One recent morning Erik Harrison, a vice president of the Patrinely Group, stopped by 535W43, a rental complex nearing completion that his company is developing with the USAA Real Estate Company between 10th and 11th Avenues in Manhattan. But it wasn’t the 280 units in the two 14-story brick towers designed by CetraRuddy that were on his mind.

It was the bike rooms, one in each of the towers, located not in a shadowy basement but right on the ground level, with big windows letting in abundant light.

“We’re going to have a table where people can fix their bikes, and maybe we’ll hold workshops,” Mr. Harrison said, surveying the south tower’s 850-square-foot bike space as cyclists seen through the windows zipped by toward the Hudson River Greenway. “We’ll fit as many bike racks as we can.”

Driven by demand as well as a city mandate, developers and building owners are carving out bike rooms for residents to store what for some has become their transportation mode of choice.