The Lease-Up

Multi-Housing News

The Lease-Up is a multi-series podcast channel by Multi-Housing News that explores issues and trends within the multifamily housing industry. Find out more at our website: www.multihousingnews.com.

  1. Sep 9

    Top Marketers: When Development Marketing Starts Before the Building

    Great development marketing starts long before a project has a name, a logo or even an architect. Increasingly, marketers are involved at the earliest stages of development, helping developers understand market demand, evaluate sites and make decisions about everything from unit mix to the overall resident experience. This episode of Multi-Housing News’ Top Marketers podcast explores how marketing can shape development strategy from the ground up—and how a deeper understanding of the market can help determine what ultimately gets built. Joining us are Sarah Patton and Dan Parker, co-heads of Compass Development Marketing Group in New York. With more than 18 years of experience in new development, Patton brings an owner’s perspective to projects, working across pre-development, design, architecture, marketing, sales and leasing while keeping an eye on the financial bottom line. Parker, who co-heads the group’s new development business, is involved in every phase of the development process. He works closely with architects, designers, creative agencies and public relations strategists to assemble multidisciplinary teams and help each project establish its own identity and appeal to New York’s increasingly sophisticated pool of buyers. The conversation looks at how that expertise can shape the physical product, from unit mix and apartment sizes to amenity programming and design. Patton and Parker discuss how developers can distinguish between lasting shifts in renter and buyer preferences and trends that may quickly lose their appeal—and why understanding the audience should come before deciding what to build. Key topics include bringing marketing into the process before site selection, using market intelligence to shape development strategy, optimizing unit mix and amenities, balancing trends with long-term appeal, building brands that resonate with buyers and renters, influencing neighborhood evolution and fostering stronger collaboration among developers, architects and marketing teams. From the Ground Up: Marketing Before the Building (0:00) Unit Mix, Amenities and the Trend Trap (7:32) Changing a Neighborhood One Building at a Time (14:59) One Team: Rentals Meets Sales (18:30) Community, Privacy and the Next Decade (23:46)

    Top Marketers: When Development Marketing Starts Before the Building
  2. Aug 12

    Top Marketers: Multifamily Branding That Evolves With Resident Expectations

    Strong multifamily branding isn't built through campaigns alone. In today's apartment industry, long-term success depends on understanding changing renter expectations, listening to resident feedback and delivering a consistent brand experience across every touchpoint—from digital interactions to everyday life inside the community. This episode of Multi-Housing News' Top Marketers podcast explores how a hospitality-driven multifamily brand scales its marketing and communications while preserving a consistent voice and resident-first culture across expanding markets. Joining us is Ashley Cerasaro, executive vice president of Communications at AVE, the hospitality-inspired apartment brand from Korman Communities, a fifth-generation family-owned real estate company. Today, AVE's portfolio spans more than 6,000 apartments across 20-plus communities nationwide. Over the past 14 years, Cerasaro has helped shape the company's multifamily brand strategy, overseeing public relations, resident communications, online reputation management, social media, corporate messaging and brand positioning. Most recently, she played a leading role in AVE's national brand evolution and redesigned digital platform, initiatives that reflect the company's rapid expansion and the growing demand for flexible apartment living. She also helped develop AVE's resident survey program, which has contributed to the company's industry-leading resident satisfaction rankings for four consecutive years. Key topics include maintaining brand integrity across many touchpoints, aligning communications with on-site operations through training and cultural leadership, using resident feedback and survey data to shape amenities and messaging, redesigning a digital platform to support seamless search and adopting AI for efficiency and faster insights without losing authenticity. From Journalism to "The Voice of Ave" (1:18)Shift from Persuasion to Trust (6:34)Service is the New Marketing (13:12)Listening That Changed Design (18:57)AI vs. Authenticity (20:35)

    Top Marketers: Multifamily Branding That Evolves With Resident Expectations
  3. Jul 20

    Student Housing Unlocked: The P3 Case for Campus Modernization

    Across the country, colleges and universities are rethinking how they deliver and finance student housing for today’s students. Aging residence halls, shifting enrollment patterns and rising expectations for the on-campus experience are prompting more institutions to turn to public-private partnerships to modernize housing while managing capital constraints. Gilbane Development Co. has been one of the firms most active in this space, with several projects illustrating how P3s are supporting large-scale campus transformations. Earlier this year, the company secured Western Kentucky University Board of Regents' approval for Elevate WKU, a $350 million project designed to redevelop the university’s residential footprint, with the first phase including a new 1,000-bed living and dining facility. The firm also started work on another multi-phase P3 with the University of Rhode Island, where the company will add more than 1,100 beds to the institution’s flagship campus in Kingston, R.I. That activity reflects a broader shift in student housing. In this episode of Student Housing Unlocked, Senior Associate Editor Olivia Bunescu is joined by Geoff Eisenacher, executive development director at Gilbane Development Co., to discuss why campus housing is no longer just about adding beds. Instead, Eisenacher describes a sector shaped by new expectations for the college experience, with projects increasingly combining housing with dining, parking, infrastructure and mixed-use components. Here’s what they discussed: How is student housing faring today? (01:34)The residential campus experience keeps demand resilient (05:38)Gilbane’s roots in student housing and its current strategy (07:36)Reading enrollment shifts and selecting university markets (09:18)Why colleges are considering P3s (12:39)Elevate WKU and the rise of whole-campus housing strategies (15:37)Balancing university control with private capital (17:43)On-campus P3s vs off-campus purpose-built student housing (20:12)More beds, better beds or a different housing mix? (23:46)Right-sizing amenities around affordability and flexibility (27:42)The next phase of student housing (30:20)

    Student Housing Unlocked: The P3 Case for Campus Modernization

Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
4 Ratings

About

The Lease-Up is a multi-series podcast channel by Multi-Housing News that explores issues and trends within the multifamily housing industry. Find out more at our website: www.multihousingnews.com.

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