Mid-Year Webinar Key Takeaways

HPA’s Mid-Year Webinar in 3-Minutes

If you’re like many worker bees, carving out an hour of your busy day for a little bit of honey can be a challenge. Alas, no need to beat yourself up over the fact that you missed our Mid-Year Webinar because we’ll give you the rundown here. Furthermore, you may have caught it, but would like the Cliff Notes version for a reference.

Greg Willett Delivers the Multifamily Bill of Health

The intro of the mid-year webinar by Greg Willett, Chief Economist at Realpage, was truly a State of the Union Address. Greg provided some very tasty tidbits regarding nationwide multifamily development for Q2 of 2017. Currently there are 178K new units in the top 100 U.S. metros — That’s the highest surge since the early 1980’s. Plus, occupancy rates remain in great shape at 96.2%

The U.S. West Coast takes the lead as rent growth leaders in the major metro markets with Sacramento, Seattle, and Riverside-San Bernardino as top three. Fort Worth earns fourth place in major fast-growing metro economies. Secondary metro markets gave a big thumbs-up to Reno, Colorado Springs, and Palm Bay-Melbourne, FL. For one thing, the overall fundamentals of the apartment sector performance remains great. For example, a somewhat more competitive leasing environment has emerged for top-end product, especially in urban cores. To learn more about multifamily metrics, research and analytics, visit:  axiometrics and mpfresearch.

Jason Piering Talks Finance

Jason Piering of Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), a commercial real estate service located in Dallas, TX, discussed creative options for corporations and investors to save money, increase productivity and improve sustainability. JLL offers financing of multifamily housing, both for new construction (HUD 221(d)4) and existing product (HUD 223(f), Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac). Jason also shared additional capital sources for multifamily financing, including banks, equity/subordinate capital, bridge/interim, and CMBS.

Our CEO Mark Humphreys Weighs In

Mark Humphreys, CEO of Humphreys & Partners Architects, said the geographical areas of growth his company is currently engaged at are northern and southern California, Texas, Florida, New Jersey, and the Philadelphia area. He went on to disclose our favorite part of his presentation, which were interior trends. He said, as a whole, most of his projects are leaning towards a “hotel-feeling” as it relates to interiors.

The other amenities he discussed are trends notably with a hospitality flavor as well. When asked what the number one amenity of all-time is, he said it is the rooftop terrace and/or sky lounge.

Mr. Humphreys unveiled other hot interior amenities for 2017 such a package lockers with email notification, cloud-based thermostat control, and smart/keyless entry. He also noted since many people have pets, a very popular way to acquire more leases are the addition of pet spas in multifamily communities.

Other shared amenities that are gaining popularity are the chef’s kitchen and vertical greens. When it comes to unit pleasures, upgraded kitchens with eco-friendly glass recycled countertops and gas cooktops are super hot items. Outside the community, those that are located within transit-friendly areas and are walkable to acquire goods and services continue to be in high demand.

President Greg Faulkner Goes On Record For Student Housing

Greg Faulkner, President of Humphreys & Partners Architects discussed numerous student housing projects that are currently underway in several states across the U.S. One thing to note is, he said sites are getting smaller and buildings are getting more vertical.

With many of the renderings he displayed, this fact was evident. Equally important, like apartment growth, student housing is also trending upwards with a 3% growth in rent and a 90% occupancy rate. This is great news for the market since student housing project require a bit of patience. There’s about a 3-year turnaround on getting these projects up and running due to the challenge of smaller acreage, skilled construction crews that specialize in light steel, and of course, administrative regulations.

Studio Director Daniel Gehman Adapts Well to Modular Building and Construction

Daniel Gehman, Studio Director of Humphreys & Partners Architects’ Newport Beach office discussed updates on his team’s West Coast projects. He explained the differences between California building codes vs. other states.

To point out, among many Los Angeles design shifts, Daniel covered a very pioneering concept —  the modular building trend in California. “Modular buildings offer a host of efficiencies such as predictability, speed, sustainability, and affordability,” Daniel said. Case in point is his project in San Jose, The Domain, which is a groundbreaking 444 units using modular construction.

Chelsea Dora-Shibley Talks Prime Time Projects

Chelsea Dora-Shibley, Vice President of Interior Design at HPA Design Group selected some recently completed projects to discuss key aspects of their design. She highlighted her team’s formula to delineate themselves from the competition. “HPA Design Group pursues the creation of a local design aesthetic while utilizing our knowledge network to observe trends across the country. We then apply these principles to a project’s locale to attract the ideal end-user demographic. Our expertise lies in multifamily, we are leaders in hospitality, and are passionate about renovations and the value they bring to an existing property.”

To emphasize this, Chelsea unveiled her team’s recently completed projects and commented on their key achievements:

South 400, which is a luxury multifamily community, located in an up-and-coming neighborhood just outside of downtown Ft. Worth. “We really connected the idea of indoor meets outdoor in a flow that highlights the community amenities. A fabulous sky deck opens this coming fall, affording panoramic views of downtown, and a cave area connects the clubhouse to the pool.”

The Douglas, a high-rise community in Downtown Wichita, KS. “The Douglas is a unique project we are proud to be a part of. It is a two-part historic renovation; half of the architecture dates back to 1911, and the other half in 1915. Combined with new construction components that forms the sky-deck and rooftop pool overlooking downtown Wichita.”

The Pointe on 30A, a seaside resort in Rosemary Beach, FL. “The Pointe is a project that is very near and dear to our hearts here at HPAD and HPA. We loved working with the hospitality aspects of this project and the utilization of our in-house purchasing services. In the process, we built up many strong national vendor relationships and as a result, this will pave the way for future hospitality projects.”

Mid-Year Webinar 2017

To sum it all up, given the many aspects of the multifamily industry — from analytics, financing and trends, to construction innovations and interior design — all is well. Significantly, it was a unique opportunity to have had these great minds together to create this webinar. In conclusion, it’s very exciting to see what’s next on the horizon for multifamily design. To get all the multifamily developer insight that was discussed at this webinar, download it in its entirety HERE.