The Bascom Company Looks to Operational Value-Add in Rent Lagging B and C apartment sectors.

“We assist on the front end with design and budgeting, and then we help them execute the contracts once they purchase the property,” says J.R. Bolos, director of client services for Carrollton, Texas–based construction management and apartment renovation firm United Renovations, who is working with Bascom on the repositioning of The Maples in Denver as well as assisting on cosmetic improvements at The Retreat at Canyon Springs Apartments, a Class A property in San Antonio. “Every deal is distinct. Denver has a pretty heavy renovation plan, and we’re about halfway through that, where in San Antonio, we’re making something nice even nicer. But regardless, they are cutting edge and really on the front end of what they do, and they aren’t always playing it safe: They’ll swing for the fences.”

On the management side, Bascom maintains a visible presence on site, often playing a necessarily larger hand in operations during renovations. That hands-on approach helps ally them with more flexible regional managers as opposed to national fee-­management shops with prescribed management M.O.s. “They are very involved at a high level, and a lot of operators might view that as a negative, but we certainly don’t,” says Greg Wiseman, founder of Salt Lake City, Utah–based Apartment Management Consultants, LLC., which has 52,000 units under management in the Western United States, 13,000 of which are Bascom units in Colorado, Washington, Utah, and California.

“One of the things Bascom does really well is stick to its concept,” Wiseman says. “Too many times during renovations, the message isn’t communicated really well to property management, and they do a great job of getting in front of everyone, from our maintenance technicians to our leasing consultants. Getting on-site buy-in to a renovation program requires a single sustained message repeated over and over again, and no one does that better than Bascom does. Our team wants to jump on their back and glide through a renovation program. People want to work for them, and they definitely reap those rewards.”