Products
Every product we bring to market has been designed to achieve an uncommon balance of design and value. To put it another way, all of our products are designed to offer more for less, which is a sure fire way to attract and retain renters.
To us, product development is an ongoing process. We never stop trying to improve our designs. It’s not a matter of messing with success, it’s about building on success. We regularly visit and study other apartment communities in and outside our region to see what’s working and what’s not. That includes unit designs, community centers, site planning, color schemes, materials, landscaping, anything that can give us a competitive edge.
Before we begin working on a new community, we take a long, hard, brutally-honest look at past projects. If we can’t find something that we can improve upon, we’re not working hard enough. It’s a process that involves the entire team, from design and construction to management and marketing.
Product architecture is directed by Donald J. Burke, AIA, (architect of record for more than 25,000 multifamily units – please, see his bio for more information). Don has been with us since 2004 and has worked side-by-side with us to create some of the most efficient multifamily designs in the industry. Don’s designs have now been built into the thousands. For projects requiring densities of more than 30 units per acre, we also use the talents of outside architects Humphreys and Partners, who specialize in higher density designs.
Each community site is unique with its own design guidelines and standards. With our proven design team we are able to quickly modify product designs to meet all design standards and architectural styles in any location as quickly as possible.
Once we determine an overall design, we involve our architect, partners, subcontractors, product manufacturers and construction field personnel to get their input. By including everyone from the very beginning, we’re able to glean invaluable insight and get recommendations for the best materials and most efficient methods.
Since the introduction of our first high-efficiency apartment design in 1998, we have concentrated on providing a higher level of consumer demands, minimizing sound transmission between units, and introducing sustainable and environmentally-friendly designs.
In 2007, the design team began refining our product even further in anticipation of a dramatic new code change (introduced in January 2008). The updated line consists of an attached-garage product and a detached-garaged product. Both offer the highest net rentable percentage we have ever achieved by taking maximum advantage of opportunities allowed in the newly-enacted International Building Code. The enhanced product line achieves up to an astounding 96.5% efficiency. It is the first time we have ever been able to achieve such efficiency.
