GRAMERCY — Acupuncturists, ayurvedic specialists and other healers who rent space at Gramercy Park's Atmananda yoga studio recently welcomed a new tenant — self-described holistic real estate broker Claudine Arthurs.
"It's still within the mission of yoga," Arthurs said of her alternative approach to real estate, which includes a space-cleansing or blessing ceremony in her brokers' fee.
"It's still healing. That's essentially what I'm doing, trying to help people's health through their environment."
Arthurs is now hiring a team of professionals for Prana Real Estate who will not only help New Yorkers buy, sell or rent apartments but also help to organize their kitchens, chase out bad energy through space clearing rituals, create harmonious interiors using Feng Shui (or the Hindu equivalent called Vastu Shastra), coach couples moving in together on resolving conflicts and, of course, provide private yoga sessions.
Arthurs isn't trying to teach people about how their homes help or harm their health and mental well-being, but she and a small cadre of like-minded brokers are tapping into the growing number of yoga-practicing, juice-loving, health-conscious New Yorkers looking for an alternative approach when it comes to real estate.
"Yoga is a practice you can apply to whatever you're doing. What I'm bringing is a more positive and sane approach," she said.
"Real estate doesn't have to be insane. You can come at it with a different intention."
Developers are paying attention to this niche market, too.
The New York-based International Well Building Institute is expecting to launch its WELL Building Standard by year's end after a pilot program that rates buildings based on health standards in the way that the LEED certification process evaluates eco-friendly buildings.
The U.S. Green Building Council, which oversees the LEED certification program will be a third-party certifier for the WELL Building standard, officials announced in April.
WELL Buildings will need to meet performance benchmarks in such areas as air and water contaminants, the relationship between indoor lighting and circadian rhythm and mold and other biological contaminant levels, according to the institute.
The developer Delos — whose new Greenwich Village boutique condo at 66 E. 11th St. has such features as vitamin C-infused showers to neutralize chlorine in the water, kitchen herbariums and juicing stations, posture-supportive flooring and a circadian lighting system that changes its brightness levels based on time of day — pioneered the standards.
Leonardo DiCaprio reportedly bought a $10 million apartment there and the building last week held an open house for its $50 million penthouse.
"It was very humid outside and then inside the air was all crisp and fresh," said Arthurs, who checked out the penthouse since it's in line with the green bent of the listings she curates for her company's website.
"I'm going to have to do a lot of meditating and mantras and sage burning to find a buyer who will come through me," she said.
Even for house hunters who don't have $50 million, there are "little things you can do" to create an environment "more harmonious and stress-free," said Arthurs, who does sage and space clearing ceremonies regularly at her Clinton Hill home and new office.
Arthurs launched her company in what had been the Irving Place studio's "junk room," setting up two computers and other elements to create a serene and healthy space — Buddha statues, an altar to hold the room's "sacred energy," an air purifier, aromatherapy humidifier, a small waterfall, strategically placed mirrors to help the window-less room, orchids and two money trees "for abundance."
Arthurs spent nearly a year as a yoga studio's manager before starting her firm as a way to merge her spiritual practice with her entrepreneurial bent.
Exhale Spa yoga teacher and Douglas Elliman broker Barbara "Nixa" Debellis, a yoga teacher of 15 years, also brings her practice into real estate, a field she entered five years ago to supplement her income.
"When working with clients, it's not like I have everyone stop during a showing or a negotiation to do pranayama (breathing exercises)," she said.
"But I certainly do use my own breath to calm the scenario and through a sort of entrainment, calm down their nervous systems for good listening and looking and a strong and wise response rooted in clarity."
While some people might want a "shark-y" or "ferocious" broker when making such a big purchase, her calmer bent attracts "a boutique kind of buyer," she said.
"This is going to be your sanctuary from the world, where you do your internal work and your personal growth," Debellis said. "I do consider that when I advise and counsel people."
