December 16, 2024

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.

A Bright Investment

On March 30, 2022, a partnership sponsored by Cohen-Esrey Apartment Investors (CEAI), acquired the 306-unit Brighton Creek Apartments, a market-rate community located in Kansas City’s Northland. Built in 2017, the property features a plethora of amenities including a resort-style zero-entry swimming pool and sun shelf, sun deck, fire pits with soft seating, pet care center, fitness center, a media center/movie theater, picnic areas with grilling stations, club room with shuffleboard, conference room with wireless printing, car wash, a huge clubhouse with indoor and outdoor gourmet entertainment kitchen and fireside lounge, and an infrared sauna. Studio, one, and two-bedroom apartments. One-bedroom units range from 668 to 897 square feet and rent from $1,141 to $1,356 per month. Two-bedroom units range from 952 to 1,371 square feet and rent from $1,240 to $1,512 per month. Three-bedroom units are 1,411 square feet and rent from $1,737 per month.

The property is located minutes away from the shops at Shoal Creek, KCI International Airport, Shoal Creek Golf Club, Zona Rosa, and the Kansas City Power and Light District in downtown Kansas City. Unit interiors include front loading washers and dryers, large patios and balconies, ceramic tile backsplashes, nine-foot ceilings, granite countertops, island kitchens, stainless steel appliances, hardwood floors, and walk-in closets. Garages are available and storage units can be rented as well. Leases are available for six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12, and 13 months. Brighton Creek is in third place on the large property NPS Leaderboard with an NPS of +30.28.

Major employers in the Kansas City Northland include Citibank, CVS Health Distribution Center, Federal Express, Jet Midwest, Johnson Controls, McCormick Distilling Company, National Beef, Multivac, Smithfield Farmland Foods, Woodbridge Foam, and Weber.

Laureen Woods (2022) is the Property Manager and James Huss (2013), is the Regional Manager. Paige Bohling (2022) is the Property Accountant and David Garrett (2024) is the Accounting Assistant.

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

Amanda Ashley – Village on Main, Waunakee, WI – Property Manager – Rehire
Nora Roberson – Woolworth Estates, Omaha, NE – Assistant Property Manager
Thomas Washington, Sr. – Loma Vista Lofts, San Antonio, TX – Maintenance Supervisor
Cynthia Oliphant – Intrada, St. Louis, MO – Property Manager
Jonathan Morris – Jefferson on the Lake, Olathe, KS – Maintenance Supervisor
Dakota Sutterer – Greenwood Estates, Peoria, IL – Maintenance Technician
Tracey Stoneking – Shire Apartments – Sioux City, IA – Property Manager
Eric Perdomo – Trails at Bartram Park, Jacksonville, FL – Property Manager
Alannia Maxie – Sunset – Texarkana, TX – Leasing Agent
DaiJanae Powell – Canterbury Village – South Sioux City, IA – Leasing Agent
Wesley Huel – Lofts at Ventura, San Antonio, TX – Assistant Property Manager
Brenda Job – Oakwood, Vermillion, SD – Assistant Property Manager

Meet the Canterbury Village Team

Meet the Canterbury Village team. (L to R) DaiJanae Powell (2024), Leasing Agent; Carmela Dunnick (2024), Property Manager; Gene McKeever (2024), Maintenance Technician; and Travis Voss (2024) Grounds and Make Ready Technician.

Cohen-Esrey Communities (CEC) manages the 96-unit Canterbury Village, an affordable community in South Sioux City, NE, for a third-party client.

Transformational Construction

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

Sprucing up the exterior at Panorama Heights in Colorado Springs, CO, for a January 2025 opening.

Installing the electric meter bank at The Launchpad in Colorado Springs, CO.

Final punch out of the back building is about to commence at the Loma Vista Lofts in San Antonio, TX.

Storm sewer line trenching at the Lofts at Creekview in San Antonio, TX.

Elevator installation in progress at the Lewis Lofts in Mankato, MN.

New ADA ramp and stoop for Building 4 at Village Park in Amarillo, TX.

Framing of several buildings is underway at the Heritage at Cottonwood Creek in San Marcos, TX.

Excavation and rebar for building CIP wall is ongoing at Overlook 157 in Asheville, NC.

Two Promotions to Announce

Kristina Viera (2017), Senior Regional Vice-President, has announced three promotions in the Cohen-Esrey Communities (CEC) Affordable Division.

Kamari Welch (2024) was previously a Compliance Specialist and has been promoted to Regional Manager. Before joining Cohen-Esrey, Kamari was a Regional Manager for another firm. She is based in Lansing, MI, and holds certifications as a Tax Credit Specialist, Blended Occupancy Specialist (BOS), HCV Specialist (Housing Choice Voucher program), and Certified HQS Inspector (Housing Quality Standards program).

Christy Dilks (2024) was previously an Operations Support Manager in the Affordable Division. She comes to us with more than ten years of property management experience. She has specialized in compliance, management of senior properties, HUD and tax credit assets, and has worked with OneSite and served as a roving manager. She is based in the Corporate Office.

Tax Credit Award in Glenwood Springs, CO

The Cohen-Esrey Development Group (CEDG) was awarded federal and state affordable housing tax credits for an 80-unit workforce housing project to be constructed in Glenwood Springs, CO. Plans call for four studio units of 555 square feet renting for $537 to $1,434 per month. One-bedroom units are planned for 705 square feet and rent for $768 to $1,537 per month. Two-bedroom units are planned for 890 to 902 square feet and rent for $922 to $1,844 per month. Three-bedroom units of 1,300 square feet will rent for $1,331 to $2,382 per month. The project is estimated to cost approximately $30 million.

The project boasts amenity spaces such as a fitness center, clubhouse, playground, dog wash, dog park, outdoor amphitheater, trash chutes and rooftop deck with panoramic Glenwood views. All units are served by elevators, opening the community for older adults. There are 138 parking spaces, and a large storage unit will be attached to every unit. A solar array is projected to generate 80% of the electric baseload. This will be Cohen-Esrey’s fourth Colorado development, the others being in the Colorado Springs and Denver markets.

Glenwood Springs is a mountain community in northwestern Colorado with a metro population of 79,000. The city has seen well-known visitors, including President Teddy Roosevelt, who spent a summer vacation living in the historic Hotel Colorado. Doc Holliday, who was known for the O.K. Corral gunfight, spent the final months of his life in Glenwood Springs and is buried in the town's original Pioneer Cemetery above Bennett Avenue. Kid Curry is buried in the same location. Glenwood Springs is well known for its hot springs. Many small businesses start in the area due to the ambient wealth and a strong preference for local business, but they typically relocate to larger metropolitan areas after successful growth leads to needs for more affordable labor and physical resources.

Nick Emenhiser (2022) is the Development Director who shepherded this project through the tax credit and tax-exempt bond process.

Additions to the Cohen-Esrey Mobile Leasing Team

Two more Consultants have been added to the Mobile Leasing Team. Mandi Pfeffer (2024) comes to Cohen-Esrey from the estimator and office management field. Mandi enjoys family time, Texas Rangers baseball and time with friends. Trisha Parsons (2018) has been the Property Manager at The Boulevard in Springfield, IL, and is looking forward to this new position. The Mobile Leasing Team now stands at eight members and is being deployed to the Lofts at the Grim in Texarkana, TX, Loma Vista Lofts in San Antonio, TX, and Panorama Heights in Colorado Springs, CO.

Nexus 5 Jobs on the Home Stretch

The Nexus 5 Group is wrapping up several projects. Here are some photos of three such projects.

Team Aero Hangar and Offices – New Century Air Center – New Century, KS

Hunter Law Offices – Prairie Village, KS

Stone Manor Event Space – Overland Park, KS

Did You Know?

Here are some fun (and relatively meaningless) facts. Since the founding of Cohen-Esrey in 1970, the company has managed:

131 properties of 200-units or larger.
60 properties of 300-units or larger.
20 properties of 400-units or larger.
9 properties of 500-units or larger.
The largest and second largest properties ever managed were 1,385-units and 840-units – both in St. Louis.

Credibility

By R. Lee Harris (1975), President and CEO

I’ve had many aspiring entrepreneurs express frustration over their inability to gain traction in the marketplace with their products or services. Sometimes they tell me that others in their organizations won’t take them seriously. I can remember my early days in business – especially during my twenties – when I was treated like a little boy and being patted on the head periodically. I would work my tail off only to have the client want to talk about his property with our CEO and not me. At times it felt downright condescending.

I finally (and painfully) realized that everyone my age was experiencing the same thing and much of this treatment was simply a function of youth. But the other lesson I learned was that of credibility. While there are many elements to credibility there is a primary formula that I discovered.

Results + Consistency = Credibility

Let’s break this down further. Results do not necessarily correlate with effort. Yes, I like members of our team to work hard and make a great effort but that doesn’t mean the job gets done. There were times in the past when it was difficult to terminate a team member because I knew that person had given his all and no one had worked harder. Unfortunately, even with all the blood, sweat and tears this person still wasn’t getting the necessary results. It was kind of like studying diligently for an exam in school and still getting an F. The professor really didn’t care about the three all-nighters; only that in the end the answers were wrong.

Results are produced through a combination of skill, perseverance, creativity, timing, risk management, training, attitude and yes, effort. If any aspect of this combination is out of whack, we might fail or barely produce an acceptable outcome. This leads us to the second factor in the formula – consistency.

Here’s an obvious statement. When we are hit or miss with our results, we are thus inconsistent which damages our credibility. The goal is always to produce high quality, consistent results. How does McDonald’s turn out

the same identical hamburger no matter what store we visit? It’s accomplished through a fanatical adherence to specific standards and delivered through comprehensive systems and processes. McDonald’s uses the very same equipment at every location. They purchase in bulk the ingredients used to make the hamburger and are extremely exacting in their specifications for the quality and composition of these ingredients. Employee training is intense and standardized. Quality control measures are baked into their culture. Everything they do is geared to providing a consistent high quality customer experience.

When we can “McDonaldize” our operations we greatly improve our chances of achieving consistency. But it’s not enough to just be consistent. There are some companies that are consistent . . . they are just consistently terrible. For example, why is it that so many cable television providers consistently receive terrible customer service ratings? Ditto the U.S. Postal Service? When I send a document via FedEx or UPS, I know that it will arrive exactly when it is supposed to. But a similar delivery by the USPS has always been consistently inconsistent for me. I speculate that this may have something to do with business models and customer focus. A business model that is designed around selling a product or service – i.e. cable TV or overnight letters, is less likely to generate consistent quality results. By contrast, an enterprise dedicated to delivering an amazing customer experience is more likely to be far away the winner.

Our credibility is built on a foundation for producing consistent high-quality results. Implementing strong systems and processes focused on wowing the customer helps maintain our hard-earned credibility.

A Community Impact Success!

By Jessica Bell (2014), Nexus 5 Senior Project Engineer,

Kathleen Williams (2022), Corporate Accounting Assistant

The Nexus 5 Group and Cohen-Esrey have adopted a family for Christmas! We are partnering with an organization called Operation Breakthrough to help a mom and her five children have an UNFORGETTABLE Christmas!!! The family includes Erica (mom), Amos (age two), Aaliyah (age four), AnErica (age seven), Anthony (age 11), and Antanisha (age 15). Our goal was to get each child three or four toys/gifts, a coat, gloves, two outfits and bedding. We wanted to get the mom some nice household items (dishes, pots and pans, etc.). The goal was to raise $1,500 for this cause. Guess what? We blew by that goal in three days and raised a total of $2,225!

About Operation Breakthrough

Operation Breakthrough is a childcare & family resource center for KC, MO’s inner-city children. Their mission is to provide a safe, loving and educational environment for children in poverty and to empower their families through advocacy, emergency aid and education. They host a Christmas program that provides over 850 families (ALL KC, MO Metro families) with Christmas gifts and meals. Here is more information, https://operationbreakthrough.org/how-you-can-help/christmas-program.

Why We Do What We Do . . .

We continue our new feature for People & Properties focusing on stories about why members of our team do what they do. In this issue, Jesus Rojas (2023), Development Manager for the Cohen-Esrey Development Group (CEDG), shares his inspirational thoughts.

“As a Development Manager for Cohen-Esrey, I have the opportunity to address the pressing need for affordable housing in our society. The U.S. has a shortage of 7.3 million affordable units for renters with extremely low income or 30% of their area median income. As a Development Manager, I hope everything will align in our favor so we can keep moving forward with the deals in our pipeline. Despite the challenges of political uncertainty, bureaucratic hurdles, high construction costs, NIMBYism, and more, the satisfaction of creating a positive change in people’s lives by providing a place they can call home is the main reason why I do what I do.”

An Empowerment Story

By Jayme Dannen-Deal (2024), Regional Manager – Affordable Division

Jayme Dannen-Deal, (2024), is a Regional Manager in CEC’s Affordable Division. Here is what she has to say about her Empowerment:

“I began working for Cohen-Esrey on January 15, 2024, but my journey actually started prior to that. I remember emailing Jennifer Turner (2018), Director of Human Resources, the day of my final interview asking if I could reschedule because my day started with a literal dumpster fire at one of my properties (managed by my former employer) in downtown Kansas City! We agreed that I could be late since there were multiple people I was scheduled to meet with. I had the pleasure of meeting with Jennifer, Ryan Huffman, Mark Fletcher (2008), Chief Operating Officer, and Kristina Viera (2017), Senior Regional Vice-President, that day and it was a pretty incredible meeting – all my interviews with Cohen-Esrey were pretty incredible, actually! After leaving the Corporate Office that evening, I hoped that I would hear from Kristina as soon as possible and she ended up calling me the next day and offered me the Regional Manager position. At the time, it was a no-brainer to take the position, and I accepted during our call – little did I know that my current company wanted me to stay with them as well! I did end up staying with my former company for a short time, but Kristina reached back out to me about six weeks later to see how I was doing. I was thrilled to receive that communication from her and committed to come work for Cohen-Esrey after the new year.

I knew that I would be a Regional Manager overseeing new third party communities and knew the year would be a challenge. Through a ton of ups and downs; wins and losses; multiple site team turnovers; and lot of travel; I have been pushed to learn more than I ever thought I would about HUD; have had to learn and understand better conflict resolution; learned a new software that I didn't know if I could; have pushed some of our teams to better themselves and gain success at their properties; and have become a better leader overall. Cohen-Esrey provided me with the tools and resources I needed to get where I am this year and I grateful for the support that has been provided thus far. The other part of this year that I had the opportunity to participate in was supporting multiple site teams. I have assisted with many transitions and inspections this year and have gotten to know so many great team members that have a great future ahead. Seeing many of these sites from takeover to now is pretty incredible and to have been part of some of that success is even better.

Sometimes, we never know if the decisions we make are the right ones. The decision to come work for Cohen-Esrey has led me to grow in so many ways as a person and a leader. 2024 was definitely a learning year for me and multiple site teams, but the progress that has been made will make 2025 a success year! I am beyond excited to see what the new year will bring for everyone!”

Fun Photo

A 1996 photo of Marcie Teenor (2013), Chief Financial Officer (third from left), during her first stint with Cohen-Esrey.

This is How It’s Done . . .

By Arley Hoskin (2022), Leasing Performance Strategist

When Trisha Parsons (2018) started at The Boulevard Townhomes almost seven years ago, the 184-unit affordable property had a 17 percent occupancy rate. Parsons rose to the challenge. The property, located in Springfield, IL, now boasts an occupancy rate of 97.83 percent. The asset was built in 1969 and was redeveloped by the Cohen-Esrey Development Group (CEDG).

“She’s a fantastic manager,” Senior Regional Vice-President Kristina Viera (2017) said. Viera served as Parsons’ Regional Manager when she first started at The Boulevard. Viera explained that the issues at The Boulevard extended beyond the low occupancy rate. The property had a reputation in the community for being filled with drugs and crime. “It was drugs, guns, everything,” Parsons said. “This was a challenging property.”

For Parsons, the first step to overcoming The Boulevard’s negative reputation was to talk to the residents at the property and the prospects who would choose to move there. “Your biggest thing is talking to people, the ones you can at least, like humans,” Parsons said. She had worked as a Property Manager at a nearby apartment community. When she came to The Boulevard, she brought her reputation as an excellent manager and some residents from her previous employer. “People found out where I went and they were already wanting to come and apply,” Parsons said. “I had over 60 people come over here to apply.”

As the Regional Manager, Viera said she knew within the first 30 days that Parsons would turn the property around. “I knew that it could be done,” Viera said. “What it took was turning the reputation around.” Parsons worked with the Springfield Police Department to build relationships with the officers. She opened the apartment’s community room to the officers during off hours. The police officers can use the room to grab some coffee and fill out their paperwork. “They are always telling us thank you,” Parsons said. “We take care of them. And they take care of us.” Parsons said the police presence has helped residents feel safer and has transformed the property’s reputation within the community.

The Boulevard currently has a waitlist and they have an NPS score of +96.61. “It’s worked out really well,” Parsons said. “It’s all about working with your team and all about making sure you are on the same page and focused.”

Parsons leads a four-person team with Connie Reedy (2019) as her Leasing Agent, and Bryan Parsons (2020) and George Smith (2021) as Maintenance Technicians. She recommends that all property managers find a mentor. She said Viera became her mentor when she was her Regional Manager. “She was amazing,” Parsons said. “She would help out anytime.” Carolyn Henson (2021) is Parsons' current Regional Manager. “She’s a very committed person,” Henson said. “There's a lot of things that really stand out with her.”

(L to R) George Smith, Connie Reedy, Trisha Parsons, and Bryan Parsons.

Parsons recently accepted a position as a Mobile Leasing Consultant with Cohen-Esrey. Henson said Parsons will leave some big shoes for the new Property Manager to fill. She said she’s looking for “someone who is not afraid to get their hands dirty and help wherever it’s needed.” Even with Parsons' impending departure to a new position, Henson said she’s confident that The Boulevard will continue to succeed because of the great team that they have put in place.“The whole group works together as a true team. That’s why the property runs so well the way it does,” Henson said. "To see them work together like they do is really good.”