The hottest amenity in New York City’s luxury rental market is making a big splash this summer.
Developers and landlords across the five boroughs are crowning their projects with bigger and better outdoor pools. Long a staple in high-end city living, it’s now must-have feature for high-end apartment seekers who are increasingly willing to sign a lease — or walk away from one — based solely on whether their building comes with a place to swim in the sky.
The latest entrant making the biggest waves is Sky Three Residences Club. The sprawling new luxury rental complex in Brighton Beach, just 8 minutes from Coney Island, boasts a saltwater rooftop pool clocking in at a nice 2,600 square feet.
That being said, its developers say this is the largest residential pool in all of Brooklyn.
The 500-unit complex, which spans over 1 million square feet, launched last November and is already more than 30% leased, according to Aaron Polinsky, a principal at Cammeby’s International and Rybak Development, the partnership behind the project.
The property occupies what was once a Trump family-owned site that Cammeby’s purchased in 2004 before redeveloping the West Brighton neighborhood.
Rents run from roughly $3,500 to $4,000 a month for one-bedrooms, $4,000 to $5,000 for two-bedrooms, and $5,000 and above for three-bedrooms — a pricing structure the developer touts as roughly half what comparable luxury product fetches in Gowanus or the Hudson Yards corridor.
“We wanted it to feel and to be viewed as a high-end experience,” Polinsky said.
A shallow shelf built into one lane of the pool is designed for young children, watched over by two lifeguards. The pool sits on the building’s fifth-floor wellness level, with Atlantic Ocean views stretching in one direction and the skyline — from downtown to Midtown to the Verrazano Bridge — in the other.
The amenity suite surrounding the pool spans 100,000 square feet and includes a quarter-mile outdoor running track, a hammam spa, a sauna, a podcast studio, pickleball courts and a full coworking suite, all staffed by a 24-hour concierge.
The Sky Three pool’s record-setting dimensions arrive at a moment when the competition for swimmable square footage across the borough is intensifying rapidly.
In Downtown Brooklyn, the Brook at 567 Fulton St. — the 52-story, 591-unit tower co-developed by Witkoff Group and Apollo Global Management — opened last summer with an outdoor pool on its lower amenity levels, flanked by basketball and pickleball courts, a sky lounge, and more than 30,000 square feet of amenities overall. The resort-style pool measures 37 feet long and 12 feet wide. Hiro Sato, senior vice president of development at Witkoff, said the building was designed with COVID-era lessons in mind — and that the pool has become one of its most animated social spaces.
“The pool has been very well received. It gets great sunlight, and it’s a nice oasis in the middle of Downtown Brooklyn,” Sato told The Post. “We find that residents are out there all throughout the day — some people working, some people swimming, so all different kinds of uses for the outdoor spaces.”
He added that the pool deck has also become a venue for building-wide events, from barbecues to happy hours. Studios at the Brook start at around $4,000 a month, with the building offering a mix of market-rate and affordable units.
Sato said the proliferation of pools across new rental developments reflects a broader amenity arms race that shows no signs of slowing. “Buildings are just becoming more and more amenity-rich, especially in the multifamily space,” he said.
“New buildings are trying to find ways to differentiate themselves, and if the building and the footprint, the surrounding areas, kind of lends itself to a pool — a pool is just a home run.”
Sato noted that the pool has become a visual closer for prospective renters.
“A lot of people who come to the building, they’ve lived in a walkup or a building that’s not highly amenitized. They come to the pool or come to the building on a beautiful sunny day. They see people out there and imagine themselves being out there as well.”
Sato also pointed to a growing class of transplants from other cities — places where pools in residential communities are standard — who now expect the same from New York.
“People have options, especially people who are high-income individuals. The fact that they’re able to live in a place with a pool is a great bonus for sure.”
A renter named Talia, who leases a studio at the Brook and declined to use her full name for privacy, moved from South Carolina in recent years and is accustomed to rental properties that include a community pool.
“It was pretty much a non-negotiable for me,” she told The Post. “And after the brutal winter we had, I can’t imagine not being able to lay poolside most days in the summer.”
Not far away, Brooklyn Tower — the borough’s only supertall skyscraper — features a stunning rooftop pool designed around the historic Dime Savings Bank’s Gustavino dome, housed within a seven-floor Life Time fitness club spanning 100,000 square feet of amenities.
The 93-story building offers both rental and condominium units; rental availabilities currently start at $3,500 a month for studios and reach as high as $13,010 for high-floor three-bedrooms. The pool is a 75-foot lap pool with an adjoining whirlpool.
In Dumbo, the luxury condominium Olympia at 30 Front St. features two outdoor pools, each measuring 58 feet in length, set within a park-like rooftop scape complete with cabanas, outdoor kitchens and private dining areas.
The 33-story tower, developed by Fortis Property Group and designed by Hill West Architects, also offers New York City’s highest private outdoor tennis court and a waterpark-themed playground for children, all within 38,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor amenities spread across three floors. The building completed construction in 2023.
On the Williamsburg waterfront, Naftali Group has made the pool a year-round proposition at its sprawling Williamsburg Wharf complex at Kent Avenue.
The shared amenity across the towers includes a rooftop pool deck that doubles as a seasonal ice-skating rink in winter, alongside an indoor-outdoor fitness center with a yoga studio, a juice bar and landscaped spaces leading directly to the waterfront park.
Rentals at Two and Three Williamsburg Wharf start at $3,170 for studios, $4,071 for one-bedrooms and $6,836 for two-bedrooms.
The Williamsburg Wharf pool is 60 feet wide and was completed in 2025.
Then there is AYRE, the members-only rooftop pool club perched atop the Copper at 626 First Ave. in Murray Hill. Sitting 470 feet above street level, AYRE offers panoramic views, cabanas with towel service, and grilling areas — and access isn’t limited to residents.
Copper residents pay $2,800 annually for membership, while outside members are charged $3,250, with guest passes available for $40 on weekdays and $60 on weekends and holidays. Market-rate units at the Copper currently range from a $4,578 studio to a $12,893 three-bedroom.
Not every luxury building has gone the rooftop route. The Orchard in Long Island City, for instance, offers pool access as part of its amenity package without the elevation premium — reflecting the reality that ground-level and mid-rise pools remain common in outer-borough luxury rentals even as developers push upward.
For renters weighing their options this summer, the calculus is increasingly simple. Would someone choose a building with a rooftop pool over one without, all else being equal?
“I would say we’re seeing that as a huge factor,” Polinsky said. “A huge deal breaker.”
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