities cropping up in buildings as developers seek renters
Angela Dubose picked up Bohdi, a flat-coated retriever, from his northwest Houston apartment Wednesday afternoon.
Dubose, who has trained dogs for 18 years, had a fanny pack stocked with leashes, a collapsible water bowl and plastic bags. Bohdi had hair like a raven-locked Farrah Fawcett. And Kelsey Eggleston, Bohdi’s owner, had an app that allowed her to order a dog walker on demand.
It was a perk that came with the apartment.
Today, every new multifamily building has luxury apartments, and developers have had to go great lengths to set their buildings apart. Market Square Tower, downtown, has a rooftop pool with a glass floor cantilevered 10 feet out from the building, allowing swimmers to contemplate traffic from an elevated perspective. Others have lobbies are clad in marble and expansive fitness centers.
But many developers admit their high-end — and expensive — aesthetic touches often go unused.
An apartment that comes with services such as an oncall dog walker, dry cleaner and personal trainer, on the other hand? That’s the type of amenity a growing number of Houston property managers and companies are betting tenants won’t be able to resist.
“There’s an amenities arms race going on right now,” said Matt Graves, vice president of Valet Living Home, which began offering in-home services in Houston in September. Some property managers have turned to services as a
way to attract young professionals who work long hours and have unpredictable schedules. Once they’ve signed a lease, the goal becomes making life so convenient it is hard to leave.
For example, Spruce, an on-demand services startup founded in Houston, began walking dogs at the Bayou on the Bend on Memorial Drive in 2016 after the company’s founder, who lived at the complex, had difficulty finding someone to tend to his own dog. The company, which moved its headquarters to Austin in August, now does dishes, folds laundry and waters plants, among other services, in more than 200 Texas apartment communities.
Ben Johnson, its founder, said the efficiencies of providing services to multiple units within the same building allows the company to offer services to renters at below market rate.
Other Houston apartment complexes that provide services as amenities include River Oaks’ Marq31, which provides complimentary personal training and pet walking, and Memorial by Windsor, which offers complimentary fitness classes.
Fitness, in particular, is in high demand by property managers, said Graves. “One of the reasons is it brings people together. It leads to time together, which leads to friendships, which leads to renewal.”
David Perez, chief operating officer of real estate investment company Carroll Organization, said he saw a roughly 5 percent bump in renewals at one of the company’s Tampa apartment complexes after partnering with Valet Living Home.
“We’ve really felt a shift in expectation,” Perez said. “Everyone has a pool and new furniture and a roof deck. The next step is: How are you going to make it easy for me to live?”
The company is now rolling out service amenities in Houston at its ARIUM Uptown West, City Lake, Spring Crossing and Towne Lake projects.
Both Valet Living Home and Spruce allow residents to request services through a mobile app. In addition to walking dogs, employees can feed fish or play with a cat and scoop its litter, clean a home or pick up laundry. Graves said basic services at Valet Living Home usually start at $15.95.
For Eggleston, the price was worth it on days when she was too busy to leave work in time for Bodhi’s walk.
“People’s pets are like kids. And I don’t have kids. So it’s important to me that they get the exercise they need and the attention they need,” she said. “It hurts me to leave him alone for too long — I’m a guilty dog parent.”
Includes previous reporting by Nancy Sarnoff and Katherine Feser