Gen Z’s Wellness Obsession Is Changing Real Estate Development

Gen Z is trading boozy brunches for Pilates and bar tabs for riverwalks. Real estate developers are building accordingly

“If you build it, they will come” may be one of the most misquoted lines in American culture, but the essence of it is what some real estate developers are watching play out in real time, at least when it comes to the younger consumers trading boozy Sunday brunches for Pilates.

What they didn’t plan for? The post-workout lingering. Not a bad thing, either, but certainly an unexpected result of the right mix of real estate tenants and a great view.

Just ask Andrew Hellinger, the developer behind River Landing Shops & Residences, a five-year-old, 2.2-million-square-foot property west of downtown Miami. The space includes CKO Kickboxing, wellness spa ZenLux, ProsperIV, Posh Life Pilates, Planet Fitness, White Coat Beauty, healthy eatery Carrot Express, among others.

Though he knew from the start that the river would be the draw, the wellness and fitness piece emerged as a natural extension of the vision, a place where people could gather.

“The categories kept pointing in the same direction, toward people who were investing in how they feel and wanted a place that supported that,” he said, adding that the view provided the perfect backdrop to get creative, such as riverfront kickboxing classes. “When you have a waterfront that’s genuinely beautiful, tenants want to activate it.”

Those who come to a class at River Landing can often be found afterward, enjoying the riverwalk and talking to the people they just worked out with. 

“The story is still unfolding, and a development like this is a work in progress by design,” Hellinger said. “You create the conditions, you attract the right tenants, and then you get out of the way and let them build their businesses.”

What Hellinger is watching at River Landing is showing up in the data. ABC Fitness’s Fall 2025 Wellness Watch found that 57% of active fitness consumers say social interaction is the main reason they join a fitness community, and nearly one in three Gen Z and millennial members engage with their fitness communities daily.

In Miami’s Wynwood arts district, Amara Wynwood, a new mixed-use multifamily development, signed Body Hot Pilates as its first retail tenant in November. Fifield chief development officer Lindsey Senn said the studio “sets the tone” for what she described as “a lifestyle ecosystem.” Chrome, a café and social lounge, has since joined the lineup.

Further north, Extell Development is seeing a similar social trend play out at its mixed-use luxury condominium Brooklyn Point and luxury residential skyscraper One Manhattan Square. Each site offers weekly sound bath meditations.

“Both properties have a core group of attendees, many of whom have built friendships with each other as well as plan their schedules around our sessions,” said Bryan Grandison, director of lifestyle services at Extell Development. “Some have even hired our practitioner privately to host their own sessions with friends and family within our amenity spaces.”

The appeal for connection cuts across age groups, but is increasingly a need of Gen Z, a generation that’s harder to read than the ones before it, and at times full of paradoxes. 

They have financial anxiety, but are willing to splurge in the “little treat” economy; they’re digital natives who seek out their college roommates on Instagram, but they’re also driving a 567% global surge in phone-free experiences at events, according to new Eventbrite data.

And for all the wellness optimization, there’s still a cloud of depression that hangs over many — but they’re still showing up. Hellinger said the Pilates studio at River Landing is frequently rented out for birthdays and private gatherings.

“Because for this generation, that’s where they want to celebrate,” he said.

He also notices an overall shift where people are hungry for social experiences, living and eating more intentionally and investing in how they feel.

“River Landing gives people a place where all of those choices are in one spot: fitness, recovery, fresh air, open air along the water,” Hellinger said.

It comes back to the old idea: build it, and they will come. But build it well, and they will linger.

“The tenants who are thriving here are the ones who understand that and have built their businesses around it,” he said. “We just gave them the right environment to do it in.”