The Plan: There’s Nothing Passive About Manhattan’s Vita Condominium

Residents will be living la dolce Vita at 499 Ninth Avenue.

The Vita Condominium in Manhattan’s Hudson Yards neighborhood is getting ready to welcome owners home as the first of its two residential towers nears completion.

The temporary certificate of occupancy for the north tower is expected by Oct. 1. Residents can then begin to move into the first building of the 121-unit complex, where the bedroom count goes from one to three, and the price tags range from $1 million to $3.34 million.

Vita provides tenants hotel-quality services and amenities, and holds a special designation: “Passive House.”

Eyebrows tend to raise in confusion when first hearing the phrase, especially since “passive” can have a negative connotation.

“Passive House is a designation that comes from the Passive House Institute,” John Gomes, managing director at Douglas Elliman and co-founder of the firm’s Eklund|Gomes team, said during a tour of the property. “And there are rules to what makes a ‘Passive House’ a ‘Passive House,’ and what it boils down to is being ecofriendly and energy efficient.”

There are several prerequisites for securing a Passive House designation, including the proper insulation, airtightness and heat recovery, according to the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development. Buildings awarded this designation provide a reduction in energy usage related to heating and cooling of up to 90 percent and up to 75 percent in overall energy use when compared to other buildings.

“Both buildings at Vita utilize air source heat pumps for heating and cooling, allowing every unit to have control of their own conditioned space,” Jeremy Zuidema, a partner with architectural firm Archimaera, said via email. “While this is pretty standard technology, the hot water is through communal heat pump water heaters with storage tanks in the mechanical bulkheads. While the heat pump technology underpinning this is well established, the communal system is a relatively new technology, which allows these buildings to minimize their electrical loads.” 

In addition to greater energy efficiency and homes with zero noise pollution, Vita also offers residents amenities across both towers that include a fitness studio with a sauna — dubbed “The Sanctuary” — and a lounge featuring a large media screen, coworking space and a communal kitchen.

The buildings also have two rooftop parks with landscaping and seating, providing stunning views of the city.

The units themselves are sunny and spacious, with Gaggenau appliances and quartzite countertops — a more durable material than marble, according to Gomes — in the kitchens. The bathrooms feature soaking tubs and motion sensor toilet seats, which if you aren’t expecting it could scare the daylights out of you — not that that happened to anyone during a recent tour. Some units feature curved windows at the corners, too.

Every window in the building is triple glazed to maximize the reduction in noise pollution, and to keep outside air and pollutants from getting in.

“It’s sealed. It’s air tight. There’s nothing getting in here,” Gomes said. “It’s a real luxury to be able to live in New York and to have no noise.”

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.