New Bozzuto, Hines and Delos partnership takes luxury living to a healthier place.

What would you say if an apartment home could help you sleep better, manage stress, increase your energy and influence healthier eating habits?

Residents of Fuse Cambridge, a new 244-unit property located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, say ‘Yes, please!’

Through a partnership with New York-based Delos, a health and wellness company focused on real estate, Hines, Fuse Cambridge’s owner/developer, and Bozzuto, the property management firm, give residents access to those benefits and more with Delos’ Well Signature Program.

For a reasonable cost, residents can upgrade their apartment homes to include one of two wellness packages (standard and plus) and reap the refreshing rewards.

Well Signature features are specifically catered to a person’s needs at home. They include blackout shades and circadian mood lighting to help with sleep and energy, air and water purification, aromatherapy to relieve stress, a dawn simulation alarm clock, and a vitamin C-infused shower that reduces chlorine in the water. When combined, these features, among others, leave residents feeling healthier and more refreshed. Property maintenance can install the package in a few days, and residents who opt in will immediately receive the welcome kit and special access to Cleveland Clinic Wellness programs, along with local health-related content and alerts.

“It’s a holistic wellness program,” said Nate Lopez, property manager of Fuse Cambridge. “Through this partnership, we are incorporating health into the design of our community. All these amazing things impact our residents’ health in important ways.”

Wellness real estate

The idea for “wellness real estate” stemmed from the green building movement, which typically focuses on external factors like environmental impact and building outputs. But, according to Paul Scialla, long-time Wall Street veteran and founder and CEO of Delos, “there was a pretty big gap in thought” about sustainability and what it could be. Between home, work, travel and entertainment, people spend over 90 percent of their time inside.

“We wanted to push the envelope to focus on human and biological sustainability,” he said. “We started looking at ways to address the built environment so it is conducive to better health outcomes.”

After working with architects and doctors for more than seven years, and after heavy medical and academic vetting, Delos introduced various wellness products and programs for buildings that take a holistic view of health in the internal built environment.

“If you have great air quality that’s one thing, but if you don’t have good lighting or good water quality, you don’t have a healthy space,” Scialla said. “Only when you holistically examine how the space is impacting the human condition can you make a difference.”

Today, Delos is best known for its highly successful wellness programs in the hotel and multifamily residential spaces. Hines, a global commercial real estate developer, owner and investor with a growing residential portfolio, is no stranger to the multifamily space either.

However, implementing a wellness program at a property of any type was a first for the company. When Jim Dunlop, managing director of development for Hines, connected with Scialla and Delos a few years back, he “instantly thought it was worth perusing.”

“Hines is very focused on sustainability,” Dunlop said. “And, we like to try new things, but we put a lot of thought into it. Delos had done an unbelievable amount of research. That was important. We’re really excited about our multifamily project in Cambridge. It is a first for Hines and for New England.”

Hines plans to roll out the program in future projects across asset classes and will build it in to the amenities at select communities going forward.

The Well Signature Program at Fuse Cambridge is a first for Bozzuto as well. The management company fully embraces the ethos of the LEED Silver-certified property, which is focused on health, sustainability and what the Boston Herald calls “biophilic design,” described as “a style aimed at bringing nature inside the living space.”

It is the only apartment community with direct access to the 120-acre Alewife Brook Reservation, a state park and urban wild with bike, running and hiking trails. Fuse Cambridge gives free loaner bikes to residents so they can take advantage of the surroundings. The community also features a huge living green wall that boosts oxygen levels inside the property, and as it turns out, is one of the community’s best-selling features.

“Everything in the property has this airy feel and natural element to it,” Lopez said. “We are adjacent to a reservation that people don’t even know exists, because it’s so spread out. We have these gorgeous views and bike trails. Add that into all the things that we have — LEED certification, Well Signature, the green wall — it’s all about bringing nature into homes, into our community.”

Marketing new amenities: health and wellness

The companies chose to pilot these new health and wellness amenities in Cambridge for a reason. Lopez calls it “one of the most innovative cities in the country.”

The location was selected and designed to tap into the city’s tech-savvy academic, medical, entrepreneurial and professional elite, many of whom have grown up with some sort of health and wellness option in nearly every consumer category they purchase. Scialla called it the “wellness upgrade” — something that is available across the board from beverages to personal care products.

So, why not have a wellness upgrade in real estate, typically a person’s largest monthly expenditure, so a person’s home can passively work on their cardiovascular, immune, respiratory, and sleep health?

“From an economic standpoint, there is a vast opportunity to merge the largest asset class in the world — real estate — with the fastest-growing and arguably most important industry in the world — health and wellness,” he said. “There is an obvious need for a medically vetted wellness option in real estate.'

Hines took a close look at demographics before they ever broke ground, and Cambridge proved to be an ideal fit.

“It’s a demographic that pays attention to what they are doing,” Dunlop said. “They are renters by choice. The Well Signature brand fits that on all levels. If you’re young, smart and doing great things, you want to be purposeful about your career, health and wellness. It all syncs together in this project.”

The Fuse Cambridge community opened its doors in November 2015, and although the WellSignature Program wasn’t implemented until May, that didn’t slow down leasing. Today, the property is 90 percent occupied.

“We leased so quickly — three months ahead of schedule — I think we’re nearly a stabilized property,” Lopez said. “We didn’t expect it, so we missed the initial surge of residents when everyone was first coming in. Now, we are focused on engaging current residents through word of mouth.”

He expects renewals to be ahead of estimates as well.

Bozzuto also has a blog series to help drive awareness among current residents. He is working with business partners in the community, such as the nearby yoga studio and rock climbing gym, to foster interest and demand from the wider community as well.

“We put a lot of time and effort into the value our properties present to residents,” Lopez said. “We not only look at the demographics, but at the person as a whole, which is why this property is so successful. We have a lot of working professionals who value wellness in general, and those are people living in this building. We gave them something they valued.”