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What Amenities Will Residents Want After the Pandemic?

July 13, 2020 by The Lawson Knowlton Team

With a strong emphasis on safety and cleanliness, common-area spaces are likely to change. StudioSIX5 Product Design Manager Claire Richards discusses the most important adjustments and what they mean in terms of costs.

Jun302020 By Laura Calugar

As we work through the next stage of the COVID-19 pandemic, the design of the spaces people live in has gained more significance. At the same time, property managers are looking to alter how residents use shared spaces and common-area amenities to ensure safety for all. More attention is given to easy-to-clean surfaces and to respecting social distancing guidelines throughout the community.

Many indoor and outdoor amenity spaces are going through a redesign phase that will enable residents to enjoy them comfortably. StudioSIX5 Product Design Manager Claire Richards has a few predictions about the amenities residents will prefer in the post-pandemic environment.

LISTEN TO: The Transformation of Resident Experience

What basic changes need to be made so residents can safely resume using common-area amenities?

Richards: First, communities will need to evaluate their cleaning procedures for amenities and add additional hygiene options in restrooms and amenities. They will need to come up with creative ways to have community events that adhere to social distancing guidelines as these are a major selling point. They will also need to think about changing around the amenities to create more individualized seating options so multiple residents can enjoy the amenities and still feel comfortable.

If employers will continue to allow residents to work remotely, will demand for communal work-from-home space increase?

Richards: Yes, recent events have accelerated a trend we have seen in the last few years. If so, what will it most likely to look like to accommodate safe social distancing? Developers will likely reallocate amenity space to create more and diverse working options, both interior and in outdoor areas.

Designers will need more specific space planning in order to achieve proper social distancing requirements and, most likely, create less of the traditional large conference or communal type tables/rooms, and instead provide more individual docking stations or spaces for residents. You might also see more dwelling units with built-in work areas or spaces set aside for home offices.

How about the landscape? If more residents will be working from home, they will most probably feel the need to unwind and get a breath of fresh air near their home.

Richards: I think we will see programming in all the outdoor areas to create more pocket areas so that small groups can be separated from each other, yet still enjoy the outdoor amenities safely. There might also be a change in the planning for outdoor communal grills and cooking amenities. It will be vital to incorporate more sanitation that is readily available for everyone throughout these spaces.

Will clubhouses feature smaller, separate rooms instead of open-space floorplans?

Richards: Rather than planning smaller, separate rooms, open spaces would be a better solution, but they will need to be designed in ways that create individual spaces within the open floorplan. Creating more rooms almost creates more space for germs to be spread—more doorknobs, more things to touch, more things to be hidden that don’t get cleaned often. I think the major change will need to be how HVAC systems are planned and how air circulates in spaces.

People will most likely want to avoid close contact with each other for a while. Will this trigger any changes to fitness facilities?

Richards: Fitness amenities will possibly be managed more like professional gyms, with reservation times for working out and cleaning crews to clean after each workout or reservation block. Code changes might need to be made to allow for bottle fillers to replace drinking fountains, and cleaning crews and sanitation will need to be modified.

Community pools, spas and Jacuzzis are also very important elements of the amenity package. But they also encourage gatherings. Will these be replaced with other types of amenities or are they still viable?

Richards: They are still viable and residents might not be willing to give this amenity up. It will be up to the landscape architects and designers to come up with ways to encourage smaller groups, possibly with multiple pool/spa courtyards rather than one large area. It could also be mandatory to drain and refill the areas more often or have different chemicals or sanitary accessories added to the pools to stop the spread of germs.

What about cigar lounges, golf simulators, sitting areas or poker rooms? Will these spaces serve other purposes?

Richards: These areas could possibly be repurposed for newer amenities, but it might be that they are planned differently and have restrictions in place to manage how many residents use them and how often. We have seen a need for greater flexible spaces in open amenities in general, so there might be dedicated areas for these amenities within a larger open area rather than confined to a room.

What type of materials and fabrics do you expect designers to shift to in order to facilitate a smooth cleaning process and a high level of protection against germs?

Richards: We will probably see a move to more bleach-cleanable and antimicrobial materials in textiles, finish materials and paint. It will depend on the project budget, as these products are typically more expensive.

Does this mean that development and operational costs will also increase?

Richards: Development and operational costs will possibly both increase with these changes. More money will probably be spent on janitorial services and equipment. The way events are implemented and managed will need to be thought out. There will also be costs associated for property owners to train staff on how to run the property differently and protect residents from COVID-19. Finishes, fabrics and technology will be more expensive as well, and, overall, the design and research costs will increase.

Walk This Way: Values of Most ‘Walkable’ US Apartment Properties Expected to Weather Supply Wave Better than Others

May 11, 2017 by The Lawson Knowlton Team

By Randyl Drummer

May 10, 2017

Panorama Tower, an 821-unit apartment tower scheduled to open this fall at 1101 Brickell Ave. in Miami’s booming Brickell apartment district, is targeting a “Walker’s Paradise” score of 96.

With the latest supply wave in the U.S. apartment market building to a crest, sales of apartment properties declined a steep 43% in the first quarter of 2017 from a year ago, easily the largest sales volume drop among the major property types.

Average apartment rent growth has also flattened out over the last several quarters, especially in CBDs where developers have piled on new units catering to a relatively small pool of high-end luxury renters. That supply pressure is reflected in the vacancy rates of 4- and 5-Star properties, which has increased year over year, according to data presented last week at CoStar’s State of the U.S. Multifamily Market First-Quarter 2017 Review and Outlook.

For the most part, rent growth and sales volume have cooled off across more than a dozen of the nation’s hottest multifamily markets from the same period a year ago, according to Lee Everett, managing consultant for CoStar Portfolio Strategy, who presented the outlook with CoStar Director of Advisory Services Michael Cohen and apartment research strategist John Affleck.

Despite the large amount of new units added and flat apartment price growth at the top end of the market, especially in gateway markets, overall apartment value growth has managed to hold fast in recent quarters, according to Everett, citing data from the first-quarter 2017 CoStar Commercial Repeat Sale Index.

Apts. with High Walk Scores Stand Out

However, one segment of the high-end urban apartment market continues to stand out. Those in the most walkable locations continue to outperform, based on a CoStar analysis of apartment sales ranked by price per unit.

Apartment buildings with Walk Scores more than 90, denoting a “walker’s paradise” based on an algorithm awarding points for proximity to businesses, parks, theaters, schools and other common destinations, recorded a 16% increase in price paid per unit year-over-year in the first quarter of 2017.

Since 2010, CoStar found per-unit pricing has increased 167% for the most walkable apartment properties.

The scores are generated by Seattle-based Walk Score, which assigns a numerical walkability score to any address in the U.S., Canada and Australia.

“Walkability is the new market reality, be it to a transit station or your actual office,” Everett said. “People are tired of commuting, especially empty nesters who have commuted all their lives. That has pushed a lot of value growth and nodal urban development.”

Panorama Tower, an 83-floor apartment building under construction by Florida East Coast Realty in Miami’s booming Brickell submarket, sports both a Walk Score of 96 and a Transit Score of 92. The tower, connected to retail, medical office space and a hotel, will be the tallest residential building on the eastern seaboard south of New York City when it opens this fall.

While the past several years of increasing rents and lack of affordability may cause the value growth to slow down even in high walk-score properties, Everett expects their sale prices to pick up where it left off after the supply pipeline thins out a bit.

“As a renter by choice, I can tell you that walkability was a deciding factor for me, given that my apartment is 2 1/2 blocks from the office,” commented Everett’s CoStar colleague, Michael Cohen.

Colorado has more people on the move than any other state – The Denver Post

April 21, 2016 by The Lawson Knowlton Team

About one in 10 Colorado households who filed a tax return in 2014 had moved across county lines or relocated from another state, according to IRS counts.

Source: Colorado has more people on the move than any other state – The Denver Post

Moving vans and cars with license plates from other states are everywhere, and that isn’t a fluke. Colorado is full of people on the move.

More than one in 10 Colorado households that filed a tax return in 2014 lived in another county or state the year before. That’s more than in any other state.

Nationally, 6.4 percent of 2014 tax returns listed an address in a different county or state the year before, according to tax return data from the Internal Revenue Service.

If Colorado is a migration destination, then Denver serves as its Ellis Island, claiming nearly one in five of the households making a major move within or to the state.

“Denver is a gateway. People know the name Denver. They don’t know the name Aurora,” state demographer Elizabeth Garner said.

Among other highlights gleaned from the returns:

• The entire metro area, including Boulder, claimed nearly two-thirds of households moving to or relocating across county lines within Colorado.

• About 54 percent of people on the move were Colorado residents who crossed county lines, while 46 percent were out-of-staters.

• Former Californians filed the most Colorado tax returns, followed by people from Texas, Florida, Illinois and Arizona.

• Migration is an ebb and flow. Texas was the top destination for those leaving Colorado, followed by California, Florida, Arizona and Washington.

• After netting things out, Illinois lost the most households to Colorado, followed by California and New York, according to the tax returns.

Meeting in the middle

Jeff and Lauren Griffith had lived the California dream, first in Los Angeles, where they went to college, and then in a San Diego condo, where they moved after their first child, Luke, arrived. A second child, Emma, set them on the hunt for more room.

“We wanted a house with a swing set in the backyard and a garden, and we weren’t going to be able to afford that in San Diego,” said Lauren, 37, who grew up north of Chicago.

Around Christmas in 2014, they moved to Erie, where they rented a house with a yard for less than what their San Diego condo cost.

“If we could have made it work, we would have,” Lauren said. “It was hard, really hard.”

Their migration story goes beyond a search for more affordable real estate. Lauren’s brother Graham Haas moved to Colorado from Illinois in 1999, drawn by his love of skiing. He fell in love and settled down in Erie with his wife, Mandy, and their kids.

Mike Haas, Lauren Griffith , Luke Griffith, Sandy Haas, Emma Griffith and Jeff Griffith near the Griffith home on April 6, 2016 in Erie, Colorado. The Griffiths moved to Colorado from San Diego, to get closer to Lauren’s brother and parents, Sandy and Mike Haas, in the winter of 2014. (Brent Lewis, The Denver Post)

Lauren and Graham’s parents, Sandy and Michael Haas, lived their whole lives near Chicago, as had three generations of the family before them. But the chance to watch their grandchildren grow up persuaded Sandy and Michael to make the move to Erie in summer 2012.

“We really never thought we would leave after generations and generations in Illinois,” said Sandy, who lived in Antioch, Ill., a village surrounded by lakes 50 miles north of Chicago.

“We didn’t hesitate,” she said.

After a century in the same area, Erie was where one branch of the Haas family of Antioch, Ill., chose to reassemble itself.

Millennial magnet

As a group, households that moved to Colorado were smaller and had lower average adjusted gross income per return — $52,340 — than those who stay put — $76,481 per return.

The reason: Young adults are more migratory than other age groups, and because they are just starting their careers, they earn less.

“This age group moves a lot, especially 18- to 29-year-olds, and they move for all sorts of reasons,” said Jeffrey Arnett, a research professor in the psychology department at Clark University in Massachusetts.

Millennials are waiting longer than previous generations to start careers, get married and settle down, said Arnett, who studies “emerging” adults. With fewer ties, they are freer to move.

Emma Griffith, 3, smiles at her mother, Lauren while they play a game with her brother Luke 7, in the backyard while having a snack at their home on April 13, 2016 in Erie, Colorado. The Griffiths moved from San Diego, California to Colorado late 2014 to be closer to Lauren’s brother and her parents, who relocated from Chicago. (Brent Lewis, The Denver Post)

Arnett was a consultant on the Mayflower Mover Insights study, which tried to peel back what is important to young adults when it comes to relocating.

Denver ranked third among the cities that Mayflower’s millennial customers moved to last year after Dallas and Chicago. Other popular destinations for young adults were Seattle; Atlanta; Los Angeles; Portland, Ore.; Charlotte, N.C.; and Washington, D.C.

Nearly half of the 18- to 35-year-olds that Mayflower surveyed said they would move either to be near a romantic partner or to find one. Love was second only to work as a draw. And nearly 60 percent cited a preference for living in a city center or inner suburb. More than half said good restaurants are a must.

Millennials like to live in areas where other millennials are flocking, and they use social media to share their experiences, which has helped create migration magnets, Arnett said.

“It takes on a certain momentum of its own,” he said. “Once a lot of them are going to a city like Denver, it does gain a self-perpetua ting quality.”

Arnett admits he doesn’t fully understand the appeal of Denver compared with places like Boston and San Francisco. Ten or 20 years ago, young adults didn’t list Denver as an exciting place to live — and now they do.

Migration patterns

Migrants to Colorado show wide variations in their income depending on where they come from. Transplants from New Hampshire and the District of Columbia, while fewer in number, earn $116,571 and $112,427, which is the highest adjusted gross incomes of any group migrating to Colorado.

At the other end of the scale are transplants from Nevada, who make $25,042 in adjusted gross income, less than half the average for all migrants moving into Colorado. The predominance of lower-paying jobs in hospitality and food service in Nevada might explain some of the gap, said Garner, the state demographer. Other states whose migrants have the lowest income included Maine, Mississippi, Vermont and South Dakota.

Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors, said that high living costs in California’s Bay Area and Silicon Valley are pushing workers to other metros like Denver, and they are bringing a higher earning potential with them.

Although 2015 tax returns aren’t available, estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau show the migration wave into Colorado has only accelerated. One question about all the newcomers is: How long will they stay put?

Sandy Haas said although she and her husband miss family and longtime friends, they have no regrets about moving to Erie and won’t be returning to Illinois.

Calls on Skype and holiday visits can’t compare to ferrying their grandchildren to practices and watching them grow up, she said. And views of the snowy mountains help when she feels nostalgic about the lakes she left behind.

Longish winters aside, Lauren Griffith said she and her family also don’t regret the move to family-friend Erie. They plan to buy a house with a driveway facing south, not north.

Then there are the rainbows. Until he moved to Colorado, 7-year-old Luke had seen only one rainbow, Griffith said. Last summer, he counted 40.

Aldo Svaldi: 303-954-1410, asvaldi@denverpost.com or @aldosvaldi

Denver home price gains are steep, but not a bubble, economist says – The Denver Post

April 21, 2016 by The Lawson Knowlton Team

The median price of a home sold in Denver is up 26 percent the past two years, the fastest pace of any major metro, according to the National Association

Source: Denver home price gains are steep, but not a bubble, economist says – The Denver Post

Metro Denver is heading into another peak home-selling season with empty shelves and rising prices, but don’t be too quick to use the “B” word — bubble.

“Denver is in a good spot. It is a strong market,” said Lawrence Yun, chief economist with the National Association of Realtors, during a visit to Denver on Wednesday.

The median price of a home sold in metro Denver reached $353,600 at the end of 2015, up from $310,200 in 2014 and $280,600 at the end of 2013, according to the NAR.

Over a two-year period, median home prices in Denver-Aurora are up 26 percent. That’s the eighth-fastest pace among more than 176 cities tracked by the NAR, the fastest of any major metro area, and nearly double the U.S. average two-year gain as measured by the association.

Historically, home prices over the long term rise at the pace of inflation plus 1 or 2 percentage points, and Denver’s off-the-chart acceleration has raised fears of a bubble.

But Yun notes that some key ingredients needed to create a bubble are missing.

Easy credit was a driver in the excesses last decade, creating artificial demand that resulted in an excess supply of homes.

Credit remains so tight now that many potential buyers can’t qualify for a mortgage, either because their credit scores are too low or they lack an adequate down payment.

Another driver of the last bubble was excess construction, and multiple signals show that not enough homes are being built. The chief signal is the lack of homes available for sale.

Metro Denver’s inventory of homes available for sale could quadruple and still would be around the historical average. There were only 3,963 active listings at the end of February, down dramatically from the 30-year average for that month of nearly 15,000, according to the Denver Metro Association of Realtors.

It would take a sevenfold increase to bring listings to the levels seen in the last bubble, when builders were willing to go gangbusters.

And yet, builders are pulling single-family permits only at a pace to match historical averages, despite a strong influx of people relocating to the region.

A shortage of construction labor, lack of close-in and affordable land to build on, and conservative construction financing are holding builders back, Yun said.

Another reason the for-sale supply remains tight is that many foreclosed properties after the housing crisis were snapped up at discounts and converted to rentals.

One way to boost the inventory of homes for sale would be for those rentals to come back onto the market. But with interest rates so low, investors are hard-pressed to find alternatives that can earn a comparable yield.

And as long as prices keep rising, investors don’t have an incentive to let go, Yun said. If prices start to level off or go the other way, then more of those homes might end up as listings.

Uptown shrine and proposed tower site sold – BusinessDen

April 5, 2016 by The Lawson Knowlton Team

A turn-of-the-century Uptown temple and adjacent parking lot that once caught the eye of Donald Trump has traded hands

Source: Uptown shrine and proposed tower site sold – BusinessDen

A Virginia-based firm led by attorney Robert Lubin bought the El Jebel Shrine at 1770 Sherman St. last week for $12.375 million, city records show. The 110-year-old building comes with a surface lot at least three developers have eyed for 50-story skyscrapers in the last 15 years.

The shrine and parking lot, both bought by Lubin’s DMPT, LP, cover 0.68 acres. The building sits at the corner of 18^th Avenue and Sherman Street. It totals 36,000 square feet and was built in 1906.

The parking lot totals 17,213 square feet of asphalt. In 2003, that site was approved for a 650-foot-tall skyscraper as part of a deal where a developer would use proceeds from that commercial tower to pay for upkeep on the historic shrine building.

Lubin declined to comment on his plan for the property when reached by phone on Monday.

The Shriners built the Sherman Street temple between 1906 and 1907. At the time, it was the largest Shriner mosque in the country, according to the National Park Service, and the construction budget came in at $190,000.

According to Park Service documents, the building caught fire in March 1924. The Shriners then sold the building to the Scottish Rite Masons that same year. They used the sale proceeds plus $53,000 worth of insurance money to build a new mosque at 50^th Avenue and Vrain Street. That property was recently sold.

An interior shot of the ballroom. Courtesy Historic Denver, Inc.

But the property’s last 15 years might be just as interesting as its first 20.

Martin Wohnlich and Wes Becker bought the temple and the adjacent parking lot for $3.9 million in 2000. According to media reports, Wohnlich and Becker announced plans for a 51-story building on the temple’s parking lot.

Their idea was to use revenue from the skyscraper to preserve the temple, which then would be rented out as a for-profit event space.

Wohnlich and Becker also shopped the development proposal around to other real estate firms. A group led by Donald Trump and New York-based Bayrock Group looked at the property in the mid-2000s, and put itunder contract for $22 million, according to a Colorado Real Estate Journal report.

After that deal fell through, Denver-based firm Barrons Development took a run at the site with plans to build a 54-story tower, the Rocky Mountain News reported in 2006. Barrons was unable to close that deal by a November 2006 deadline, the paper reported.

Today the temple is an event space. The parking lot still sits undeveloped. Wohnlich declined to comment on the sale when reached by phone on Monday, referring any questions to the property’s new owner.

CBRE brokers Martin Roth, Eric Roth and Hadley Cox represented the sellers in the deal.

Lubin has yet to take on a major development project in Denver. He did announce plans to build a new $140 million hotel and casino in Gulfport, Mississippi, earlier this year, according to local media reports.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported a Lubin-headed group also bought an office building in 2014 with plans to turn it into a hotel. The article pegged that project at about $31 million.

If he builds every single foot of height allowed under the deal Wohnlich and Becker struck 13 years ago, Lubin could develop Denver’s tallest skyscraper. The 2003 zoning amendment provides for a 650-foot-tall building with a 65-foot skyscraper.

Republic Plaza stands 714 feet high. 1801 California is 709 feet tall and the Wells Fargo Center, a block from Lubin’s site, is just shy of 700 feet.

But the site’s new owners still will have to maintain the historic temple building, according to a document recorded last week and signed by Lubin that references the 2003 agreement.

Any modifications to the El Jebel temple will require approval from Historic Denver, the local preservation group. That group holds easements on both the exterior and the interior of the building.

Historic Denver Executive Director Annie Levinsky said the exterior easement is a standard protection Historic Denver holds on 60 or so protected properties around town. The interior easement, however, is a different story.

“That is especially rare. It’s the only interior easement we have,” Levinsky said. “It was conveyed at the same time as the exterior easement, because this building’s interior is particularly spectacular.”

Micro-apartments planned for small downtown parcel – BusinessDen

February 26, 2016 by The Lawson Knowlton Team

The site of a downtown day care center could soon grow up

Source: BusinessDen Micro-apartments planned for small downtown parcel – BusinessDen

Urban Villages, along with Jeff Hermanson of Larimer Associates, has a contract to buy a small lot just across from the Webb Building for $2.5 million in a deal slated to close in December. They’re planning to build micro-apartments, a new restaurant space and small micro-restaurant stalls to try new concepts.

The project was referred to as a $60 million development at a Feb. 22 Denver City Council meeting, where the sale was approved by a 10-1 vote. The property is a single triangular parcel bounded by 14^th Street, Colfax Avenue and Court Place. It covers 0.24 acres.

Hermanson said at a Feb. 16 council meeting that it’s a tight spot and will present several development challenges. Plans call for only a few car-share parking spots.

“Our project will embrace public transportation, car share, Uber and bikes,” Hermanson said during the Feb. 16 meeting. “In fact, we’re talking about calling it ‘Bike Hotel.’”

The purchase agreement requires the buyers to submit a conceptual plan for the development by the time the deal closes. Larimer Associates said in a statement that it plans to complete the development by summer 2018.

Right now there is an 8,400-square-foot building on the site. That building will come down to make way for the new development.

Denver Warm Welcome Court Childcare operates out of the building. It’s a day care service that watches over kids while their parents handle court business. That could mean as little as a one-hour drop-in visit for a parole meeting or all-day child care for a parent with jury duty.

An onsite manager said Warm Welcome sees between 2,300 and 3,000 kids in a year, but did not know where the center will be relocated.

Larimer Associates is best-known for owning and managing Larimer Square. The company also worked on Hangar 2 in Lowry and Union Station downtown. Urban Villages’ portfolio includes the Sugar Cube building downtown and the Vita Flats apartments in Speer.