Promise Keepers Shelter Development built its reputation by doing what it promises. “If the company says it’s going to do something then it will,” says Mindy Fang, senior vice president at Bank of America, which provides construction lending to Shelter. “If it doesn’t work, the company keeps you informed of the changes.”
The company is dedicated to bringing the best value and service to all of its customers. Real estate is a relationship business, and you can’t be successful without relationships. One such relationship is with the Akman Group. “We look for handshake people to work with,” explains Akman. “We want to do deals with a company that we feel we could give a blank check to (not that it ever would). We trust the company. Shelter does what it promises. It’s resourceful, and its results have exceeded its projections.”
For about nine months at the end of 1999 and the beginning of 2000, Shelter worked with ommunity groups in Baltimore County that objected to its Brightview of Catonsville assisted living community. In order to get support from these groups, Shelter made a number of accommodations in landscaping, rooflines, and delivery schedules. When the project was finally complete, the head of the umbrella neighborhood organization called and admitted that he was wrong and that we really did what we said, says Duker. “That’s what we think is so important. Your reputation is everything in this business, and we really have a reputation of doing what we say we are going to do.”
Building Blocks The Shelter Group got its start in development with a focus on government-financed apartments. It has grown into a diverse company that develops and rehabs everything from affordable properties to market-rate multifamily and senior housing. In addition, it has built a property management company, which manages more than 25,000 units in eight regions nationally. Shelter manages for its own account but also has a third-party fee managed business.
“Our strength is that we can do virtually everything in multifamily rental,” says Duker. “Be it affordable or market-rate or acquisitions and ground up development – we treat each of those as a product line.”
Every aspect of the company’s property management operation is run by specialists in a given product line. The portfolio is split almost equally among four product lines – luxury, mid-market, affordable, and senior. The product line manager’s job is to make sure that the company is on the leading edge of what is the latest and greatest. The product line managers need to make sure that information is disseminated to every property manager and regional manager that has a project in that product line.
To ensure that all Shelter employees have the tools and information necessary to do their job, the company spends a great deal of time on training. “We have found that our investment in training reaps a quantifiable payback, not only in improved service to our customers but also in increased net operating income at our properties,” says Duker.
Because training is so critical to Shelter’s success, the company started to assemble and train its senior division staff before the company started its first senior development. “We designed the service package before we had any sites because we felt the absolute key for creating value for ourselves, investors, and residents was to have a staff that was well trained, temperamentally suited to provide service, and wanted to provide service,” says Mark K. Joseph, founding chairman of The Shelter Group.
In order to find people who meet those qualifications, Shelter developed a proprietary hiring tool to pick out people with those traits. The Shelter Employee Management System tests against intelligence, situational judgment, creativity, and problem solving – all the traits that make a really successful property manager, says Duker. “You have to have tools to make sure that your staff, which is spread across the country, is hiring the same caliber people that you would be hiring if you were doing it yourself.”