In spite of a number of curveballs (ongoing COVID-related challenges, inflation and rising interest rates to name a few), we feel that we made solid progress against the goals we established at the beginning of the year.
As we did last year (and in 2020), we wanted to take a moment to outline what we got done over the past twelves and our objectives for 2023.
Investors
Our goals for this year were to:
Close on 4 - 6 great apartment communities across our Generations and Opportunity programs
Increase average per-deal equity amounts in order to better satisfy network demand
Deliver performance in line with or better than our business plans
Although it was a challenging year to find investments that met our Generations investment criteria, we closed four transactions (as we did last year). Two properties were in Washington: Township Lake Meridian in Kent and Clock Tower Village in DuPont. We also purchased another community just outside of Portland, Oregon (Township Sherwood) and entered a new market with our acquisition of Lakeview Commons in Plymouth, MN (just outside of Minneapolis), which also represents our first affordable community.
Our Generations Network has continued to grow and we’re pleased that more than 90% of our investors consistently take their full allocations in each new community we acquire. Having said that, the total equity that we invested was on par with last year so we weren’t able to accommodate many new investors.
While our businesses have evolved in ways we hadn’t anticipated, we delivered against our performance goals and hit our distribution objectives for each of our investments this year.
Residents
Our resident-related 2022 goals were similar to last year’s:
Continue to work with our residents to find solutions that meet the cash flow needs of the community while minimizing the pandemic impact on their families
Implement a first version of resident experience measurement so we can better track the impact of the operations and capital improvement decisions we make
Maintain market-leading occupancy and rents, the ultimate test of the value of the experience we deliver
The vast majority of our residents who’d been impacted by the COVID-related economic downturn were able to get back to work this year and we continue to help many access public COVID-relief funds or establish payment plans.
In the first half of the year, rent growth exceeded plan but has begun to level-out in recent months. Occupancy dropped slightly towards the end of the summer and we’ve worked with our site teams to course-correct.
We implemented a resident experience measurement system on a pilot basis at two of our properties and are now in the process of planning for a full roll-out in the first half of 2023. The results of this work helped point to some areas where we’re doing well and others where we clearly have work to do.
Naturally, the key driver of resident experience is the teams we have on the ground at our properties and we weren’t immune to the staffing challenges that our and many other industries faced this year. Recruiting, developing and retaining exceptional front office and maintenance staff is a top priority for us as we enter the new year.
We expect that delivering a market-leading resident experience will continue to be an ongoing journey for us.
Colleagues
This year we set out to:
Add 2 - 3 critical team members to help us meet the demands of our growing business
Continue to codify and evolve our company values to ensure we’re building the kind of organization where people choose to build a rewarding career
This year we added three new team members:
J.D. Carbone joined Glencrest in January to lead asset management. He spent eight years at FPA, a nationally recognized real estate investment firm, where he held roles in property, construction, asset and portfolio management, due diligence, and acquisitions. Most recently, J.D. was FPA's Western U.S. Portfolio Manager where he was responsible for executing the business plan of more than 50 properties spanning 8,500 units, nine states and multiple investment strategies.
Rachel Larson joined our acquisitions team in July, bringing nearly three decades of multi-family experience to Glencrest. Most recently, she was Vice President of Operations for Prime Residential where she oversaw the Regional Management and Regional Maintenance Management teams across a number of markets including Northern California and the PNW. Additionally, she was instrumental in a number of key strategic initiatives, including transitioning property management in-house and implementing revenue management across the portfolio.
Jeremy Sholler joined in September as our Regional Facilities Manager. He has more than two decades of carpentry, construction and facilities maintenance experience. Prior to Glencrest, Jeremy operated a construction business and ran maintenance for a number of large multifamily properties, including one owned by Glencrest. Earlier in his career he was a structural welder and spent six years doing HAZMAT and structural demolition work - including lead paint and asbestos abatement. Jeremy started his career with five years at KB Home where he built over 100 three- and four-bedroom homes in Solano County, CA.
Additionally, we worked as a team to codify our north star, our “why” in the spirit of Simon Sinek’s popular TED talk:
We create communities that our residents are proud to call home
We also defined our “how” - our company values - to make clear for current and future team members where our priorities lie:
We listen – we seek and honor diverse perspectives and commit to provide an environment where everyone can actively contribute and succeed.
We learn – we’re constantly learning, whether through formal training, guided learning or trial and error. We acknowledge mistakes failures missed opportunities, share what went wrong and work together to prevent them in the future.
We measure – we use a simple goal setting process to establish priorities, ensure they’re properly resourced and measure progress. We reevaluate goals and priorities as circumstances require.
We will revisit each of these over time but feel that our initial versions represent where we’re headed and how we intend to get there.
Community
Our goals for this year were to:
Implement a first version sustainability scorecard for our communities
Measure and report on progress against stated sustainability objectives in existing communities
Deliver on green commitments for properties acquired in ’20 and ‘21
We delivered on our commitments to improve the energy and water efficiency at a number of our properties this year and established a benchmarking process at these properties. We expect to roll out similar systems across the portfolio this year to support our goal of baselining and measuring improvement over time.
We have not yet implemented the sustainability scorecard that we believe will be required to help us assess the impact of our investments and our residents’ actions. The key impediment for us at this early stage revolves around consistently and accurately gathering data across the portfolio. Our thinking continues to evolve on this subject but we remain committed to the goal of measuring and improving our climate footprint.
Looking forward to 2023
We believe that 2023 will be a transitional year in our industry. Volatility in the capital markets may present interesting opportunities - and unique challenges - and we expect to remain nimble as the year unfolds. Our goals for next year are:
Investors
Close on 4 - 6 great apartment communities
Expand our Generations Network by 40% and evolve the process for investment allocation
Deliver performance in line with or better than the industry in each of our markets
Residents
Fully deploy our resident experience measurement system and invest in our staff to improve our metrics across the portfolio
Maintain market-leading occupancy and rents, the ultimate test of the value of the experience we deliver
Colleagues
Add 2 team members to help us meet the demands of our growing business
Invest in the continued development of our team with a personalized learning and development experience
Community
Consistently measure energy and water usage across the portfolio
Develop a first-version of a sustainability scorecard
Deliver on green commitments for properties acquired in and 2021
As with last year, our dominant feeling continues to be gratitude - for the resilience of our industry, for our strong and expanding team and investor base and for the growth we saw this year and the prospect for more in 2023.
All the best,
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