Multifamily Executive Magazine

SPECIAL REPORT: Cause for Alarm

It was 5:20 a.m. on July 24, 2005, when CEO Bill Donges got the phone call: The Lane Co. condominium project under way in downtown Atlanta's bustling Atlantic Station community was on fire. The news got worse when the four-alarm fire spread to Lane's already-built Art Foundry community nearby.
Locking Up the Deal

When developer Geneva Holdings contacted Mark-Taylor Residential about design services for a new 342-unit apartment project in north Scottsdale, Ariz., Mark-Taylor president Dale Phillips saw an opportunity for more than just a few thousand dollars in consulting fees. Pushing his firm's fee-based...

Fast Lane

A. David Lynd has aggressively pushed his management company onto Multifamily Executive's Top 50 list. With a strong culture and management platform, the company aims to keep picking up third-party contracts.

75 and Counting

When a person turns 75 years old, he has generally hit an age where slowing down–at least a little–has become more of a fact of life than a vacation indulgence. And as much as baby boomers (and, I'm sure, Gen Xers such as myself) want to deny it, such a milestone birthday also marks how the...

Hard Hits

Trammell Crow Residential's property insurance this year cost about 60 percent more than last year–and that's one of the success stories. Companies with portfolios that include properties in places such as Florida and the Gulf Coast (hurricane risk), California (earthquake risk), and central...

Culture Connection

It's often the small details that matter most to renters. Dave Woodward of Laramar Communities discovered just that when one of his San Francisco properties started to see leases drop. The reason: The multicultural resident base was dissatisfied with the property's cable television offering due to...

Glory Days

The glitz and glamour of the 1920s come roaring back to life as soon as you step into the grand lobby of The Carling, an apartment community in Jacksonville, Fla. A sparkling array of fully restored terrazzo floors, marble staircases, grand Palladian windows, and a coffered ceiling recapture the...

Positive Power

"If it's not fun, then why do it?" That philosophy, credited to Ben Cohen of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream, has been a guiding principle for Melissa Levesque Smith, who spent summer vacations from college as a tour guide at the ice cream factory. It's working for her: In March 2006, she was promoted to...

Rockville Redo

After beating out bidders from across the country, Ross Development and Investment and others are helping the city of Rockville, Md., turn its 30-year-old downtown redevelopment failure into a $320 million success.

Golden Idea

At a 2004 meeting, San Jose city officials and consulting attorneys were mulling how to pay for 13 planned developments that would provide 2,000 units of affordable housing. Then Julie Cooper, the city's deputy director of finance, posed a question: Why couldn't the San Jose Redevelopment Agency...

Always Open

On a business trip to Indianapolis in February 2001, Mark Gorman stayed in one of his company's model apartments. Each night, as he finished up work or answered e-mails in the adjacent leasing office, he noticed prospects strolling up to the doors and checking to see if the office was still open.

Larger Than Life

Forget subtlety. If you want your project to get noticed, you've got to think big. Lane Co. sure did. Its condo project in Atlanta isn't even completely built, but the building in mixed-use Atlantic Station already is the talk of the town, thanks to a bold signage and advertising campaign. A huge...

The Post Wilson Building

The historic Post Wilson Building offers Dallas a little slice of Paris. Opened as the Wilson Building in 1904, it features hints of Paris' legendary Grand Opera House, with its Second Empire-style architecture and arched windows. According to the Dallas Historical Society, the building was named...

Table of Contents June 2006