June 2006 Table of Contents

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. Read more

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 management business, Phillips believed that if Geneva wanted to launch an apartment property in his core market, Mark-Taylor should manage it. Read more

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. Read more

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 timeline of one's life has changed. No longer does the future extend in front of us with an endless stretch of years. We have realized that there is an endpoint, however unknowable it may be, making our 75th year a time of reflection as well as celebration. Read more

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 business districts (terrorism threats) are getting hammered with increases of from 50 percent to 400 percent for certain layers of property insurance. Read more

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 its lack of access to international stations. Fortunately, the complaint was an easy fix for Laramar, which promptly upgraded to a digital system. Read more

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 building's past splendor as one of the finest hotels in the Southeast. Read more

"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 senior vice president of internal operations at Fogelman Management Group. Smith, who has a bachelor's in business and economics from Randolph-Macon College, says being happy at work–where people spend most of their waking hours–is the key to success. Read more

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. Read more

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 issue tax-exempt bonds, instead of the traditional taxable ones, to borrow the funds needed to lend to the developers? It was one of those eureka moments. Read more

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. Read more

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 site wrap surrounds not only the entire construction site of this 323-unit building (called element) but also the 3,800-square-foot sales trailer. Featured are larger-than-life portraits of various characters, from a handsome businessman in a suit to a biker with a tattoo, along with the slogan: Are you in your element? Read more

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 after J.B. Wilson, owner of the Dallas Consolidated Electric Street Railway Co. Read more