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VIP Rooms in TriBeCa Bathhouse to Offer Champagne-Filled Tubs

The cool and ice pools at Aire Ancient Baths in TriBeCa.
The cool and ice pools at Aire Ancient Baths in TriBeCa.
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Aire Ancient Baths

TRIBECA — Now the champagne set can literally swim in bubbly.

A luxurious new bathhouse has popped up in TriBeCa — with elite amenities that include a $450 per person VIP package with a dip in a champagne-filled bathtub.

Aire Ancient Baths, which has built a devoted following in Spain, unveiled its first American location this week: a 16,000-square-foot spa inside a restored 19th-century building at 88 Franklin St., with six pools, a steam room and massage suites.

Spa packages start at $75 for a 75-minute bath, while a VIP suite is expected to open in the next few weeks, offering clients a chance to purchase a 3 1/2 hour spa package including a bath in a tub infused with olive oil, red wine or champagne at a cost of $450 per person.

"We want to create a space where people can relax their body and their mind," said Silvia Barnett, spokeswoman for the company. "You get transported to a different place."

Visitors enter the building through a spacious lobby, where water cascades through a 16th-century Spanish fountain. In the locker rooms, spa-goers shed everything except a bathing suit and don complimentary terrycloth robes and slippers.

A flight of stairs leads down to the sprawling subterranean bathhouse, where most clients immerse themselves first in a warm pool (97 degrees), which mimics their body temperature. They can also dip into hot (102 degrees), cool (61 degrees), and ice (46 degrees) baths, along with a salt bath and a thundering whirlpool tub with hundreds of jets.

An extensive renovation that cost more than $10 million stripped the historic building's basement to its original brick walls and columns, which are imbued with the soft glow of flickering candles and lanterns from Marrakech. Quiet music and aromatherapy scents like eucalyptus fill the air.

Patrons are encouraged to speak quietly, if at all, as they bathe, to maintain the tranquil ambiance.

"It's like a little oasis," Barnett said. "You walk down there and you're in a different world."

To ensure the bathhouse does not get crowded, only 30 people are allowed into the pools at once, and spots are already filling up quickly, Barnett said. At Aire's Barcelona location, the waiting list stretches two months.

The baths are co-ed, and all patrons must be 21 years old.

Aire Ancient Baths, 88 Franklin St., is now accepting reservations online.