community: celebrating 30 years

Happy Anniversary, Tranquility!

As if running a business during the pandemic hasn’t been enough of a challenge, Tranquility Spa, located at 917 Central Park Avenue in Scarsdale, was hit by Tropical Storm Ida in early September. Deluged with water, which precipitated a three-week shutdown of the spa, Stephanie Hershkowitz (pictured above), general manager and a principal of the business, saw the severe flooding through an optimist’s eyes: “We took the opportunity to redecorate,” she says, “and reopen with an all-new ultra-relaxing environment.”

Now celebrating 30 years in business, Tranquility was founded in 1991 by Hershkowitz’s uncle Dr. Andrew Schwartz, along with her mother Billie Adelson, who had studied to become a licensed esthetician. As the story goes, Schwartz had been frequenting a gym on Central Avenue when he noticed vacant space across the hall. Sensing an opportunity to serve the gym’s clientele, the brother and sister partnered to lease the empty space and launch Tranquility Spa, a modest four-room operation headed by Adelson, offering massages and facials.

The business outgrew the original space, moved to Hartsdale and, again, needed more room to accommodate their growing client base. In November of 2004, Tranquility opened the dual-level spa location they currently occupy in Scarsdale. It is fitted with over a dozen massage rooms, as well as changing rooms and lockers, showers, a luxury lounge area, snack service, and a continuously evolving array of state-of-the-art technologies in the personal care field.

“Our current location is 6,030 square feet,” notes Hershkowitz, “with a reception area of 600 feet. That was just about the entire size of our first location.”

Hershkowitz is well aware of how significantly the spa industry has transformed since Tranquility first opened three decades ago. “Back then, our clients were more into a holistic approach to wellness, seeking massage as a complement to a program of working out and other exercise. Today, it’s very different – the field is much more popular and mainstream, with spa visitors primarily seeking pampering and relaxation beyond purely physical health benefits.”

After the initial shut down from the pandemic, Hershkowitz and her team made the many changes needed to create a safe environment for guests and staff.

“Through it all, people keep coming to us to manage Covid-related stress and for a ‘time out’ and diversion from daily life; in some cases, they are grieving the loss of a loved one,” explains Hershkowitz. “But they are also coming to the spa to celebrate life events, relax together and enjoy some sense of normalcy.”