The rental

Developers are adding professional office spaces to the list of amenities in their mostly new buildings in cities around the country.

“This is a good place to be and it’s getting better.” “It creates a more communal vibe,” Mr. Vance said. At the Willoughby, Mr. Dossman and Ms. Li have gotten to know their neighbors through social events like happy-hour mixers and wine-tastings in the work-from-home space. At One South First, she pays $100 for a four-hour rental of a private room where she can place her client in a chair looking out over Domino Park and the East River. “We are pretty close to an announcement with one of them,” he said. Amina AlTai, a career and business coach, was drawn to One South First, a luxury building in Brooklyn’s Williamsburg neighborhood, because of its work-from-home space, which includes two private conference rooms and a larger boardroom. For Ms. AlTai, the space allowed her to resume in-person meetings, a crucial part of her business that was cut off in the pandemic. The building is unfinished, but they chose it because it provided a crucial amenity: a co-working space on the 22nd floor that includes semiprivate banquettes and a conference room with a view of Fort Greene Park. “People have high expectations,” said John G. Weigel, a senior development executive at DivcoWest, a real estate services firm. Developers have been adding space to apartments for years as architects design bedrooms and alcoves that can accommodate desks and other work equipment, a trend that has only accelerated in the pandemic. Co-working firms like Industrious and WeWork are beginning to take notice, hoping not to get edged out of what could become a lucrative market. When Christopher Dossman and his wife, Yao Li, were looking for an apartment in New York last year, they compiled the usual list of preferences: washer/dryer, proximity to a grocery store, subway access.