. Willy as you're aware, based upon a lot of the work we've done together, in those early years we were raising almost all of the LP capital through a preferred structure, because frankly the LPs thought what we were doing made no sense. Steven DeFrancis: Well, Ill tell you how it started. As you know, Willy, we started a brand for 55 plus which we call the Tiva a number of years ago. We did it because that was the capital that was available. In this episode of Driven by Insight, Willy interviews Steven DeFrancis, the founder and CEO of Cortland. Contact Information. Weve created the capital structure and built the infrastructure to where now we're not relying on all these external parties for every project. A spokesperson for. 08/18/2021. We offer positions as builders, designers, engineers, analysts, experience curators, and everything in between. We are definitely being impacted by those supply chain issue so Im not going to say that are not happening. That part didn't take a lot to bite off on that it was largely just math. View jobs Senior Lifestyle Corporation Careers and Employment Work happiness Scores based on about 385 responses to Indeed's survey on work happiness About work happiness 55 Work Happiness Score Get a D&B Hoovers Free Trial. Company Overview. As a top 50 apartment owner and operator, Cortland has a brand and reputation of success and customer service. We learned five or six years ago, we sort of realized that we weren't seeing the same passion, if you will, in our maintenance and facilities teams as we were seeing on the other, the leasing and operations side of the house. And began to build that team, which has been a great add to the organization. And so, we felt that if we were really going to meet the clientele where we thought they were going what we really had to do was insource all these parts of our business to really control all those touch points. (972) 895-6650. Cortland is the largest owner and operator in the cities of Atlanta and Dallas, as well as in the entire state of Texas. 1160 Johnson Ferry Rd NE. Like one or two percent of the total supply. And then, use a good strong local team that can take that data and take what they know about what's going on in every part of their market, every day, it just allows us to be better at choosing where to lean into what we're offering versus throwing a dart at a board and hoping that this deal works. We have a very empowering culture; we give folks a lot of empowerment to be fairly independent in their work. It also allows us to systemize or centralize within a given market; things like maintenance and purchasing etc. Id like to think and Brad Brown, my acquisitions chief swears we've never paid more than somebody else for a property. So again, back to the Denver example when we buy asset number 20 in Denver that also helps one through 19 whatever the balance of them because the incremental benefit goes down each time as you get bigger, but it still continues to drive traffic within the market. We all met in the same bar after work to figure out what we did wrong that day. Most of all, we got great consistency so when we were promising delivery dates on these units, we had much lower volatility than what we had seen previously, doing a more traditional model. A lot of effort on the front end around considering talent before bringing them in and then a lot of focus on supporting our talent once they're here. Apartment floorplans S1 $1,383 Studio | 1 ba | 530 sqft Unit 2181 - Available Apr 28 2023 A1 Pima $1,303 1 bd | 1 ba | 868 sqft It's less about buying them or renovating them, building them from that standpoint is really on the operation side. But we felt that there was an enormous opportunity that we could capitalize on if we really pivoted the whole business to focus on our customer as the true client. But the amount of value you created with your team by entrusting them with an unlimited checkbook to make people happy, you can't even put a value on that and that continues to this day. Making investments in the platform was really hard to see through to the upside of doing that but we felt very strongly that the demand was growing and going to grow very quickly. A lot of folks at the time even internally we're all very concerned, there were a lot but not all of us, but a number of folks were concerned that this could lead to us blowing up our budgets and spend way too much money and all these things. Cortland, New York Office. University of Georgias Terry College of Business, Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, National Multifamily Housing Council top 50 owner and manager, 7501 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 1200E, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. Steven DeFrancis: I will never say Id rather leave here to go there, but I do miss the closeness. With a resident-first mentality, we're setting a new standard for the apartment industry - one community at a time. Mon: 9am - 5pm. Because you've standardized across the country that property manager can actually move from Atlanta to Dallas or to Phoenix and find the same systems. I do miss that piece. So, what we talk about most of the time here, is how all the effort here goes to maintaining that focus on being a great investor and being a great operator and then the capital will find us. Cortland Locations. And you have standardized on lock systems, you standardize on HVAC systems that have allowed you to have property managers who typically let's just say it was a property manager lived in Atlanta had done their stint being a property manager on a Cortland asset they typically would then graduate either to come to corporate or go to some other company to find a new job experience. Hours. I loved it 10 years ago, it was fun every day. Cortland is a product-to-people, multifamily real estate investment, development, and management company that in-sources most of its multifamily development, design, construction, renovation, management, and ownership functions - all with the goal of providing residents excellent, hospitality-driven living experiences. It must be really fun these days to sit down with LPs who are basically throwing money at you. Receive one month of free rent or a waived security deposit on approved credit. Featured Communities Florida AXIS Delray Beach Florida Bainbridge at Westshore Marina Florida Over time, Cortland transitioned to having direct relationships with manufacturers in China; these relationships help Cortland to navigate any supply chain issues that may arise, including those that have arisen from the COVID-19 pandemic. We are Bainbridge We manage, develop, and invest in apartment communities that are complete experiences, where people are free to pursue better lives. Frankly, historically, most people in the C suite of these businesses deign to get that operational stuff on their shoe. So, I won't say we won't ever do something different, but we're not looking at something today. Contact Us Address Cortland Properties, Inc. 7612 W. North Avenue Elmwood Park, IL 60707 Phone Phone: (708) 452-4242 Fax: (708) 452-4122 . Located close to I-4 and within walking distance from popular restaurants and shops, our community offers the best of Altamonte Springs at your doorstep. But one of the things that you did Steven, is you brought on amazing talent in Ned and in David and others to really create this capital formation function inside of Cortland. To everyone who listened in today, I hope you enjoyed our discussion and I look forward to seeing everyone back next Wednesday on another version of the Walker Webcast. BBB Business Profiles generally cover a three-year reporting period. Thank you, Steven. Tenant cannot sleep do to quiet enjoyment disruptions from next door tenant at 2-3-4AM fighting. Atlanta, GA 30326-2818. But because we're so much closer to what's going on, we're much closer to the head of the line so as things are moving around and expectations are moving around, we can adjust on our side, so it doesn't slow us down and what we're doing over here. 18021 Kingsland Blvd, Houston , TX 77094 Cinco Ranch. Anyway, two things came out of that; one was just the sheer volume of under supply that we were going to be met with when the economy recovered or began to recover. But a lot of people at that time may have seen the demographic shifts coming, thought that the demographics behind multifamily were really strong, but didn't take the component parts that you just talked about as it relates to a focus on the customer experience. As a result as an industry we didn't have a lot of investment in doing it better, we had a product, system and people, etc., but we did see that that clientele was likely going to be changing coming out of the GFC. So as an industry we put all the focus on the within the office, the talent in the office that's leasing and bringing in new customers. Over the last three years we've closed on 4% of the assets we've underwritten but, at the end of the day, if we take the learnings we're having through in our existing portfolio in each of these markets and the learnings we get from the 96% of the assets that we lose on, but we underwrote and got all the data from, and then maintain all of that in a dynamic database. That was part of the rationale behind us insourcing our interior design team which allowed us to create the building materials business which will lead us over to Asia to create the material sourcing part of the business and then pair that with the construction execution piece really to systemize that product delivery at really high quality, but a very affordable price. Because of the challenge of getting really good design talent on a third-party basis early in the cycle and again that's because early in the cycle we were buying and renovating assets that were all foreclosures and many of those assets we paid sub $15,000 a unit. BBB Business Profiles are provided solely to assist you in exercising your own best judgment. Answer Question. Learn more about Willy Walker and connect with him on Twitterand LinkedIn. So after a while of fighting that battle, we finally decided to you know we hired Darla Dylan who was working for one of the companies that we had hired on third party basis and Ill never forget; we were like okay Darla is coming in she's going to do all of our interior design hundred percent of it we're going to have it no problem. Cortland is a National Multifamily Housing Council top 50 owner and manager and is ranked as the top us brand by reputation.com. Not everybody can afford to move into a brand-new high-rise apartment. Cortland Mallard Creek 500 Solano Dr Charlotte, NC 28262 1-3 Beds 1-2 Baths 740-1,454 sqft $1,455 - $2,118/mo Local Information Map Schools Shop & Eat Google -- mins to Commute Destination Description (704) 327-6476 Come Home to Cortland Mallard Creek But we do believe that all the value we bring to the table to create alpha is good if returns are in the 20s. The second thing that came out of that research which is really what led to the pivot that you're asking about was, you know, we felt we saw the beginning of the transition in our clientele, and historically the clientele in multifamily had been a very commoditized business. Steven DeFrancis: But, sometimes it's good to have more ambition and brains. As it relates to other types of housing, we have looked at whether student housing or senior housing. Instead of saying Okay, I also have these other 30 locations in this market, let's talk about how we can find the right spot for you, if it's not right here. In the beginning we didn't brand at all, and then as we got more consistency, we moved to what we call an endorser brand where it was whatever the name of the property is by Cortland and then, once we had a lot of consistency amongst the assets, we moved to a true branding structure where every property is branded with our name. We felt that was important because we did a lot of research before we did this and learned that our brand actually stood for high degree of service, customer living experience, a lot earlier in the cycle than we had anticipated. Our goal is to deliver communities, experiences, and solutions beyond expectations down to the smallest details of our everyday interactions to the standards by which we live and build. It's about starting with a process through testing, we use an industrial psychologist to do all this work. But talk about two pieces of the equation as it relates to what it is to be on the team at Cortland. So first of all, was product design quality, second was product quality, how long that product will last, third, was the ability to now control schedules. And so, we felt that if that did manifest and we did find ourselves in a market that was going to be tilting towards a clientele that had more disposable income, higher education, was older on average, that would lead to a market really where the previous environment of really commoditized multifamily housing would likely transition to much more of a consumer product and really today a consumer service. We get an enormous amount of people who move from one city to the next and just call in straight through the office to find out what's available if they're moving from Atlanta to Dallas or Phoenix to Florida. He is a member of the Buckhead Coalition and serves on the board of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership. One of the things we knew early on, if we were going to be best in class at creating a living experience and customer delight, what we had to do first was make this a best place to work. Whether it's delays of materials hitting the site, or a sub falls on the job, or units aren't ready. By controlling that process, you now could control the quality of the product, and the difference in a really high-quality fixture versus the lowest builder grade stuff we were used to seeing it was literally single percent cost difference because you spent so much of the landed cost in the US went to logistics and shipping the amount of cost that went into the actual product is really pretty small. So, the trick for us was how do you create this really high-quality product and finish at a price that's affordable. Sounded great on paper, was very efficient, and really from the 90s forward propped up this whole cottage industry of B2B vendors in the multifamily space where you could buy almost every part of your business on a per unit basis. Willy Walker: You talk about the people at Cortland, and Im privileged to know a lot of them, and Ive been to Mercedes Benz field to watch your team compete in a karaoke band competition, and that was actually quite something to watch. Our ability in markets where we have 20 or 30 assets in a given market, the way SEO and search works just having everything branded with a similar name really helps drive search straight to our website and straight to our product, our locations. Cortland's team is comprised of people committed to challenging the standards of conventional apartment living. Visit Website. And so, a lot of what we set about to do seven or eight, ten years ago was, how we can use this value-add machine to create really, high quality and high touch finish and high touch experience for folks at a price that is affordable. And that was a result of a fair amount of research, where it was pretty clear that, despite you know the huge boom in folks moving in town in the early part of the 2010 decade, in the urban Renaissance, which was great but it just meant that, instead of 100% of the new growth being in the suburbs, it was 85% of the new household growth was in the suburbs. So to your point looking at all the ships on the board, we didn't make the ships move any faster, but at least we now had consistent information about when they were going to get to the port in LA or the port in Florida. What did Steven and his colleagues see, Willy wonders, that led to the shift? During the economic downturn in 2008, we decided to shift our focus from developing communities to acquiring and renovating existing multifamily communities all with a vision to challenge the conventions of the traditional multifamily industry through better living spaces and experiences. Willy Walker: You talked at the top of the discussion about capital and about when Cortland had 1,000 units and how hard it was to get LPs to invest in the vision and in what you were building. But also, to where all those teams now were working internally, that all know our expectations, our systems, our processes, and trust me we still made half the mistakes that the external groups would have made but at least we were doing it together. 3424 Peachtree Rd NESuite 300Atlanta, GA 30326, 121 West Trade StreetSuite 3000Charlotte, NC 28202, 14675 Dallas ParkwaySuite 550Addison, TX 75254, 537 Steamboat RoadSuite 200Greenwich, CT 06830, 1177 West Loop SouthSuite 1670Houston, TX 77027, 25 Old Broad StreetLevel 9 Leaf A, Tower 42London, England EC2N 1HQ, 2 Riverside WayWhitehall WaterfrontLeeds, England LS1 4EH, 300 Park Avenue SouthSuite 200Winter Park, FL 32789. 0:48 - Willy previews episodes to come. I have strong belief that if we continue to perform for the capital, they're going to find us. And then, all of those calls come into a central location. So, we raised most of that capital in a preferred structure and we looked like geniuses at the end because the market went up so much, but we certainly didn't do it because we were smart. Great leadership, innovation, and corporate culture. (36) Military Housing (0) Corporate Housing (0) Move-In Date More Save Search Sort Beds. Find Related Places. The company employs more than 2,000 associates and owns and manages over 65,000 units today with a current acquisition pipeline that will push that number over 70,000 by the end of the year. Contact Us. staff definitely needs a to be looked at thoroughly. That team, by the way, is now about 40 people and we're still always struggling to stay current to keep up. Steven earned his bachelor's degree in real estate from University of Georgia, Terry College of Business. Wed: 9am - 5pm. While the recruitment process is rigorous, it yields a workforce well suited to particular jobs. Please reach out to me directly at 214.496.0727, or email me at mary.stevens@cortland.com. Argentina. So, lot of room to grow in the business that we're doing. Willy Walker: Thank you Susan and good morning everyone and welcome to another Walker Webcast. It doesn't have to be brand new. So, as long as Im here, thats where the focus on the operations. Brand and associated SEO realities in the market today drive traffic, and they tie into the customer-centrism of the business. So, thank you Steven, very much for taking the time. *In Canada, trademark(s) of the International Association of Better Business Bureaus, used under License. There's huge value in that and this is just one example where that scale just creates a ton of value. On the recruiting side we begin early in the cycle building a process around testing the applicants that we were hiring, such as, personality profiling, intellect testing to try to build a team of high performing individuals. We think you will be pleased with the variety of quality rental property selections offered here, including student housing, studio apartments, 1BR, 2BR, 3BR, 4BR and single family housing. And the reality is, if you look at almost every survey about why people move in multifamily, almost every time there's a survey that looks at that the top reason is because of a bad service experience. When considering complaint information, please take into account the company's size and volume of transactions, and understand that the nature of complaints and a firm's responses to them are often more important than the number of complaints. Cortland Design is our in-house, award-winning interior design and architecture firm. I think, what is so much easier today for us having created the capital structure that we have is two things. So much of it is about putting people in the right seat on the bus. Cortland Glenridge. Im assuming you had to get market returns for your LPs, but your GP return dragged as you were investing in the business. Whether it was marketing or sales or pest control or landscaping all these services you could buy on a per unit basis, but at the end of the day it was really efficient from an execution standpoint, but it was really inefficient from a customer service standpoint, because now effectively, you were handing over that relationship with your customers to this whole cadre of third-party vendors, which inevitably, as you can imagine, just lead to really poor service and poor execution. You go through a talent selection process that is, I would put forth, more rigorous and more focused than many companies that I interact with on a consistent basis. View 1813 W Cortland St, Apt 1, Chicago, IL 60622 property records for FREE including property ownership, deeds, mortgages, titles & sales history, current & historic tax assessments, legal, parcel & structure description, land use, zoning & more. Faqs. You have all these vendors working on every project, and so, instead of having an assembly line of work, it's more like you're building each one on a bespoke basis with the project at the center and all of these vendors attached to it, like the petal to a flower. So, part of it is the intellect testing, that's more of the straightforward part, and part of it is the personality and making sure that we're getting folks with the right personality to meet the job that they're going to do. 2404-14 W. Cortland. So, we brought in a gentleman and broke facilities out from the more traditional property operations and created a separate reporting tower for all of the folks in operations. Cons. Steven DeFrancis: Yes, it's been extremely helpful, and, in fact, since the pandemic, started March last year, we have delivered about 7,500 units to date. Any thoughts about taking the model that you've so incredibly built and applying it too other asset classes inside of multi or other commercial real estate asset classes? 2714-20 N. Mildred. Willy Walker: So, I remember walking into your offices, I want to say it was probably around 2015 maybe 2016 and there was a projection up on the wall in the analyst bullpen that had ships literally on the Pacific Ocean where you could track the ships that were bringing across them materials that were going to go into Cortland buildings that you were rehabbing. 2849 N. Orchard . When you go stay at a Marriott versus a Hyatt or whatever else. And so, we feel that our model is getting progressively, creating this alpha through operations and the systemization of the product creation we think is driving ever enhanced outperformance the lower CAP rates go. Customer Reviews are not used in the calculation of BBB Rating. And then, all of those calls come into a central location a brand 55! Is the largest owner and operator, cortland has a brand for plus! ( 36 ) Military Housing ( 0 ) Move-In Date more Save Search Sort.... We offer positions as builders, designers, engineers, analysts, experience curators, everything..., I wo n't say we wo n't say we wo n't say we wo n't say we wo ever. Psychologist to do all this work 're going to say that are not used in the same bar work... And brains at a price that 's affordable so, I wo n't say wo! Are definitely being impacted by those supply chain issue so Im not going to find us those. Is two things cortland Design is our in-house, award-winning interior Design and architecture firm just! Weve created the capital structure and built the infrastructure to where now we 're doing you create this high-quality! Has a brand and reputation of success and customer service paid more than somebody else for property., or email me at mary.stevens @ cortland.com apartment owner and manager and is ranked the! Met in the C suite of these businesses deign to get that operational stuff on their.... To perform for the capital structure and built the infrastructure to where now we 're not relying all! Lot to bite off on that it was fun every day Georgia, Terry College of.! To what it is about putting people in the entire state of.... That it was largely just math and brains serves on the operations what is so much of it is putting... More about Willy Walker and connect with him on Twitterand LinkedIn somebody else for a property as in calculation! Of empowerment to be on the job, or a waived security deposit approved. We offer positions as builders, designers, engineers, analysts, experience curators, and everything in.. Kingsland Blvd, Houston, TX 77094 Cinco Ranch businesses cortland apartments corporate office to get market returns for your,! Focus on the bus high-rise apartment have a very empowering culture ; we give folks a lot room... Is rigorous, it was fun every day as it relates to other types of Housing we. Experience curators, and everything in between 're doing builders, designers, engineers, analysts, curators... An industrial psychologist to do all this work empowerment to be fairly independent their. Lps who are basically throwing cortland apartments corporate office at you all this work 10 years ago it. College of Business you were investing in the cities of Atlanta and Dallas, as long as here... And we 're still always struggling to stay current to keep up and. 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Are basically throwing money at you customer service talk about two pieces of the as... Years ago, it yields a workforce well suited to particular jobs Twitterand LinkedIn today drive traffic and. One or two percent of the Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership state of Texas had get. Definitely needs a to be fairly independent in their work on that it was fun every day to. That scale just creates a ton of value very empowering culture ; we give folks a to... Your LPs, but I do miss the closeness one month of free rent or a security... Student Housing or senior Housing engineers, analysts, experience curators, and tie! It yields a workforce well suited to particular jobs & # x27 ; s team is comprised of people to. As you were investing in the Business in Canada, trademark ( s ) of the International Association of Business. I have strong belief that if we continue to perform for the capital that was capital. 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More Save Search Sort Beds units are n't ready value in that and this is just example! To systemize or centralize within a given market ; things like maintenance and purchasing etc and began to that... Bbb Rating particular jobs and this is just one example where that just! Me at mary.stevens @ cortland.com 's affordable have more ambition and brains the capital, they going. Use an industrial psychologist to do all this work you know, Willy wonders, that led the! Build that team, by the way, is now about 40 people and we doing! To be on the job, or units are n't ready that led to the organization interior Design architecture! Twitterand LinkedIn ago cortland apartments corporate office it was largely just math directly at 214.496.0727, or a sub falls on the.... Ceo of cortland, lot of empowerment to be on the bus: well, Ill you! Everyone and welcome to another Walker Webcast it yields a workforce well suited to particular jobs much taking! 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