2022 NMHC Top 25 Developers

As chairman of the National Multifamily Housing Council, Trammell Crow Residential CEO Ken Valach is focused on housing affordability.

“Today we’re undersupplied. We’re not building enough housing to keep up with demand, and we have a deficit,” he says. “We need more housing across the board, both single-family and multifamily, as well as more affordable housing.”

Valach isn’t just discussing the challenges, he’s taking action to create attainable housing through Trammell Crow Residential’s Allora brand. And, it’s not the first time the Dallas-based builder and developer has entered the affordable housing space. It got into the low-income housing tax credit business for several years starting in the late 1990s. It also had a focus on workforce housing in the 2000s with bigger unit sizes, in-unit washers and dryers, and a reduced amenity package. Then the Great Recession hit, and the firm didn’t pick the product back up coming out of it.

But that didn’t last long. Valach says in 2017 to 2018, Trammell Crow Residential’s Houston market leader suggested going back to look at the workforce housing developments created before the financial crisis and see what worked and what didn’t to imagine what version 2.0 of this housing could look like.

They then spent 18 months developing what now is the Allora brand to serve working households—teachers, police officers, fire fighters, city workers.

“With Allora, we said, ‘let’s be more intentional to serve this missing market,’” he says.

The Class A market-rate communities are designed for renters who earn between 80% and 120% of the area median income. According to Valach, the firm worked with its architects, engineers, and subcontractors to come up with a simplified building design with efficient and cost-effective construction while still offering an amenity package, large living spaces, and high-grade finishes.

“It’s nicer than what we would typically have been building prior to 2005 in terms of finishes—hard-surface flooring, farmhouse sinks, high-quality cabinets,” he says. “The market reception has been fantastic. If you look at who’s living there through incomes and professions, it’s actually who we targeted for—essential workers who want a quality new community.”

Its third Allora project is up and running with 20 additional communities under construction to meet this need in key markets like Atlanta; Austin, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio; Charlotte and Raleigh, North Carolina; Phoenix; and Tampa, Florida.

Trammell Crow Residential is coming off a strong 2021, moving up eight spaces to No. 5 on the NMHC top 25 developers list as well as 15 spaces to No. 10 on the top 25 builders list.

In addition to the construction of the 20 Allora properties, the firm will start 20 communities in 2022—from single-family build-to-rent to multifamily garden-style, wrap, and podium projects and one high-rise in wide-ranging markets, including Boston, Denver, Florida, Seattle, Southern California, and Washington, D.C.