Bicycles Pump Up the Amenities Race

Not so very long ago, many co-op and condo boards realized that a bike storage room was an amenity whose time had come. But as bike ridership has exploded citywide in the past few years – with a boost from bike-sharing and expanded bike lanes – the humble bike storage room is being outpaced by ever-more-exotic amenities. 

Boards can take a cue from a wave of new rental properties that are offering not only expanded bike storage space, but bike valets, bike tours, bike-shop discounts, even complimentary bike rentals, Metro New York reports. 

“We saw the demand was increasing, so we started to up the amount of storage that we built out when building our new buildings, and then we realized that there’s a need for so much more than that,” says Jessica Koenig, marketing director for developer Gotham Organization, which owns four residential properties. All four provide free bike storage, but at Gotham West in Hell’s Kitchen, residents also have access to a bike valet from NYC Velo, the bike shop adjacent to popular food hall Gotham West Market on the building’s first floor. 

“Residents don’t have to fetch their own bikes anymore, they can just call down to the concierge and say, ‘Can I have my bike ready at 10 a.m.?’ take it for the day and drop it off when they get back, and NYC Velo will put it away for them,” Koenig says, adding that residents of any Gotham Organization buildings are eligible for discounts at NYC Velo as well for rentals, tune-ups or apparel. 

The Ashland, near downtown Brooklyn, offers professionally led bike tours through the borough, and Koenig says the demand has been “incredible. Residents want more of that with their fellow neighbors and the community.” The building also has a fleet of luxury bikes from Detroit-based Shinola, which residents can borrow for free. 

For co-op and condo boards, keeping up with the Joneses just keeps getting harder.