This NYC apartment building is paying its residents to party together

It’s 2025, and we’re still trying to make third spaces happen.Or, at least, Brooklyn Crossing is.

The luxury apartment building in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn, NY is now offering tenants an allowance to host more get-togethers as an incentive to build community inside its walls.Brooklyn Crossing already comes stacked with amenities: a rooftop pool, a 5,200-square-foot gym, and even a vending machine where you can rent a Dyson vacuum—all starting at $4,025 a month for a one-bedroom.That rate is a paltry $1,048 above New York City’s median rent, per the latest Rental Report from Realtor.com.And while perks like pools and Pelotons were once the crown jewels of amenity packages, more buildings are now betting that “community” is what sells.

From co-hosted events to curated social programming, landlords are marketing connection as a building’s biggest value-add—suggesting that what tenants really want, in addition to central air and skyline views, is a sense of belonging.Brooklyn Crossing isn’t alone in this shift.The building’s push to foster curated connection reflects a growing trend across the rental market: Social amenities are becoming just as important as the physical ones.Americans are moving less than they ever have before, putting more pressure on the moves they actually do make.

Instead of treating apartments as temporary landing pads, renters are increasingly seeking spaces where they can put down roots—and developers are taking notice.But this isn’t just about upping the amenity ante.It’s a response to deeper shifts in how—and where—people build community.

In a post-pandemic world of hybrid work and rising loneliness, apartments aren’t just where we sleep.They’re where we work, socialize, and build lives.

And in cities where homeownership is out of reach for many, renters are craving permanence and belonging in spaces they don’t technically own.Social amenities promise a kind of shortcut to that elusive fe...