Since its founding in 2005 Cortland has expanded into a global, vertically integrated, multifamily real estate investment, development, and asset management company. It's going to be a real kick for me to have Dr. Kotter on the webcast as he was my leadership Professor back at HBS in 1994 which is dating both Dr. Kotter as well as myself. What did Steven and his colleagues see, Willy wonders, that led to the shift? After having done over 60 Walker webcasts all remote, it will be super fun to sit down with my guest one on one and have an engaging, interactive discussion. The first is the way you select talent. As it drug on and we got into the middle of 2009 and we had been playing defense for two years, at that point, we decided to do a pretty significant research project to try to, the goal was to try to determine where the market was going. By progressively cutting out middlemen, standardization became easier and costs lower. You just raised your fifth closed end fund. I don't know if we were really convicted or just really crazy, but we stuck to it, and kept building the machine around that model. 270 S Watters Rd. Team Members. He is also a member of the Real Estate Roundtable, the Urban Land Institute, and the National Multifamily Housing Council. Our Offices +1 (888) 525-8488 cortland@cortlandcompany.com USA Anacortes, WA 1012 Second Street Anacortes WA 98221 +1 (360) 293-8488 USA Houston, TX 10633 West Airport Blvd Ste 300 Stafford TX 77477 +1 (832) 833-8000 EU The Netherlands Galvanistraat 115 6716 AE Ede The Netherlands +31 682 101 602 Website. Sandy Springs , GA 30342. Through local inspiration and research, this team strategically composes resident-centric communities and intentionally creates spaces for an elevated experience. We will get back with you shortly. There were a lot of nights where I thought maybe theyre right. However, BBB does not verify the accuracy of information provided by third parties, and does not guarantee the accuracy of any information in Business Profiles. What you just talked through Steven was how you had this longer-term focus and continued to plow money back into creating the team and insourcing a lot of those activities that you could have bought from third party vendors at a much cheaper cost to the GP but at the same time, you had this long-term vision of creating the Cortland that you've actually created. He has looked at other product types within housing, and his main aim in each market is to achieve the desired asset base and scale. 10 free leads on us . How could you grow the business in a way that you wouldn't fall victim of growing too fast and then, while also maintaining that ability to really be best in class from a customer experience standpoint? 4:42 - What led Cortland to shift? Fri: 9am - 5pm. So, a lot of the system and work we're doing around is preventative maintenance and systemizing all of that process to keep that stuff from happening. Willy Walker: Well, as I said at the top of our discussion, the partnership between W&D and Cortland has been a big part of our success over the last decade and Im deeply appreciative of it and Im also appreciative of you taking the time to join me today and talk about how you've made Cortland the success that it is today. Senior Lifestyle Corporation 55 2.8 Write a review Snapshot Why Join Us 558 Reviews 143 Jobs 1.4K Salaries 104 Q&A Interviews 14 Photos Want to work here? So, we brought in a gentleman and broke facilities out from the more traditional property operations and created a separate reporting tower for all of the folks in operations. Willy Walker: So, in hindsight, and now that you've got huge scale and a big brand and incredibly successful that all makes perfect sense. Links. Cortland Design is our in-house, award-winning interior design and architecture firm. Because all of us can sit there and say airlines want to make the flying experience better but guess what they have a really tough time making the economics work to make the flying experience for all of us that much better, and so they don't make it materially better. That took tons of friction out of the process of getting the projects done and executed, but then, even more importantly, when you moved operations, as long as you take care of the people, they'll take care of your customers. Headquartered in Atlanta,we own and manage apartment communities across the US with regional offices in Charlotte, Dallas, Denver, Greenwich, Houston, and Orlando. There are 10,000 things that can go wrong, and again they will, and so what we felt strongly was to systemize that process to allow us to be able to have a lot of throughput. Browse jobs and read about the Cortland Dallas location with content posted anonymously by Cortland employees in Dallas, TX. Steven earned his bachelor's degree in real estate from University of Georgia, Terry College of Business. Willy Walker: And in most of your markets Steven, you are a top five owner. I find it to be very interesting because a lot of people who get in the acquisition rehab space, who raise money from third parties, they focus on their returns to their investors, and then there is also their own returns and they end up putting a lot of money into their own back pocket in those early days rather than reinvesting in the company. The other piece is just in SEO and online through branding as I mentioned earlier. Willy Walker: So, your brand, your customer experience, and your cost of renovation, are all competitive advantages that allow Cortland to pay higher for an asset, lower your cost of rehab and then be able to make up for it in the rents, you can charge, because the combination of lower cost on the rehab and then also the brand on the rents allows you to have a unique competitive positioning as it relates to acquisitions. In a market like Dallas or Atlanta or any of the markets were in, we don't need to be top one or five, but we'd like to have line of site to 4000 or 5000 plus units because it allows us to first, invest in better top notch human capital, because we have the scale to support it. We could have never done that if we had done each of those with a host of external vendor relationships as opposed to a team internally that worked on everything. But the reality was they were going to demand a lot more from a level of service and experience that we had been used to providing in the multifamily industry. Contact Us Address Cortland Properties, Inc. 7612 W. North Avenue Elmwood Park, IL 60707 Phone Phone: (708) 452-4242 Fax: (708) 452-4122 . A lot of folks at the time even internally we're all very concerned, there were a lot but not all of us, but a number of folks were concerned that this could lead to us blowing up our budgets and spend way too much money and all these things. This is an overview of the Cortland Dallas campus or office location. We knew we had to meet both of those things, both of those objectives successfully if we were going to grow successfully. Cortland Westshore 6207 S West Shore Blvd, Tampa, FL 33616 Visit Cortland Westshore website Apartment floorplans Aft $1,863 - $1,975 Studio | 1 ba | 593 sqft 2 units - Available now Angler $2,025 - $2,100 1 bd | 1 ba | 672 sqft 3 units - Available Mar 14 2023 Beam $2,105 - $2,160 1 bd | 1 ba | 726 sqft 3 units - Available now Beacon $2,110 - $2,335 As a leader in the multifamily industry, we create resident-centric, hospitality-driven living spaces and experiences across the US. Copyright 2017-2020 Walker & Dunlop, Inc. Office (0) Den (0) Yard (6) Clubhouse (32) Business Center (32) Controlled Access (32) Playground (0) And so, we felt that if we were really going to meet the clientele where we thought they were going what we really had to do was insource all these parts of our business to really control all those touch points. On the latest Walker Webcast, CEO Steven DeFrancis joined us to discuss his strategic approach to systemization, his focus on building a stellar team, and his approach to growth. Don't get too excited about AUM, it's more important that we're delivering that service every day, and obviously I know it takes both but Im trying to get at a little bit of what's the focus? Id like to think and Brad Brown, my acquisitions chief swears we've never paid more than somebody else for a property. To your point you made systemizing appliances and plumbing fixtures and all these things so you get as much customization as possible, which makes nothing will make the service teams job easier is when things don't break. Get a great Cortland, NY rental on Apartments.com! Because of the challenge of getting really good design talent on a third-party basis early in the cycle and again that's because early in the cycle we were buying and renovating assets that were all foreclosures and many of those assets we paid sub $15,000 a unit. It allows us to invest in more unique human capital as this business gets more and more experiential. Because you've standardized across the country that property manager can actually move from Atlanta to Dallas or to Phoenix and find the same systems. (36) Military Housing (0) Corporate Housing (0) Move-In Date More Save Search Sort Beds. We all had one agenda. But a lot of people at that time may have seen the demographic shifts coming, thought that the demographics behind multifamily were really strong, but didn't take the component parts that you just talked about as it relates to a focus on the customer experience. Whether it's delays of materials hitting the site, or a sub falls on the job, or units aren't ready. Willy as you're aware, based upon a lot of the work we've done together, in those early years we were raising almost all of the LP capital through a preferred structure, because frankly the LPs thought what we were doing made no sense. As a matter of policy, BBB does not endorse any product, service or business. 35:11 - Willy asks about the move to being vertically integrated. Because it gives us less volatility on the outcome of the return. A focus on stripping out costs to be vertically integrated to allow you to scale from 5,000 units up to today over 65,000 units. Cortland is the largest owner and operator in the cities of Atlanta and Dallas, as well as in the entire state of Texas. Cortland South Mountain 7017 S Priest Dr, Tempe, AZ 85283 Visit Cortland South Mountain website ( 1) Special offer! 10:19 - What about the companys change led to insourcing? So, Cortland decided to provide consistently high-quality living spaces at affordable costs. Right now, as the pandemic has been waning, it is a very competitive market. Im gonna start the second piece and then go to the fit and finish piece. Most of all, we got great consistency so when we were promising delivery dates on these units, we had much lower volatility than what we had seen previously, doing a more traditional model. Steven DeFrancis is the founder and CEO of Cortland. Five years ago, I knew every single person who worked here and could walk up and have a conversation and whatnot and knew them. It tends to grow on itself so once you start with a small nucleus of really high-quality people, they attract higher quality people who want to work with them. We recently, by example rolled out a concept we call the Leasing Hub, which is instead of having leasing agents in every property who are fielding calls, inquiries from new customers, we centralize those folks. - 8/28/2019 Hey Hannah! At least we were all one team. And then, in the middle of September Im going to do my first live Walker Webcast interviewing with Eric Resnick CEO of KSL Partners to discuss the hospitality and leisure industries as KSL owns lots of hotels, resorts, and ski areas. Cortland has processes in place to provide a high level of standardization across its business; this allows, for instance, residents to count on a certain standard of fit and finish across properties, and property managers to easily transfer between locations. Our Services Affordable Senior Housing From apartments designed for independent living, to housing for seniors transitioning out of nursing homes, to cottages for the memory-impaired and their caregivers, our housing enables seniors to live, and age, where they choose. Willy Walker: It makes two of us, it makes two of us. Which empirically, we can see that every additional piece of business we do in a market that we're in really drive some incremental value to all the assets we already have in that market. We are looking at other product types within housing. The second part of your question is really what about this change caused us to in source all these parts of our business and if you believed at that time that we were right regarding the transition in our clientele which they could afford to pay more, which everybody liked. It's about starting with a process through testing, we use an industrial psychologist to do all this work. So, thank you Steven, very much for taking the time. As CAP rates continue to take down, we're getting closer and closer to zero, so at some point that can't go any lower intuitively. As a top 50 apartment owner and operator, Cortland has a brand and reputation of success and customer service. The Business Office Manager oversees the Accounting and Human Resources functions as well as handles recruitment, retention, new hire orientation, benefits administration, payroll, and general. 22:17 - Steven comments on Cortlands approach to brand and recruitment. Again, we were trying to figure out how to build this machine to create really high-quality product, very affordable price, very little volatility in the delivery schedule, etc. Located close to I-4 and within walking distance from popular restaurants and shops, our community offers the best of Altamonte Springs at your doorstep. Find contact information for Cortland. (855) 231-0937. Houston, Texas Office. However, Steven hasnt considered expanding beyond housing. Monthly Rent. Therere expectations from our consumer and our customers that are more and more unique, so we need more specialized human capital. What was the impact, going to be from the meltdown of a single-family mortgage crisis? Atlanta, GA 30326-2818. We're moving now into sensors and putting sensors in the equipment, so we can start to get proactive messaging when things are going to fail, instead of waiting until they fail. Before I introduce Steven and dive into our discussion, I want to thank Mike Altman, David Dixon, Brad Brown, Ned Stiker and the other members of the Cortland team for all they have done to make Cortland the amazing company and partner it is. We did it because that was the capital that was available. Your submission was successful. University of Georgias Terry College of Business, Atlanta Neighborhood Development Partnership, National Multifamily Housing Council top 50 owner and manager, 7501 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 1200E, Bethesda, Maryland 20814. But there are few who've been able to create the capital formation capabilities that you have at Cortland. BBB is here to help. 1160 Johnson Ferry Rd NE. The market today is as white hot as we've ever seen it Steven you know that very well. At Cortland, you'll feel empowered to define your career path, take on new challenges, and make a difference. The second thing that came out of that research which is really what led to the pivot that you're asking about was, you know, we felt we saw the beginning of the transition in our clientele, and historically the clientele in multifamily had been a very commoditized business. Cortland was founded in 2005 with a focus on multifamily development in Atlanta. And then on the broader question any thoughts about taking the model and expanding it out? We learned five or six years ago, we sort of realized that we weren't seeing the same passion, if you will, in our maintenance and facilities teams as we were seeing on the other, the leasing and operations side of the house. Pay Online. We sort of felt like we had to assume the market would recover, because if that didn't happen, we had a much bigger problem. It's just not something people want to deal with, but it's necessary. The company employs more than 2,000 associates; it also owns and manages over 65,000 units, with a pipeline that will push this number to over 70,000 by the end of the year. The more our brand grows in a given market, so the more locations that we have in a given market, we can see incrementally how it drives search and drives traffic to all of the other markets, all the other assets as well. Cortland Build is a global, concept-to-completion construction delivery firm specializing in multifamily new build, commercial construction (amenities), and renovation. We offer positions as builders, designers, engineers, analysts, experience curators, and everything in between. Cons. When you're trying to hire, it's a war for good talent out there, and you really want to hire best in class folks. You have to set up the infrastructure and the culture of being an associate first organization if you're ever going to be best in class in customer service or customer experience. Nearby Apartments. As you sit there and think about the next 10 years, what's more important to you; continuing to build on the capital formation side or continue to stick at, it's day-to-day operations and the blocking and tackling that actually brings the capital? You can then attract higher quality folks. Cortland Corporate Headquarters and Office Locations. So to your point looking at all the ships on the board, we didn't make the ships move any faster, but at least we now had consistent information about when they were going to get to the port in LA or the port in Florida. . Get a D&B Hoovers Free Trial. Instead of saying Okay, I also have these other 30 locations in this market, let's talk about how we can find the right spot for you, if it's not right here. So, having built the capital infrastructure to get capital that we then have control over at the same time of building the execution infrastructure to perform for that capital. Answer Question. Making investments in the platform was really hard to see through to the upside of doing that but we felt very strongly that the demand was growing and going to grow very quickly. More > Healthcare & Supportive Services You've also standardized a lot as it relates to the if you will fit and finish of a Cortland property. So, clay and a wonderful gentleman on his team named Walter Hudson got on a plane and flew to China to find our missing cabinets and counters at the time. In general, I always feel appreciated, I always feel I can speak my mind, and I always feel like I am growing. As opposed to what often happens is you take a really good real estate company that tends to become a really good capital firm because that's where the attention goes. Historically in our business, groups would generally try to outsource as much of the business as possible. And so, it's a wildly competitive marketplace right now and you're seeing CAP rates continue to chink down and chink down. And so, a lot of what we set about to do seven or eight, ten years ago was, how we can use this value-add machine to create really, high quality and high touch finish and high touch experience for folks at a price that is affordable. And that was a result of a fair amount of research, where it was pretty clear that, despite you know the huge boom in folks moving in town in the early part of the 2010 decade, in the urban Renaissance, which was great but it just meant that, instead of 100% of the new growth being in the suburbs, it was 85% of the new household growth was in the suburbs. This office is the major Cortland Dallas, TX area location. Visit Website. Within 50 Miles of Cortland 5550. They're better in the teens, they're really, really good when they hit single digit returns, because the alpha we're creating is somewhat consistent regardless. Cortland Estates at TPC 22800 Bulverde Rd San Antonio, TX 78261 (210) 871-8382 Check Availability Quick View Arlington Apartments on Clarendon 1550 N Clarendon Blvd Arlington, VA 22209 (202) 410-6988 Check Availability Quick View Cortland Seven Meadows 6800 Gaston Rd Katy, TX 77494 Package Service Outdoor Space Onsite Management So, we decided let's do this research and figure out where the markets going and that our significantly downsize point at that time, how might Cortland participate in whatever this recovery might look like? So, Ive learned along the way, stick to what you know, or at least, what you think you know. But it definitely has paid a lot of dividends in transfers within the system. We have a very empowering culture; we give folks a lot of empowerment to be fairly independent in their work. Work really well for a few jobs and then all of a sudden, the stuff was delivering more and more slowly and then that guy disappeared. Cortland developed an associate-first culture, which is needed for excellence in customer service. But we felt that there was an enormous opportunity that we could capitalize on if we really pivoted the whole business to focus on our customer as the true client. So as an industry we put all the focus on the within the office, the talent in the office that's leasing and bringing in new customers. It doesn't mean the right personality profile to work here or not work here, more typically it's the person that's going to be an interior design probably has a different set of personality profile than the person who's going to be an accountant in reporting. Hopefully, he won't be too critical of my leadership style during our discussion in a couple weeks. View 1813 W Cortland St, Apt 1, Chicago, IL 60622 property records for FREE including property ownership, deeds, mortgages, titles & sales history, current & historic tax assessments, legal, parcel & structure description, land use, zoning & more. Those learnings really were helpful because there were times over the last 10 years where we would have 10 or 15 pretty major development or renovation projects and these renovations where 20, 30, 40 thousand dollars a unit. 0:48 - Willy previews episodes to come. Looking for furniture for your home office? Whether it was marketing or sales or pest control or landscaping all these services you could buy on a per unit basis, but at the end of the day it was really efficient from an execution standpoint, but it was really inefficient from a customer service standpoint, because now effectively, you were handing over that relationship with your customers to this whole cadre of third-party vendors, which inevitably, as you can imagine, just lead to really poor service and poor execution. BBB Business Profiles may not be reproduced for sales or promotional purposes. So, it was a combination of having product on hand, rushing product into manufacturer soon as the plants reopened in Asia. We felt then if that was the case, then the next piece was how could you build a system or a machine that could create a lot of throughput? I continue to receive emails and texts about my discussion with James Kerr author of Legacy from two weeks ago. So, we got a great price, we got great product, we got great finish. Need to find a different location? Willy Walker: And is that, given the supply chain issues going on today are those relationships and controlling that process a competitive advantage right now at this time in the cycle, given the pandemic and how backed up supply chains are?