HOMESTEAD HAPPENINGS
Introducing Homestead Living and Celebrating Growth
It's an exciting time in the company, and with $200 million of new development in the pipeline, there is so much growth and opportunity ahead for our organization!
As you may know, last year, we formed Homestead Companies, the parent company that unites our development, construction, and management divisions. It is now the perfect timing to form Homestead Living and further centralize the leadership and management of our day-to-day operations and the three distinct asset types and brands of living we offer: Homestead America, Homestead U, and Homestead Senior Living.
With that, some exciting news! These promotions are a reflection of where we're headed. Please join me in congratulating the following individuals:
Laura Formica, from Vice President of Operations to President, Homestead Living
Qiletha Caston, from Director of Operations to Vice President of Systems & Operations, Homestead Living
Cory Ratai, from Regional Manager to Division Vice President, Homestead U
Jennifer Radcliffe, from Regional Manager to Division Vice President, Homestead America
Tanya Brand, from Senior Community Manager to Regional Manager, Homestead Senior Living
I want to personally thank each of you for all you do, for being a part of the Homestead team, and for enabling us to enjoy the growth we’ve had in the past and look forward to in the future!
Mid-Ohio Food Bank Volunteering
As our company continues to grow so does our outreach in the community. Last month, the Homestead Helpers Volunteer program was launched at the Mid-Ohio Foodbank. In Ohio, 1,547,110 people are facing hunger - and of them 448,600 are children. 1 in 6 children faces hunger.
Our team spent the day helping clean, sort, and package food in the warehouse. Mid-Ohio Foodbank distributes enough food for more than 140,000 meals each day.
It was a great day of team comradery and lending a helping hand. Our efforts will continue to help make the world a better place and we look forward to our next Homestead Helpers event.
University Village – Voted Best Place to Live!
It's been a huge week for Homestead Companies! With the announcement of Homestead Living and the well-deserved promotions, we've got more good news to share!
University Village has been voted the best place to live at The Ohio State University by the Lantern Student Newspaper. This is the second year in a row that UV has taken home the coveted award.
A huge shout out to the team at UV for providing the best resident life experience possible and going above and beyond.
Champ Chain Winner: Rylan Romesburg
Please join us in congratulating the September Champ Chain Winner, the team member who went above and beyond to deliver on our mission statement of providing the best resident life experience possible during TURN, our most challenging time of year: Rylan Romesburg, our Marketing Manager at The View in State College, PA!
"Rylan was so instrumental in ensuring that we had a successful turn and move-in this year. I didn't expect to be pregnant during turn and unable to walk all of our staircases, but Rylan stepped in and took charge of the inspections. He made sure that our records were 100%, he pushed our teams to get ahead as much as possible, inspected vectors' work, lead cleaning crews, and even directed our furniture delivery and installation this year. Rylan has proved that he's so much more than just our marketing manager; he's a great, take-charge kind of leader and it makes me excited to see how he will continue to grow with Homestead U!" - Dana Culbert, Community Manager
Thank you, Rylan, for stepping up and taking on additional responsibilities during turn, which is such a reflection of your character and leadership! Your willingness to do what it takes for your team and your community is so appreciated, and well-deserving of this recognition.
Employee Spotlight: Cathy Compton
Job Title: Community Manager
Community: Homestead Village Beavercreek
How long have you been with Homestead? 8 months
What were you doing before Homestead? I've been a community manager for many years.
Where are you originally from? Terre Haute, Indiana
What are your hobbies?My daughter and I love going to haunted locations together. I love listening to audio books, sci-fi and thrillers. I'm a total geek with super hero & fantasy movies.
What would you most likely tell your 13 year old self? Smile and laugh more and don't sweat the small stuff.
If you could have coffee with three people, dead or alive, who would it be? My mother and both of my grandmothers.
Who is the most famous person you have ever met? I've actually never met a famous person.
What's your dream vacation? Anywhere on a beautiful warm beach.
What is one THING you can't live without? My kids.
What is your proudest moment at Homestead? Connecting with my senior applicants and helping them thru our construction delays. I'm proud to have created a great team at Homestead Village and to be a part of Homestead Companies.
Deandra Boll, Home Office, 3 years
Del Baker, Appian Way, 4 years
Haley Morris, Pavilion, 2 years
Tracie Greene, University Village, 2 years
Ricki Outlaw, Helix, 2 years
Seamus Brennan, Home Office, 1 year
Successful Move-ins for HU
This year's lease-up was one of our most challenging to date, with so much uncertainty surrounding the pandemic, how universities would respond and whether students would return to campus or stay online.
Leasing momentum lagged early on compared to our pre-pandemic numbers, and with all markets in some sort of hybrid state our physical traffic and ability to market on-campus was non-existent. But our onsite teams never gave up and never lost focus. We stayed nimble with our strategy and pivoted often to ensure we were pacing in line or ahead of our competitors. As markets began to open back up, we were ready to execute; it was so awesome to watch properties lagging 50+ leases behind catch up and exceed their goal in a matter of weeks.
From a turn standpoint, the proactiveness in planning and executing early paid off, and this was one of the quieter move-ins to date; out of 6,831 residents, we fielded no more than 20 customer service calls at the home office. Thank you to our onsite teams for taking great care of our residents during what can be a stressful and chaotic time, and for your leadership and commitment to our mission statement of providing the best resident life experience possible!
I am so proud of the grit and resilience our teams have demonstrated this past year and a half. We are preleased at 94% as of today, with 10 out of our 13 properties at or above their 2021/2022 occupancy goal, and we will continue to push throughout this month. With the new academic year underway, I am looking forward to kicking off the 22/23 leasing season and making it our best year yet. Thanks to each one of you, let's go team HU!
The Homestead Step Challenge is coming to a close in just a few days. What started out as a challenge, quickly turned to a bit of a friendly competition. Since the beginning of the "competition", The Home Office has walked a combined 3,3031,866. Guy Purington was able to hack Google and discovered 3 million steps, If each step you take were 3 feet long then doing the math that'd be 9,000,000 feet, or 108,000,000 inches, or 274,320,000 cm, or 1704.55 miles, or 5113.66 yds.
We hope everyone continues to stay active after the challenge and it was great seeing all the creative ways on how people got to stepping.
Some additional wellness tips:
