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‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: Playing the ‘Community Living’ Card
People…. Planet…. Profit… Sounds like a recipe for real estate success. In a recent “letter to the editor,” a reader introduced us to Su Casa Properties and its Urban Village concept which looks for synergies between people, planet and profit as it rides an important multifamily trend: creating community among residents. The Urban Village concept is now operating in Arizona and Utah. We visited the website designed to introduce investors to Su Casa Properties and also saw mention of Four Cornerstones of Green Restructuring with a full spectrum of over 50 green solutions that are selectively applied based upon each…
‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: From Brewery to Apartments
Like other abandoned manufacturing facilities, the historic Schmidt Brewery in St. Paul, MN caught the attention of the multifamily sector as a candidate for redevelopment. The 1900 building—which has been described as resembling a castle on Germany’s Rhine River—was designed by In 2002, after the property had changed hands several times, the last beer was bottled. The 15-acre site remained vacant since 2004. Apartment development and management company Dominium has had its eye on the property for years. Now, Dominium has the green light to transform the historic brewery into the Schmidt Artist Lofts, a $95 million rehab project that…
‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: A Green Conversation Starter for the Leasing Office’
As you’ll hear again if you read my Editor’s Note in the November issue of MHN (click here to subscribe), I think the USGBC’s GreenBuild conference and expo is an important event to attend. Skip a year every so often, and take turns attending, because new technologies take a while to evolve. But multifamily companies of all sizes would do well to get there every couple of years to stay abreast of new trends before they hit the mainstream. Have the team member(s) who attend the show present their most compelling products and conference take-aways during an in-house lunch and…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: President’s Address to Congress Really Helps the Apartment Industry
The president presented his proposals to Congress last evening highlighting both the opportunity to make changes in job growth and the potential derision by the republicans. Despite a lot of wrangling over who is to blame or what sort of spending or stimulus would be effective, the president is offering a plan that is very similar to his previous shovel ready proposition, suggesting that the country can build its way out of this economic morass. The plan fundamentally offers support to manufacturing, construction and municipal spending, all areas important in the apartment industry. While it may be too early to know if this will in fact pass, the mood…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Summer Heat Melts Job Report for August
There are a number of reasons why I’m neither surprised nor particularly concerned about the jobs report. At the risk of sounding either bullish or bearish, I like to point out to people the rational difference between managing apartments based on news headlines and the long-term trends that matter in multifamily. Frequently I’m called upon to help decipher the different news releases and help to bring some semblance of order to the different reports on producer price indices, the consumer price index and gross domestic product, not to mention the ever popular monthly jobs report, also known as the establishment survey among the data congnoscenti. Those of us…
‘Editor’s Notebook’ with Diana Mosher: The Highline is Another Reason to Join MHN in New York September 19
My second job after college was a writing gig in a behemoth building on West 15th Street in the Meatpacking District. Unfortunately this was before the redevelopment wave that later transformed the area into a hipster’s haven. And by the time the Meatpacking District redevelopment started to happen I had moved on to another job in a more vibrant part of Manhattan. When it did arrive, the urban infill process began slowly: a gallery here, a designer clothing store there, then a boutique hotel and some restaurants to establish the necessary nightlife scene. And, not too long after that—or maybe…
‘The Accidental Economist’ with Jack Kern: Kocherlakota’s Revenge
I have to admit, despite years of trying to quit, I am an addict. I have been unable to stop being a Fed Watcher ever since those heady days when Alan “they call me Mr. Glib” Greenspan had the job. Now in the latest development, one participant of a group of three that didn’t want to keep the Fed funds rate close to zero has announced he won’t oppose it again, essentially since the decision is now firmly established Fed policy. Now to be honest, as multifamily industry veterans, this is probably better news than you’d think. While some compare…
‘On the Ground’ with Eric Brown: Apartment Communities are Natural Curators
Apartment communities are in an excellent position to add immense value for their residents and prospects by becoming expert curators of all things hyper local. Not sure if everyone knows what “Content Curation” means, or what we are referring to, so here is a quick definition: “The practice of Content Curation is a gathering of information (sorting, categorizing, directing, and presenting) such that material from multiple sources creates a unique editorial experience for readers/visitors.” It seems that apartment communities would be natural curators. Curation is about adding value from humans who add their qualitative judgment to whatever is being gathered…
‘Foong on Finance’ with Keat Foong: Fears of a Double Dip
Nouriel Roubini, “Dr. Doom” who predicted the 2008 crash, is reported to have now tweeted that the next dip will be “uglier than ugly … off the scale bad.” Would the apartment sector, which just saw a strong turnaround in occupancies beginning last year, have to say goodbye to its good fortunes? So soon? Someone commented in a blog that investors know economics, and hence it was not surprising that the stock market plunged, not rose, immediately after President Obama signed the bill that would cut federal spending by $2.4 trillion. There seems to be the notion that the federal…
‘On the Ground’ with Eric Brown: Treat Your Blog Like a Content Command Center
As apartment marketers start to trek down the content marketing pathway, they should treat their blogs as command central. However, you can write the best article in the world, but if no one reads it, or worse, can’t find it, your overall marketing strategy will suffer. There is a multitude of ways to distribute your message and get folks reading your content. Quality content does not make a blog successful. Variety, promotion and connectivity make it successful. Goodbye bare minimum blogging! You need to have a variety of media—podcasts, video, guest posts and slideshare presentations. At The Urbane Way, we…