Courtesy Alliance Residential Co.
The iCafe at TwentyOne|01 in Denver
How Much Will All This Cost?
Now that it’s clear which tech amenities residents want, just how much will all those goodies cost you? Here’s a breakdown of the latest tech must-haves and what you can expect to pay to provide them.
Expanded bandwidth
With more gadgets to connect, you have to ensure residents can get online effortlessly; wireless connectivity is becoming as vital as electricity. Getting it right will cost as much as $300 per door, but that goes a long way toward attraction and retention.
Paperless leasing centers
Maps and brochures are old-school. Potential Gen Y residents have already seen them on your website anyhow. Instead, turn the experience into something similar to a visit to an Apple Store, where everything is interactive, lively, and fun. Plus, by putting the brochure on a flash drive instead, you’ll save money.
Airport-style kiosks
Alliance Residential had a bright idea at its Seattle property, Koi: Airport-style kiosks will be available in the lobby for residents to pay rent and access an internal Craigslist-like online bulletin board to buy and sell furniture with other residents. Each kiosk costs between $5,500 and $7,000 for a flat-screen TV, six-point touch frame overlay by Screen Solutions, and related infrastructure and software costs.
Charging/docking stations
It’s fairly simple to put iPod docking stations in your units and provide wireless connectivity to speakers. The same goes for built-in USB wall chargers that residents can push their adapters into—they’re basically electrical outlets that sport USB ports. These stations only cost between $15 and $20 per unit, but their presence has a larger effect.
Personalized fitness equipment
Gen Y residents make working out a priority, with 83 percent marking fitness centers as their No. 1 common-area amenity preference, according to J Turner Research. One trend seeing a resurgence is computer-based fitness equipment–state-of-the-art touchscreens and computers in each treadmill or elliptical machine that will personalize a resident’s fitness program. But it doesn’t come cheap: Figure on plunking down $10,000 a piece for the best of customizable machines.
Outdoor theaters
Outdoor theaters have replaced the old theater rooms, an amenity that was always a stop on the property tour but rarely, if ever, used. Today, some Gen Y renters might not have their own TV if they stream everything online, so this is a nice amenity that sets your community apart. And if investing in an outdoor theater is too much, just offer rooftop or outdoor movie nights. That doesn’t take a lot of technology, just a screen and a projector.
Electronic displays
Future residents at Arlington, Va.–based AvalonBay’s H Street will see their name on a TV screen in the lobby when they receive a package or notice from the rental office. H Street will also feature a series of digital screens in the lobby offering electronic artwork during the day and multiple TV screens equipped with Wii at night.
Whatever the cost of these and other tech amenities, Gen Y renters will appreciate them—and the properties that offer them.
Stay Connected
Pros advise that whatever tech gadgets you install, getting the connectivity right in communal gathering spots is key for making sure those amenities pay off. That’s why Related Cos. spent the extra money to install a distributed antenna system (DAS) at MiMA to ensure that full bars show up on residents’ smart phones, and why RMK makes sure it can support Wi-Fi connectivity in all of its common areas.
“If it’s part of the building, you have to be able to support it,” RMK’s Diana Pittro says. “Saying your site has all this technology and then having it break down isn’t the message you want to send.”
Indeed, Bill Cune, vice president of strategy and business development at Hickory, N.C.–based Corning MobileAccess, which helps apartment operators set up both Wi-Fi and cellular networks within their properties, says getting those details right is paramount to keeping today’s residents happy.
“Access to a single service, such as Wi-Fi only or cellular only, isn’t going to cut it with the modern renter,” Cune says. “To provide the right mix, apartment managers need to ensure that their properties can effectively support whatever service or carrier their renters select.”
They say Steve Jobs wasn’t a people person.
Which makes the personal connection users feel with Apple products that much more remarkable.
It’s also a lesson apartment operators can learn from as they outfit properties with tech amenities that will attract Gen Y renters and be meaningful to them once they move in.
No longer wowed by static theater rooms, stodgy business centers, or the option of ordering a pizza through their TVs, today’s renters are looking for technology amenities that actually do something for them, ones they can interact with to make their lives easier. And having grown up with the do-it-for-you service of the Apple Store, they want all of those gadgets and services to just work, and be available to them on demand.
“Residents are focused on amenities that improve their lives,” says Daria Salusbury, senior vice president at New York–based Related Cos., whose Technology Concierge service helps residents with everything from home networking to hanging a flat-screen TV inside their apartment. “Technology plays such an integral role in people’s lives these days. We want to ensure that we’ve thought ahead and provided them with the infrastructure and service platform necessary.”
Cater to Them
At Related’s 63-story, mixed-use MiMA Tower in Midtown Manhattan, common-area must-haves include universal Wi-Fi, a café-like tech center with rows of iMacs, and a dedicated Equinox fitness center with the latest touchscreen equipment. The property has individual theater rooms—free popcorn included—as well as an outdoor theater with a 15-by-35-foot movie screen and a Titan HD 600 projector on a 5,500-square-foot terrace where residents gather for movie night.
While all of that is cutting-edge, it’s the fact that residents are actually interacting with those amenities that gives them longevity. “Focusing on what customers actually use creates long-term value,” Salusbury says. “It’s all about catering to their lifestyles. Our Internet lounge with iMac computers gets a lot of use.” She also says the property’s movie night is always well-attended.
Make Life Easy
Perhaps more than anything else, it’s this lifestyle aspect of technology amenities that speaks to Gen Y renters: They still want cool gadgets, but they want them in a way that simplifies, rather than complicates, their lives. And they want them to be accessible both inside and outside their apartments.
The ironic corollary of Americans’ ever-increasing amount of time spent in front of a screen—and its isolating effect—is the fact that young renters are now seeking more public spaces in which to be digitally connected. “Millennials have all the technology they want in their hands,” says Joseph Batdorf, president of Houston-based J Turner Research. “What they’re really looking for is a place to use it.”
For Diana Pittro, executive vice president at Chicago-based RMK Management Corp., that means making sure her properties are equipped not with a closed-off, 1990s-style “business center” but, instead, a modern media lounge and cyber café. At the firm’s Parc Huron community in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, residents congregate around dedicated PCs, kick back on sofas, or watch sports in the Starbucks-like setting. “Having that is huge; our residents use it all the time,” Pittro says.
At Parc Huron, yesterday’s pin-up bulletin boards and flyers are replaced with flat-screen monitors in the lobby to update residents about community news and package arrivals. And prospective residents get a flash drive preloaded with community info, rather than a traditional hard-copy brochure. “It shows that we’re tuned in to their needs,” Pittro says.
Another quickly emerging tech tantalizer: multipurpose rooms equipped with gaming consoles, perhaps along with traditional diversions such as pool tables. At Phoenix-based Alliance Residential’s properties, flat screens pull triple duty as gaming stations, resident communication tools, and even art. “We’ve had communities use flat-screen TVs within the common areas to highlight local artists,” says Alexis Vance, marketing director at Alliance. “Creating spaces and amenities that serve multiple purposes is always the best bet.”
And don’t forget the details inside the apartment, as well. Relatively cheap upgrades, such as in-unit iPod docking stations and USB-enabled charging panels, can make a big impression on prospective residents and often calculate out to less than $20 per unit. “Those are the kinds of tech amenities that allow us to appeal to our core Gen X and Gen Y audience,” says Vance.
They go hand in hand with allowing your residents to interact with you without leaving their apartment too. “Online conveniences, such as mobile payments and social media, allow us to interact with our residents through channels they prefer,” Vance says. “As a bonus for us, those features provide an additional layer of tracking that was previously unavailable.” MFE
Contributing editor Joe Bousquin is based in Sacramento, Calif. Additional reporting by Jane M. Wolkowicz.
