At Gran Central, quality of life is built into everyday living. The Vitality Hub brings fitness, medical care, and recovery services close to home, making it easier to invest in your health and well-being.
In designing Gran Central, we held one thing sacred: Quality of Life. That’s part of Conservatorio’s DNA because we live in the neighborhood we develop.
Gran Central’s scale allowed us to think big about the question: “How can a place contribute to resident’s living longer and healthier lives?” This concept of “healthspan”—living longer and healthier—captivated us.
The answer came back to us in two ways. The first was that being in a walkable historic district, with a farmer’s market right in front and a vibrant community all around lends itself to the principles that anchor longevity in the world’s “Blue Zones.” If you haven’t read about them, you can get a start here. Science will eventually tell us if the theory is right, but our common sense tells us that walking to your daily needs, having fresh produce across the street and being an a place where its easy to meet people can’t be bad.
The second thing we realized is that the easier it is for people to take care of their bodies, the more they will do it. That thought became the Vitality Hub at Gran Central: a collection of anchor tenants who provide medical, fitness, longevity and recovery services. When working out with a professional trainer, or getting a massage, check-up or red light therapy is as easy as walking downstairs, the reasons not to are fewer. Adding to that the fact that these services are a fraction of the cost in the US, with further discounts for Gran Central owners and residents, means you will consume more of them and, hopefully, be better for it.
Let’s introduce you to our partners one-by-one.
Vitae Health: Taking the Friction Out of Healthcare in Panama
In our experience, people moving to Panama often cite healthcare as one of their reasons, but seldom do they actually invest time in building their network of providers until something happens. Then, suddenly, they scramble for recommendations, crowdsourcing health to strangers in a WhatsApp or Facebook group with no more than anecdotes between them.
We have seen this situation play out with our retired neighbors many times over the years and we wanted something better at Gran Central, so we turned to Vitae Health to take the friction and guesswork out of interacting with the Panamanian medical system.
Day one, before any emergency happens, Vitae digitizes your health records and assigns you a bilingual medical concierge. If you have conditions that need specialists, they will find them for you and process your insurance papers. They give you 24/7 telehealth for minor things, and if something major happens, you already have your quarterback in place. Their office on site at Gran Central means you can go downstairs for your blood work and your medicines will be delivered to you. And, if for any reason you ever need in-home medical services, Vitae’s origins as Panama’s premier in-home medical provider means that you are in good hands. They even have a digital platform that will allow your loved ones at home to monitor your treatments, should you ever want that.
The cost of Vitae’s medical concierge service is currently less than $300 per year, with a significant discount for Gran Central owners and residents.
Panama Anti-Aging Clinic
State-of-the-art antiaging treatments are not for everyone. But more and more people who want them are discovering just how advanced Panama is. We brought the Panama Anti-Aging Clinic to Gran Central so that those treatments would be easily available for our residents.
The clinic starts with measurement. Before anything else, they establish your biological age and back it with a real diagnostic battery: body composition on the InBody 770, aerobic capacity on the VO2 Master, an epigenetic panel, an Oligoscan for minerals and heavy metals. From there you go as far as you want to go. Hormone replacement that is consulted and managed over time rather than prescribed and forgotten. IV therapy, including NAD+ and vitamin C. Ozone, PRP, red light, continuous glucose monitoring, and the aesthetic side of things if that interests you. For a full list, see their catalog. Note that their catalog of services is extensive, and some will only be available in their main center in downtown Panama City.
Casa Thai
The part of longevity nobody puts in a brochure is recovery. You can have your biomarkers read and your hormones dialed in and still lose your sixties to a back that won't let you walk to the market. So the fourth piece of the ecosystem is the least technological one, and the one residents will probably use most.
Casa Thai is already a Casco institution, and we are bringing it into Gran Central rather than inventing a hotel spa. What they do is traditional Thai bodywork — rhythmic pressure, passive stretching, assisted poses somewhere between a massage and a yoga class — which restores range of motion rather than just making you feel pampered for an hour. At Gran Central they'll occupy 200 to 300 square meters, with treatment rooms alongside a full thermal suite: dry and wet saunas, steam, and hydrotherapy.
The Gym at Gran Central
Most buildings in Gran Central have an in-house gym amenity, but we know that there is something about a true gym that makes it a community hub, so we are building a 331 m² boutique gym open to all residents. With a dedicated personal training area and consultation rooms, The Gym is designed to attract not only residents, but also some of Panama’s best personal trainers and nutritionists.
The End Result: Frictionless Wellness
The core idea behind the Vitality Hub at Gran Central is to make health and wellness frictionless. Staying fit, getting check ups and taking care of yourself should not be stressful. It should be a frictionless part of your daily routine.