Conference Coverage

ATLANTA — Apartment management is a people-intensive industry that requires dedicated team members at multiple levels. Finding talented and driven individuals is priority No. 1 for multifamily operators. But seasoned executives are the first to admit that hiring is difficult in an expanding economy where recent graduates have multiple career paths at their choosing. Property management firms are recruiting prospects who are working in outside industries, which has been a reliable tactic. “We’ve had to go out and look at hospitality, restaurants and other industries that complement multifamily to find talent,” said Chris Burns, senior vice president of Lincoln Property Co. During the operators panel at the InterFace Multifamily Southeast conference held on Tuesday, Nov. 28 at the Westin Buckhead in Atlanta, Burns and his fellow panelists discussed the opportunities and challenges facing the industry today. The eighth annual conference drew 402 professionals. The panel agreed that finding talent was difficult, but that retaining and training that talent is just as big a challenge. “Retaining talent is just like leasing — it’s important to get a lease but it’s more important to get a renewal,” said Greg Mark, senior vice president of operations at Pinnacle, a national multifamily property management …

ATLANTA — The amenities arms race is still in full swing. During the architecture and design panel at the eighth annual InterFace Multifamily Southeast conference held on Tuesday, Nov. 28 at the Westin Buckhead in Atlanta, industry experts discussed how they design today’s multifamily projects with large-scale, luxury amenities in mind. The conference drew 402 multifamily professionals. “There’s so much competition in this space and amenities are really the differentiating factor for all these projects,” said Brad Lutz, director of business development for Dallas-based Humphreys & Partners Architects. “With this shift from homeownership to renting, you have to provide something that’s going to not only attract renters, but retain them long-term.” Joining Lutz on the panel was JoAnn McInnis, vice president of client services and business development at Virginia-based Carlyn & Co. Interiors + Design; B.J. Laterveer, director of the multifamily housing studio at Alpharetta, Georgia-based Wakefield Beasley & Associates; and Les Juneau, president of Atlanta-based Juneau Construction Co. Cannon Reynolds, managing director of architecture for Atlanta-based Niles Bolton Associates, moderated the panel. Both millennials and empty nesters are driving demand for apartment space as they continue to forego homeownership. The U.S. homeownership rate was 63.9 percent in the third quarter of …

ATLANTA — Strong fundamentals have propelled the U.S. multifamily market forward in 2017 and leave it poised for a healthy 2018, but good deals are harder to come by in today’s market for investors, according to panelists at the eighth annual InterFace Multifamily Southeast. The average cap rate for the multifamily sector in the third quarter registered at 4.3 percent, 12 basis points lower than the same period in 2016, and 15 basis points lower than 2015, according to JLL. “Of the 22,000 units that we are going to close this year — mostly A-minus to B assets — the average cap rate is 4.8 percent, across roughly 45 different transactions,” said James Kane, senior vice president of asset management at Starwood Capital Group’s Atlanta office. “This is in top markets like Atlanta, Charlotte, Dallas, Houston, D.C., Denver, etc. — the suburban cornucopia of markets across the U.S.” “With cap rate compression and the rise in interest rates since the Trump election, it’s made it increasingly hard for us to find yield in spaces we are comfortable with,” added Colin Gillis, vice president of acquisitions for the Southeast at Irvine, Calif.-based Passco Cos. LLC. Although spreads are tightening as a whole, …