The Herald
Saturday, October 11, 2003
Pg. C1

A lifestyle for the deep in pocket
Business Section
Douglas Hanks III

A day at the spa sounds nice. But could you handle a lifetime there? Condominium developers in downtown Miami and Miami Beach are banking on it. They've teamed up with 'luxury spas Canyon Ranch and Clinique La Prairie for a pair of high rise projects offering some novel amenities: cold plunge pools, color therapy chambers and bathroom scales beaming data to staff nutritionists.

The idea is to bring spa style pampering to everyday life and to exploit the growing popularity of healthy living, a trend driven largely by baby boomers doing what they can to ward off aging. If someone will spend $800 a night at the Canyon Ranch resort in Tucson, Ariz., why not spend $1 million for year round treatment in Miami Beach?

"You're basically trying to create a new lifestyle," said Kevin Kelly, chief strategy officer for Canyon Ranch. "If we're right, the future of lifestyles in this country is going to be defined on Miami Beach."

Though South Florida led the way in wooing condo buyers with hotel services by pairing resorts with residential projects, industry watchers say it's rare if not unheard of for a major spa to latch itself so prominently to a condominium venture.

The local projects mark Canyon Ranch and Clinique La Prairie's first big steps into the residential real estate business, and both companies say they hope to expand the concept across the country.
But are people really ready to have their spas follow them home?

The six acre Canyon Ranch Living resort planned at the old Carillion hotel on 68th street and Collins Avenue would set a threshold for the heathy regimen. Along with a network-enabled scales, the company is exploring ways to let buyers have much of their day monitored by the spa’s health staff.

Residents would hand their electronic identification cards to waiters and have their fat intake tallied at the groundfloor café, then swipe the cards on exercise equipment in the nearby gym to analyze calories burned.

Arm monitors would let Canyon Ranch keep tabs on blood Pressure and heart rates outside the facility, with in house doctors forwarding concerns to residents' personal digital assistants.
“They may send you an e mail saying: 'Hey, Mr. Jones, you're still eating too many carbohydrates. What's going on?" Kelly said.

The scrutiny would be optional, he said, though some aspects of the Canyon Ranch life aren't. Unlike the Canyon Ranch resorts in Arizona and Lenox, Mass., this one will serve alcohol with meals - but only after 3 p.m. At the oceanfront restaurant, portions will be smaller, the ingredients organic and french fries banned.

The Swiss I Clinique La Prairie says it won't be as disciplined at Ihe planned Ten Museum Park condo lower in downtown Miami, where units will go for as high as $2.5 million. The 25,000 squarefoot spa in the 50 story building will offer beauty treatments, yoga classes, aromatherapy and seven pools, including one filled with salt water for restoring minerals to the body.

But developers are also trying to land a trendy New York restaurant to anchor the ground floor and have recruited South Beach club impresario Michael Capponi to pump up the night life there.
“It's not a place of denial, if you will; it's more a place of overindulgence,” said deveIopment partner Chad Oppenheim, son in law of Clinique owner Armin Mattli, who is also an investor in 10 Museum project.

WSG Development Co. contracted with Canyon Ranch to run the spa and use its name. The Miami Beach developer, backed by Lehman Brothers, plans a three-towered resort on the six acre property with 151 rooms and 457 condominiums.

The hotel rooms will be sold individually to investors. And, like the Clinique spa, Canyon Ranch will be open to the public though one of the biggest drawbacks to the spa getaway can be going home.

Said Kelly: "We have a lot of people saying, 'I was doing great for two or three months. Then work caught up with me, the kids caught up with me. I'm on my fourth cup of coffee. I'm a mess.'”