Programming & Brand Foundation

Make Cool.

Most buildings treat amenities as a checklist. A fitness room, a lounge, a coffee machine by the front desk. They check the box, take the photo for the leasing brochure, and move on. Nobody hates them. Nobody remembers them either.

We think about amenities differently. The ones that matter are active. They are run, not just installed. They have a point of view, a little bit of craft, and someone behind the counter who cares. They are the reason a guest picks your hotel twice and the reason a resident renews when the lease comes up. It might not be what got them there… it’s why they came back or never left.

THE IDEA

Active amenities.

Take coffee. You can have coffee in your lobby, or you can have a coffee shop with co-working space. The gap between the two is smaller than most owners think. It comes down to quality, a bit of upfront cost and education, and training one of your leasing agents or hotel staff to be a barista for a few hours each morning.

What you get back is out of proportion to what you put in. Nothing builds community like meeting at your first-floor coffee shop. People linger. They meet their neighbors. They bring friends down to show it off. The building starts to have a center.

You don't have to lease that. You can make it.

THE APPROACH

Learn. Dig deeper. Build.

Whether the amenity is coffee, a gym, a spa, a restaurant, a bar, a cycling studio, an art space or a lounge, we follow the same three steps.

First, we learn. We educate ourselves on the amenity and find out who is doing it best. That means getting out of the office and into the spaces themselves. For coffee, it means walking into the best shops in Seattle, Paris, Berlin and New York, sitting at the bar, and getting into the culture.

Then we dig deeper. What makes that space great? Why is it the talk of the town? Sometimes it is the equipment. Sometimes it is the level of service, the product, the atmosphere, or the story behind it. Usually it is a few of those working together, and the job is to understand which ones and why.

Then we build the framework. With that understanding, there is a simple foundation to build on and bring to life. How will it work operationally, day to day, with the staff you actually have? What brand does it need to tell its story? And how do we tell people about it?

Give it a little water and a little sunshine, and magic happens.

THE FORMAT

Anywhere people gather.

None of this needs a storefront. It works in a hotel lobby, a multifamily amenity space, a retail kiosk, or a pop-up in a renovated mid-century Airstream. The format is the easy part. The craft is what people come back for.

I know this takes time. It is worth it for two reasons. A) It is a lot of fun. And B) your guests, your residents and your customers will come to know you for it.

THE OUTCOME

You don't have to lease cool. You don't have to find cool. You can make cool. But the process has to be genuine, authentic, and respectful of the culture you are tapping into.

And trust me, when you do... it's cool.

Bound by outcome.