Scott Levine wakes each morning in his tiny room in the Alta apartment building in Long Island City, N.Y., across the river from Manhattan. He gets dressed, brushes his teeth in an attached bathroom, and folds away his Murphy bed.
Mr. Levine, a 30-year-old marketing manager, shares the rest of his apartment—basically, a kitchen—with two roommates. Once a week someone from Ollie, the startup that manages his apartment, comes to change his sheets and towels, even top up his toiletries, all of which is included in his rent, which is around $1,800 a month for his 98-square-foot room.
A “community-engagement team” at Ollie helps plan Mr. Levine’s social calendar. A live-in “community manager”—sort of like a residential adviser for a college dorm—gets to know Mr. Levine and everyone else living on the 14 Ollie-managed floors of the Alta LIC building, known as Alta+, and finds creative ways to get them engaged in shared activities, like behind-the-scenes tours of Broadway shows or trips to organic farms.
“Life in general can be a bit of a headache,” says Mr. Levine. Thanks to
Ollie, he adds, “Everything is done for you, which is convenient.”
Mr. Levine and thousands more across the U.S. are part of a growing phenomenon that tech and real-estate companies are hoping to cash in on: co-living.]
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