Safe Rooms: The New Must-Have Amenity for the 1 Percent

In-house spa? Rooftop terrace? Parking garage? Bike storage? Gym? Those amenities are strictly 2015. At least 1 percent of Manhattan townhouses now have a “safe room,” and this amenity’s popularity is accelerating along with soaring property values, Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of real estate appraisal firm Miller Samuel, tells AM New York. They’re starting to crop up in Brooklyn.

A safe room – a Kevlar- and steel-fortified redoubt inside an apartment that’s impervious to dirty bombs, terrorist attacks or rioting by the unhappy 99 percent – is starting to become “a part of the suite of amenities that makes a property part of the upper end of the market,” Miller says.

Safe rooms began to appear after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and the concept was spread by the hit 2002 Hollywood movie “Panic Room.” The Occupy Wall Street movement and the stalking of such celebrities as Madonna, David Letterman and Gwyneth Paltrow have continued to feed the anxieties of the rich and famous. Though such a haven costs upwards of $500,000 to build – the door can weigh up to three tons – one highrise unit owned by a Saudi prince in the Heritage at Trump Place on Riverside Drive has three safe rooms.

What are the ultra-rich so worried about?

“They’re thinking of ‘what ifs,’” says Tom Gaffney, CEO of Gaffco Ballistics, a Vermont-based company that installs safe rooms. “The more you have, the more you have to keep safe.”