February 27, 2023

Welcome to People and Properties, the Cohen-Esrey newsletter where we celebrate the successes of our team members and keep you informed about what is happening in the Cohen-Esrey world. If you have something you would like to share or an achievement that you would like to celebrate, please send it to Lee Harris at lharris@cohenesrey.com. If you are on a property, please print and distribute this newsletter to each member of your property team. You can also find People and Properties on KnowledgeNet. Click here to view previous editions.

Introducing Willowpark

Cohen-Esrey Communities (CEC) is pleased to announce a new third-party management assignment – Willowpark – in Lawton, OK. The property consists of 160 market-rate units, and amenities include a fitness center, 24-hour laundry facility, off-street parking, private exterior storage, a swimming pool, clubhouse, grill stations, and units have large walk-in closets, tiled baths, and kitchen pantries. One-bedroom units range from 476 to 572 square feet and rent for $695 to $825 per month. Two-bedroom units are 796 square feet and rent for $1,025 per month. The two-story buildings were built in 1985. The community will undergo an exterior facelift in the first year with new roofs, gutters, landscape cleanup, sidewalk and parking lot repairs and replacements. Plans are still being discussed for interior updates in the future. We are pleased that the ownership is a repeat client for Cohen-Esrey.

Located along I-44 about 90 miles southwest of Oklahoma City, Lawton is best known for containing the 94,000 acre Fort Sill Army Base. Lawton is also home to Cameron University and the Great Plains Technology Center. While Lawton exudes a small-town vibe, there are plenty of things to do in town. Several museums allow for unique cultural experiences including the Museum of the Great Plains, the Fort Sill Museum, and the Comanche National Museum and Cultural Center. Residents can enjoy the shops at Central Mall, try their luck at the Apache Casino or Comanche Nation Casino, catch a live performance at McMahon Memorial Auditorium, unwind at Elmer Thomas Park, practice a golf swing at Lawton Country Club, hike the trails and see bison roam freely at Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, and see Chautauqua perform historical enactments throughout town. Lawton has a population of 91,000, and the total population in Fort Sill is 53,000 including 20,000 military and civilian personnel. The rest are military family members. There is a robust retiree community that is supported by Fort Sill.

Amanda Fort (2023) is the Property Manager and James Huss (2014) is the Regional Manager. Paige Bohling (2022) is the Property Accountant, Garrett Cook (2022), is the Accounting Assistant, and Rodney Chmidling (2015) is the Accounts Payable Specialist.

We welcome the following new team members to Cohen-Esrey and the Nexus 5 Group.

Wrather McGinnis – Astoria Park, Amarillo, TX – Make Ready Technician
Gerren Cooper – The Maxwell, Kansas City, MO – Lead Maintenance Technician
Russell Valentine – Oneida Mill Lofts, Graham, NC – Make Ready Technician
Jesse Hernandez – Jefferson on the Lake, Olathe, KS – Maintenance Technician
Andrew Huff – Perry 81, Overland Park, KS – Lead Maintenance Technician
Alec Velador – Waverly Historic Lofts, Waverly, IA – Property Manager
Jamie Walker – Village on Main, Waunakee, WI – Maintenance Technician
Christian Cartwright – Champion at Bluegrass, Lexington, KY – Maintenance Technician

Meet the Life Skills/Fillmore Place Team

Meet the team at Life Skills/Fillmore Place in Kirkwood, MO. Carmelitta Redmond (2022) is the Property Manager, and Robert Glasscock (2022) is the Maintenance Technician. This 64-unit community is managed for a third-party client.

Nexus 5 Completes Snap One Project

The Nexus 5 Group recently completed a design-build project for Snap One, at the Kansas Commerce Center located in Lenexa, KS. Working with an out of market tenant and being given the opportunity to provide the company’s first location in the Kansas City market was an honor. Nexus 5 also had the benefit of working alongside Joy Knust of Cedar Ridge Services, LLC, the local property management company who operates Kansas Commerce Center.

This 12,950 SF tenant improvement was completed in approximately 12 weeks. The project included demolition and renovation of an existing warehouse space which is now home to Snap One’s full line of products, a sales floor, receiving and shipping docks, and a 24-hour room for their pro-partner pickups. The work also included a new conference and training room, new break room, and a refresh of the existing restrooms. Snap One was founded nearly 20 years ago and provides audio, video, surveillance, control, networking, conferencing, and remote management products made to be installed by authorized professionals. They not only provide the equipment, parts, and pieces necessary but can assist clients in finding a professional installer.

The Nexus 5 team included Tom Hoelting (2022), Project Manager, Josh Buller (2017), Superintendent, and Jessica Bell (2014), Senior Project Engineer. The company continues to grow its construction business and has enjoyed great success with tenant finish projects.

CEDG Welcomes Jesus Rojas

The Cohen-Esrey Development Group (CEDG) welcomes Jesus Rojas, as a new Development Manager based in El Paso, TX. After obtaining his degree in Finance from the University of Texas at El Paso, he began his career as a financial analyst where he got the opportunity to prepare financial models for value-add multi-family property acquisitions. In his last position, Jesus gained experience managing the budgets for 17 construction projects totaling $688 million for the construction and modernization of schools in the El Paso Independent School District. He is proud to call El Paso his home, a borderland town which he says has has some of the best food anywhere.

As a Development Manager, Jesus will work with Development Directors to oversee financial modeling of assigned projects, and to make recommendations and assist in determining the optimal financial structures and balance with costs. He will work in collaboration with other team members to prepare and submit tax credit and other funding applications, as well as supporting the Development Directors in purchase potential sites. Initially Jesus will support several Development Directors but eventually will work primarily on Texas and Alabama projects.

On a personal level, Jesus has been working on becoming an experienced skydiver for the last ten years with over 1,000 jumps under his belt.. As a licensed pilot, he has had the opportunity to not only have fun jumping out of planes but has acquired licenses allowing him to coach others in the skydiving sport. He enjoys spending time with his very energetic four-year-old son and family.

If you want to go skydiving and jump out of perfectly good airplanes – Jesus is your man! Meanwhile, we are pleased to have him join the Cohen-Esrey team.

A Well-Deserved Promotion!

Kurt Parrett (2008) has been promoted to Property Accounting Supervisor. A long-time fixture in the Cohen-Esrey Accounting Department, Kurt has been a steady force in providing accurate and timely financial statements for properties managed by Cohen-Esrey Communities (CEC). He has tremendous institutional knowledge and a complete understanding of the OneSite software as well as having helped design a wide range of systems and processes.

Kurt started out as a Property Accountant, was later promoted to Senior Property Accountant and now is the Property Accounting Supervisor. In this role, he will oversee the Property Accounting team and accounting operations while continuing to maintain a small portfolio of his own properties. During Kurt’s tenure, he has seen a lot of changes and was instrumental in working with Mark Fletcher (2008), Chief Technology Officer, on the Property Budgeting system in KNET.

Kurt is married to Shelley and has a son, Kenton, and a daughter, Kara. In his spare time, he likes to travel and has been to India, Thailand, China, and Alaska.

He also has a love for motorcycles and currently owns four of them. I think it is safe to say, he cannot park his car in his garage! He has taken a number of solo trips on his motorcycle traveling to Colorado, Mississippi and most recently to New Mexico for the balloon festival. His dream is to someday ride from here to Argentina on his motorcycle.

Kurt is also very involved with his daughter, Kara, through the Boy Scouts. They go on a lot of camping trips frequently in very cold temperatures.

Kurt is looking forward to his new role and has hit the ground running. The wealth of knowledge he has gained while at Cohen-Esrey will serve him well in this new position.

Please join us in congratulating Kurt!

New Version of KNET Rolled Out

Congratulations to Lizzy Darby (2021), Level 1 Web Developer, for the rollout of Cohen-Esrey’s new and improved KNET (Knowledge Net)! Some of the features include:

Single Sign-on – users are able to login with the same username and password they use to access their email and RealPage.
Full width interface so less scrolling.
More modern look and feel.
More mobile friendly.
Modern security.
It includes a new version of the OASYS with a better search feature.
It has a better navigational menu designed to make it easier to find and navigate to apps.

There are dozens and dozens of existing apps in old KNET and it will take several months to systematically get them transferred over. For a period of time, the new KNET might point to old KNET apps.

Mark Fletcher (2008), Chief Technology Officer, held design and architecture meetings with Lizzy twice a week and she then handled all the coding. KNET is a tremendous asset for Cohen-Esrey and is integral to our daily operations. Thanks, Lizzy for your Commitment to completing this project!

Matt von Ende Joins Multifamily Advisory Council

Matt von Ende (2017), Vice-President, Acquisitions for Cohen-Esrey Apartment Investors (CEAI), has recently been invited to join the Kansas City Multifamily Advisory Council. The Council is sponsored by CoStar and the Kansas City Regional Association of Realtors, and brings together apartment investors, developers, brokers, lenders, and other industry parties. Influencers and emerging leaders in the commercial real estate space in Kansas City are able to discuss trends, share best practices, and report on what is being experienced in the market.

In addition to participating on the Council, Matt is pursuing the CCIM designation through the CCIM Institute. Since its founding more than 50 years ago, the institute has been educating real estate specialists across continents and industry categories. It continues to guide the growth of nearly 8,000 professionals each year. The CCIM Designation is conferred upon commercial real estate leaders who have a proven record of success in the field and have demonstrated a mastery of financial, market, and investment analysis. CCIM Designees come from a variety of professional backgrounds including asset management, brokerage, banking, development, property management, law, and accounting. The education component of earning the CCIM designation is comprised of a four-course curriculum, an online ethics course, negotiation training, and elective courses from the Ward Center for Real Estate Studies. Earning the designation also requires qualifying experience and a comprehensive full-day exam.

We congratulate Matt on his appointment to the Kansas City Multifamily Advisory Council and for his pursuit of the CCIM designation!

The Cool Amenities of Cohen-Esrey

In the next few of People & Properties we will share photos of some of the great amenities that are offered on Cohen-Esrey properties. This includes swimming pools, clubhouses, clubrooms, car washes, tennis courts, parcel locker systems, and many other features. Many of our communities have some very unique playgrounds and we will highlight them in upcoming issues of People & Properties.

The clubhouse at Intrada (St. Louis, MO)

Resort style pool at Lofts at Ventura (San Antonio, TX)

The spacious community room at Tower Village (St. Louis, MO)

The cozy community room at Sullivan Place (St. Louis, MO)

Residents at Freedom Place (St. Louis, MO) enjoy a fitness center.

A chilly outdoor space at House Springs (House Springs, MO)

Transformational Construction!

Construction continues at several Cohen-Esrey Development Group (CEDG) future communities.

Slabs are being poured at the Loma Vista Lofts in San Antonio, TX.

Site preparation is complete at the Lofts at Creekview in San Antonio, TX, and ready for vertical construction.

Foundation work is occurring at Panorama Heights in Colorado Springs, CO.

Hardy souls at work despite the white stuff at Sinclair Flats in Mankato, MN.

Valentine’s Day Creativity

The “Fun Team” held a Valentine’s box decorating contest in the Corporate Office. Here are photos of the entries as well as the winners.

Category – Most Green/Recyclable

Winner – Brent Hastings (2018), Project Manager and Josh McDonald (2018), Senior Project Manager at Nexus 5.

Category – Most Traditional

Winner – Emily Fletcher (2022), Property Accounting Assistant.

Category – Most Creative

Winner – Morgan Gassert (2022), Marketing Coordinator

Another Empowerment Story

By Lori Davies (2022), Property Manager, Idlewild Estates

Lori Davies (2022), is the Property Manager for Idlewild Estates in Poplar Bluff, MO. Here is what she has to say about her Empowerment:

I joined Cohen-Esrey Communities (CEC) as the property manager at Idlewild Estates in Poplar Bluff, MO a year ago this past January. I thought that I was going to miss the opportunity because I had contracted Covid right after I was hired and was hospitalized for four days. I couldn’t start my new position until a month later. I thought for sure I would be replaced by another candidate, but the position was held for me. That’s just one of the reasons that Cohen-Esrey has Empowered me.

I’ve only been in the property management business for around six years. In my first property management position I was basically shown where the office was and handed over the keys and that was it. I had no idea what I was doing. I thought how hard can it be? I have a bachelor’s degree in accounting, surely, I can handle this. It was a challenge but I looked through files and read and researched on the Internet and figured it out for the most part.

When I came to Cohen-Esrey they welcomed me and made me feel like I was a valuable part of the team. My Regional Manager at the time was Kristina Viera (2017) – now Deputy Managing Director of Affordable Properties – and she met me at the office my first day and did my onboarding which was very informative and gave me the tools needed to succeed. I had never experienced anything like that before. She also assigned me a mentor to help me and train me and that was a tremendous help. The mentor she assigned to me was Carolyn Henson (2021) who is now my Regional Manager. I already knew Carolyn as we had worked together at a different company, and she trained me there as well. So, I was very excited to be working with her again. She takes the time to explain things to you and makes sure you understand the process. She’s wonderful and I’m very grateful to be working for her.

Cohen-Esrey has done so much to make me feel like a viable part of the team. I’ve never had the CEO of the company call me after my first 90 days on the job and ask me how things were going and if there was anything that could’ve been done better to help me succeed. That was surprising, so I was really shocked when I received a letter from him again after my one-year anniversary thanking me for my hard work and dedication. Lee Harris (1975), President and CEO, and the entire Cohen-Esrey team have empowered me to appreciate my job and motivated me to do the best that I can for my property.

On a personal note, I am on the committee for a local toy drive where I live. My son-in-law is a police officer there and together we have worked hard for the past five years to raise money every year to buy Christmas gifts for local children at Christmas time. We have fundraisers throughout the year to raise the funds needed to purchase toys. This last Christmas was our biggest year, and we were able to buy enough toys to provide 279 children with three gifts each. So not only has Cohen-Esrey Empowered me to do great at my job, but they have also Empowered me to continue to help others and help children to have a great Christmas (Core Value of Community Impact). That is a wonderful feeling.

Another Blast From the Past

Did you know that there have been multiple business units in Cohen-Esrey’s past that aren’t part of our family of companies today? We have been running a series in People & Properties where we will highlight one such business unit. Here is another.

What in the world was Alinare? Well, there’s a bit of an interesting story with some twists and turns that will get us to the answer. Cohen-Esrey was managing a portfolio of small properties for a Kansas City-area bank. It was quite a collection of “cats and dogs” so to speak. Many of the properties – single family houses, small commercial properties, raw land, etc., had been foreclosed by the bank. There were literally dozens of assets that had to be tracked. Our Chief Technology Officer, Mark Fletcher (2008), affectionately known as “The Wizard,” developed a terrific software tool to handle the tracking process. The bank client was very impressed and told us that they had never seen anything on the market quite like Mark’s application. That’s like throwing raw meat into the lion’s cage. Immediately we thought about how we could commercialize the software product and market it to other banks. And thus, Alinare was born.

The name has no meaning – it just sounded techy and cool. We brought in a couple of partners to help us launch the venture. One was a bank consultant with many contacts in the industry, and the other was an IT management consultant. Together we launched a pilot version of the software with a midwestern bank. The test was a success and the bank paid for the pilot. But we found that bankers take a very long time to make decisions and getting the second bank to sign on was difficult. Ultimately, we decided that we did not want to be in the software business and exited the venture.

Legacy Ridge Medical Plaza

NPS Leaderboards

The three NPS Leaderboards have been updated as of February 24, 2023, and the top of the Leaderboards remained the same as last month. In the 50-Units or Less category Clay Hall (Enid, OK) continues to lead with a score of +92.50. We want to recognize Eastwood (Wellington, KS) with a score of +90.91, and Summit at Osage (Osage Beach, MO) with a score of +90.16 – we now have three properties in the same category with a +90. In the Properties 51 to 120-Units category, Freedom Place (Kansas City, KS) continues in the top spot with an NPS of +80.00. And in the Properties of More than 120-Units category, The Boulevard (Springfield, IL), maintains its lead with an NPS of +91.80. There are 36 properties on Leaderboards, and this is the first time we have had four properties on the Leaderboards with an NPS of +90 or higher.

We continue to recognize those properties with a Maintenance Survey NPS that is equal to or exceeds our Overall NPS of +37. To qualify a property must have surveys from the equivalent of 40% of its units or more. We continue to emphasize the importance of providing improved maintenance service to deliver Customer Fulfillment. There are 18 properties this month.

Maintenance Ticket Surveys