In 1997 at the ripe age of 25, David Adelman took the reins of Campus Apartments. The Philadelphia native was ready. He had learned everything he knew about the real estate business grassroots from his mentor Alan Horwitz, Campus’ founder.
As a student in high school and college, Adelman worked at Campus and then started full time in 1994 before assuming the role of CEO. At the time, when Adelman attended real estate conferences, he noticed that people would talk about office buildings, retail, and multifamily, but no one spoke about student housing.
At a Glance
Company: Campus Apartments
Title: CEO
Age: 53
Family: Wife and two daughters.
Favorite quote: “There is no elevator to success. We must all take the stairs.”
Leadership philosophy: Hire really smart people and trust them.
Proudest accomplishment: The fact that numerous members of our senior team have been with me for over 20 years.
Something people may not know about you: I love ’80s music.
What’s on your desk: Pictures of my family and a 76ers hat.
Adelman had questions. “I didn’t understand it. There were fresh kids every year and not enough places for them to live,” he says. “Why weren’t people doing student housing in a professional manner? If you think way back 30 years ago and beyond, it was local people who owned some houses and rented them out.”
While Horwitz was a forerunner in branding buildings the same color, uniformed staff, and creating a professional identity, Adelman knew there was more room to expand. “I wondered, ‘Why is it that there are people that own hotels nationally or malls nationally? Why couldn’t I own student apartments nationally?’ No one was really doing it at scale.”
And with his entrepreneurial saying—“Why not me, and why not now?”—Adelman was off to the races growing Campus to become the go-to partner for higher education institutions, developers, and investors nationwide and the largest privately held student housing company in the nation. In 2006, he structured the first securitized student housing portfolio loan in the industry, partnering with a sovereign wealth fund in Singapore to catapult Campus’ growth from its start with 150 properties near the University of Pennsylvania. Today, Campus has $2 billion of assets under management, spanning 18 states to house more than 25,000 students at over 70 colleges and universities.
Long-Term Connections
When Adelman first became CEO, Penn was asking local stakeholders for financial commitments or political support to start the University City District as a response to high crime in the area. He jumped in as the largest private-sector supporter of the district, contributing $500,000 over 10 years to help the university establish a $4.5 million operating budget.
That commitment turned into Penn awarding Campus the property management contract for its off-campus housing portfolio of approximately 800 beds, which are still under management 25 years later. It also led to a business relationship that has followed Adelman’s career since 1997.
Now president of Temple University, John Fry, who was at Penn at the time, has been able to witness Adelman’s pioneering transformation of student housing—and many college communities. Fry recalls, “From that time on, David has been a steadfast partner in the continued transformation of University City—helping to turn it into one of the country’s most desirable urban college communities.
“He’s also made transformative investments in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Most notably in 2008 at Franklin & Marshall College where he and I forged an innovative public-private partnership that allowed us to develop significant new on-campus housing without any effect on the institution’s credit. Very few institutions were doing that kind of partnership at that time, but David’s expertise made it possible to implement this new model.”
“[It’s] an equity partnership that is still ongoing today. It was at that time that calls started flooding in asking, ‘Are you the Penn guys?’ We got calls from other schools, we got calls from capital sources, and we started taking our show on the road, starting regionally. And then, soon thereafter we were in 24 or 25 states across the country by the mid-2000s,” Adelman says.
As the company grew, Adelman wanted to maintain a focus. He says, “I would tell the team, ‘Keep these kids safe, and make sure our institutional investors and lenders don’t get hurt so they don’t exit the business.’ In other words, let’s be good stewards of capital, and the tide will rise for all of us.”
Fry says, “He is the best partner I could ever imagine having—always there in times of challenge with good advice, and his generosity is second to none. David’s business success has been enormous; everything he’s become involved in has not only been a resounding success but also shared with many people. When he finds success, he wants to share it and bring others along with him.”
His Home Team
Adelman’s strategy and approach to leadership have kept Campus thriving since his start there. Many executives and team members have stayed on board for 20 years or more.
Although Adelman is involved and owns many other successful businesses, he still considers Campus his home.
“When you trust your team, and luckily I’ve built a team that is smarter than me and better than me at most of the jobs of the company, it’s really fun to watch,” he says. “I’m fortunate, and this is where I go every day because I love to work with them, and I love the fact that we have such a responsibility. I tell our staff that we have people’s most prized possessions, their children, living in our buildings. We have the most serious job in the world.”
As a husband and father of two daughters, Adelman takes that responsibility seriously while also trusting his team of 400 employees to do their best work. “We have a captive audience. Kids come in, kids graduate. We provide good service, be honest, give them a good product that’s safe with good internet—I’m fortunate that for 30 years we’ve held true to a strategy, and it has worked.”
Adelman empowers his staff to make decisions on a very local level, encouraging them to treat the property like it’s their own. “I tell every property manager, ‘You’re the CEO of this property.’”
Celebrating 30 years with Campus, Dan Bernstein, who is president and chief investment officer, says, “Whether navigating complex capital market cycles or mentoring the next generation of talent, David leads with authenticity and vision.”
His authenticity and ability to champion the student housing industry is what made him MFE Executive of the Year in 2009 and this year’s Hall of Fame inductee, who will be honored in November at the Multifamily Executive Conference in Newport Beach, California.
“David is the most amazing connector I have ever met. He is constantly connecting people. It’s in his DNA. It is in his nature to help people. He doesn’t expect anything in return,” says Bradley Krouse, Campus’ attorney for the last 25 years. “From lenders to university presidents, to vendors, to professionals, to competitors, David has incredibly strong relationships throughout the student housing industry, and his reach is far and wide.”
The next steps for Campus’ reach include the launch of a new fund, continuing to raise institutional capital, continuing to grow the platform, and continuing to boost talent as people move on or decide to retire.
“I am very proud of the fact that what’s been working keeps working. We can innovate, we can be more efficient, but we have a secret sauce on how we treat our people and how we build our culture,” Adelman says.
That secret sauce includes never being complacent, being competitive, and shooting well above the status quo. Fry adds, “David is a consummate team player. Having been involved in so many successful projects and initiatives, he is always quick to give credit to others, even though most of the credit is due to him.”