Starting in November, AvalonBay Communities is moving its first residents into a new concept community—Kanso Twinbrook in Rockville, Maryland—that aims to provide a luxury residential experience on a largely automated scale, with few physical amenities and no full-time staff on site.
The process of developing the Kanso community brand model started long before the COVID-19 pandemic. “We started with the customer at its heart,” says Karen Hollinger, senior vice president of strategic initiatives for AvalonBay. “Once we understand who our targeted demographic would be, we researched and interviewed sample customers in the area to understand exactly what they wanted in their apartment and what they would be willing to give up. For the technology component, we started interviewing vendors many years ago and explaining our vision. [Then] we worked jointly to create the products and services realized.”
According to Hollinger, the community’s amenity mix is predicated on what residents prioritize in a living experience, with or without COVID-19 restrictions. “Some residents place more value on saving money or having a larger unit,” she says, adding that Kanso Twinbrook exists as an answer to residents looking for this balance in a luxury community. An outdoor lounge and grilling areas are available to residents, and the company plans to compensate for the lack of a gym or a pool with discount partnerships with a number of fitness organizations after COVID-19 concerns have passed.
The company chose the Twinbrook area as a launching point owing to a number of desirable characteristics—close proximity to public transit outside a busy urban area, a large concentration of biomed employment opportunities, and the opportunity to fill in a “missing piece” for multifamily living between older, non-amenitized buildings and newer, highly amenitized buildings.
“For operations, we really started with a blank sheet,” Hollinger says. “If something took labor, we challenged ourselves to ask if ‘it was worth it,’ i.e., would the customer value it sufficiently to increase their rent to staff it accordingly. In a few cases, they lead to decisions that actually increased the upfront hard costs to ‘toughen up’ some surfaces or add energy-saving options, but we are optimistic that this will reduce ongoing maintenance and utility costs. As AvalonBay oversees development, construction, and operations, we can make those trade-offs and realize the benefits over a long-term hold.”
Rents at the community range from $1,310 for a studio to $2,670 and above for a three-bedroom unit. The average one-bedroom unit is more than 800 square feet in size and features 9-foot ceilings, large kitchens, and spacious layouts. High-end and energy-saving finishes include LED lights, quartz countertops, stainless steel appliances, in-unit laundry, hard-surface flooring, and walk-in closets.
Customer service is available entirely virtually through AvalonBay’s call center. Maintenance support is scheduled a few times a week, and a resident can call on emergency maintenance support as needed. Parking services are also automated, including automated guest parking. Wi-fi and IoT connectivity services are handled through Boingo Wireless, which provides end-to-end management and ensures the system can handle the loads associated with working from home, among other resident needs and expectations.
Kanso Twinbrook is also among the first apartment communities to implement the Works With Latch partner program with Latch and Google Nest, which allows AvalonBay to integrate the devices into one program—Latch OS—through which residents can also manage their own Google Nest devices. (Works With Latch has also been implemented at an AvalonBay high-rise property in New York City, and further installations are under consideration.)
With Kanso Twinbrook’s first residents moving in this month, Hollinger’s best gauge of resident experience so far is in pre-leasing feedback. “All indications, including sight-unseen leases, are positive thus far that price can sometimes be considered the best amenity,” she says. “We do spend more time upfront in explaining the brand and setting expectations. We want long-term residents, and not realizing that there is no elevator, as an example, wouldn’t work well for the start of a customer relationship.”
At present there are no public plans to scale the concept. AvalonBay is focused on opening and operating Kanso Twinbrook as a singular concept community and gathering feedback on consumer responses. “We believe that the innovation we’re applying to activate this concept has the potential to be applied at existing and future AvalonBay communities,” Hollinger says, “so we’re excited to see how our innovations at Kanso Twinbrook resonate with our customers.”
