HOMESTEAD HAPPENINGS
In The News: Homestead Cos. Continues to Grow in Senior Living and Student Housing
Homestead Cos. wants to break ground on at least four senior housing projects a year, every year, for the next 8 to 10 years, said Matt Canterbury, President of Development at the Columbus firm.
That's just one piece of a multi-pronged growth strategy for Homestead, which is also gearing up to break ground on Lusso, an 8-acre multifamily development set to occupy one of the last blighted spots in Italian Village. The firm is also active in the student housing market, with plans to grow to 15,000 student beds in its portfolio by 2024.
The firm recently completed an active senior project in Grove City, and last August, broke ground on a community near Blacklick. Another is on the way near Dayton in Miami Township, joining an existing community in Beavercreek.
Homestead's senior division is also working on two projects in southeast Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, Indiana.
"We're realizing more and more who our resident is and who we are going for," Canterbury said. The firm offers "more of a blue-collar, affordable and attainable product" than some of the luxury options on the market, he said.
Canterbury said the baby boomer generation is increasingly moving into this type of housing. By 2030, the senior living industry expects about 10 million baby boomers to be housed in independent living, he said.
"Seniors want to stay in their communities," Canterbury said. "They're invested in them, they volunteer in them. And this type of housing allows a different segment of the market to do that."
Laura Formica, who previously led the student housing division before being promoted to President of Homestead Living, said the company's strategy on the student side is to buy property that is poorly managed or has a lot of deferred maintenance and turn it around. The company had 8,700 beds in 2020 and is on track to have about 10,000 before this year is over, she said.
In 2021, Homestead sold three student living properties in Lubbock, Texas, Charlottesville, Virginia, and one in Tucson, Arizona; which allowed the company to then acquire three properties in College Station, Texas.
Homestead is now at 3,300 beds in the College Station market, Formica said, their biggest presence in the country. Homestead U has 2,800 student beds in Columbus and 1,400 beds in Athens, Ohio, for comparison.
The Homestead U division is also working on its first development. The company is building a 300-bed student housing development near the University of Kentucky.
Formica said having "tribal knowledge," like what challenges the building faced during development or leasing, on a project allows it to run well when it is completed.
In The News: Hayden Park Breaks Ground in Huber Heights, OH
HUBER HEIGHTS — Yet another housing development is breaking ground in Huber Heights, the region’s fastest-growing suburb, with a retail development planned next door.
Hayden Park, which will include 192 apartment units within six buildings, will be constructed at 5599 Huber Road, off of Old Troy Pike at a location south of I-70 and north of Taylorsville Road.
“The goal is to serve an underserved community as it pertains to multi-family housing,” said Matt Canterbury, President of Development at Homestead Companies, the company leading the project. “This property is primed to serve not only residents of Huber Heights, but those that commute to the greater Dayton area.”
Construction on the $30 million project will begin this week and is anticipated to be completed within 15 months, according to Canterbury, but rentals will begin to become available within a year with pre-leasing options being offered as early as October of this year.
“We anticipate a lot of our renters are going to be young professionals or even established professionals that want the proximity to the freeway to get to and from work in Dayton, Springfield, or even Columbus,” Canterbury said.
Hayden Park will consist of mostly two-bedroom units, with about 40% to be one-bedroom apartments. The one-bedroom units will be around 700 square feet for rent at about $1,100, and the two-bedrooms will be around 1,100 square feet at a price of $1,400 per month.
“We’re going to open in phases,” he said. “We’ll have six apartment buildings on-site and one community clubhouse. The clubhouse, along with three of the buildings, will open in 12 months, then the other three buildings will lag just a little bit behind.”
Retail, Road Development
The Hayden Park project will be developed on an eight-acre parcel of land, and is one of two projects taking place in the immediate area. Just south is a parcel set to be developed as a retail complex by Broad Reach Retail Partners, according to Huber Heights City Manager Bryan Chodkowski, who provided preliminary information about this project. Broad Reach will tear down the former Swan Lake apartment buildings that are currently on the property.
In connection to the project, Broad Reach and the city will also work on road improvements, including the widening of Old Troy Pike, to limit traffic congestion in the area of the projects.
“We’re looking to reconfigure some new driveways, put in a new traffic signal, and add another northbound lane from Taylorsville to the highway, which will improve traffic flow through there,” Chodkowski said.
Broad Reach did not immediately respond to questions about details of their development plans.
Homestead is also spearheading another development project a few miles away at the former Marian Meadows Shopping Center, located in the 6100 block of Brandt Pike, just north of Fishburg Road.
That $40 million project will include construction of 192 market-rate apartment units and a 133-unit senior housing development. Construction is set to begin this year, with a completion goal of October 2024.
In The News: Homestead U Expands in College Station
College Station, Texas — Homestead U has acquired Aspen Heights College Station, a 797-bed student housing property located near Texas A&M University in College Station. The community was acquired with Columbus Pacific and its affiliates for an undisclosed price. The property offers cottage-style units with bed-to-bath parity across 27 acres. “This most recent acquisition reinforces our strong belief in the power of the Texas A&M University educational system, and in the state of Texas overall,” says Laura Formica, president of Homestead U. “College Station, Texas, is one of the top collegiate markets in the country and continues to enjoy unparalleled enrollment growth, evidenced by its largest freshmen class in history for fall 2021.”
In The News: Homestead America Part of Multi-billion Dollar Project
A sprawling $1 billion mixed-use development is in the works in Obetz.
The development, called Buckstone, will occupy about 800 acres at the corner of Lockbourne and Rathmell roads. It's slated to include commercial space and amenities such as public parks, pools and waterfront access, City Administrator Rod Davisson told Columbus Business First.
Buckstone will include a 143-acre commercial section with a wide variety of uses. Davisson said it will make use of a "Neo-Bavarian" design, combining stone elements inspired by German architecture with modern staples such as steel and glass.
"It's flexible in the sense that we can adapt to the market changes," Davisson said. "We want to be, and that's the hallmark of Obetz, we want to be nimble. We want to attract the amenities our residents want regardless of the state of the world."
A 245-acre portion of the site will see the development of single-family homes, townhomes and apartments, Davisson said. This will include 252 single-family homes from Pulte and 424 single-family homes developed by Lenar Homes.
The average value of the single-family homes is predicted to be around $400,000, Davisson said.
The 288 apartments will be developed by former Columbus Blue Jacket Brandon Dubinsky's firm JBM Development and sit on the same plat of land as the Pulte homes, taking up more than 126 acres.
Jeff Baur, principal at JBM Development, said his firm's apartments are slated to break ground in May of this year.
"We think there's a need for apartments outside of I-270," Baur said. "We think there's a desperate need for housing to accommodate the (job) growth."
Davisson said the single-family housing developments should start construction this year as well.
The remaining 387.3 acres haven't been annexed into Obetz yet, Davisson said. The city is waiting until the owners of the land want to annex it before planning future development.
"It could be anything really," Davisson said.
The project is one of several large-scale mixed-use developments underway Central Ohio. Grove City's sprawling 210-acre Beulah Park is nearing completion and Delaware County's 1,200-acre Evans Farm mega-development is already eying its third phase.
Davisson said he estimates it will take about five years for all Buckstone's residential units to be built out, although inflation and interest rates could impact that timeline.
Once the housing is built, the city will then have funding, through tax revenue, for infrastructure to complete the project's commercial vision, which Davisson hopes will be done in 10 years.
The commercial portion is also being funded via a community reinvestment area and non-school tax increment financing.
When planning for the project began in June 2021, Davisson said the city was already feeling pressure and demand for housing, given the region's shortage. Then, Intel announced its plan to build two semiconductor plants in New Albany, creating thousands of jobs, which Davisson said added to the pressure.
He said the city moved quickly to get the planning underway for this undertaking, and that it would typically take years to do what the town of just more than 5,400 has done in about seven months.
"This is how government has to move now," Davisson said."It's all dovetailing very nicely together. We're going to be able to help support the regional growth and deliver a world-class project south of I-70."
In The News: Homestead Gears Up to Break Ground on Lusso Project
Columbus developers Lykens Cos. and Homestead Cos. will break ground on their Italian Village-area apartment development at the end of this year.
Matt Canterbury, President of Development for Homestead, said the project plans will be before Columbus City Council for final approval in the next few weeks.
Lusso, as the project is known, consists of 8 acres broken into two separate pieces, a north site bordering 5th Avenue and a south site between 3rd and Detroit avenues near East Alley on what is currently industrial property.
Developer Kevin Lykens, who owns Lykens Cos., said this swath of land is the largest piece of undeveloped ground left in the Italian Village.
The north site will have 287 units and the south site will have 135 with the first units likely being available in late spring of 2023, Canterbury said.
The north site will be a higher density four-story building with underground parking. Canterbury said the building will look like an old warehouse so that it fits with what is currently there and is a nod to what the area used to be used for. Closer to to Italian Village, the project steps down in height into townhomes.
There will be a two-story amenity building with a pool and elevated park. The park will be a private amenity for residents only.
"This is a really unique amenity," Canterbury told Columbus Business First.
The south site will have three- and four-story apartment buildings near the Clark Grave Vault property. These buildings will have a modern, industrial design, Canterbury said.
"The south site will likely attract similar young professional demographics that the Italian Village is already capturing. The north site will be more upscale and luxury, so it will attract young professionals, but also established professionals who want to live in the area, but not right on High Street," Canterbury said. "The apartments at the north site will … have hotel-like amenities and really be a step ahead."
Other firms working on the project include Columbus Architectural Studio, who is handling the design; Crimson Design, handling interior design; and MKSK, handling landscape design. Homestead's construction arm will be the general contractor for the project.
Lykens has several projects to its name in Italian Village, like the Budd Dairy Food Hall, but this is Homestead's first in the area. Both said the project will be transformational for the neighborhood.
"When you start to see stuff redeveloping and rehabbing, that is when a neighborhood matures," Lykens said.
The Tradition is Back!
After taking a two-year hiatus, the Pancake Breakfast with Bill Willis has returned.
This year's event was held at Homestead Village in Grove City and our knowledgeable speaker, Bill Willis, covered a variety of topics.
"The Fair Housing Pancake Breakfast is one of our signature in-person events and a great opportunity for us to come together, share a meal, and catch up personally and professionally. The content provided by our attorney, Bill Willis, is an incredibly helpful extension of our training library, covering the most relevant and timely topics faced by our team and industry." - Laura Formica
Homestead U Celebrates the College Station Teams!
Homestead U entered the Texas A&M market in College Station, Texas, six years ago with the takeover of The Cottages. Now, HU is one of the largest owners and operators in the market after acquiring 2818, Parkway, and The Heights (formerly known as Aspen Heights). This spring, The Field House off-campus leasing center opened its doors to residents and prospects. Shannon Latkso, Regional Manager, noted, "It's a great amenity, and the location is right in the cultural epicenter of the A&M campus. The teams have really pulled together to make the Homestead U a household name in the market, and we are here this week to celebrate them and their hard work."
The Homestead U team took a night to celebrate all our employees and give recognition to the leadership in College Station. Everyone enjoyed a few drinks, music, and games, and a few lucky people walked away with some raffle prizes.
HA Q1 Medal of Excellence - Rafael Rodriguez
Please join us in congratulating our first ever HA Medal of Excellence winner, Rafael Rodriguez, maintenance technician at Worthington Commons!
Rafael received multiple nominations for demonstrating our core value of "Say It" and here's what his teammates had to say...
"Worthington Commons had 100+ work orders when Rafael started with us, and he completed all of them within 2 weeks by himself. Rafael always goes above and beyond for our residents by ensuring their work orders are completed promptly and correctly. He helps the leasing office when a language barrier arises and has helped us close new leases. Rafael takes pride in his community and the impeccable grounds at WC are proof of that. We are very grateful to have him on our team!" - Steve Turner, Community Manager at Worthington Commons
"Rafael volunteered to go on call for Dave Ridgeway at the last-minute during weekend hours. Not only did he volunteer, but he reached out and asked if he could help in any way. Dave was so impressed; he could not believe that a company could care so much. I told Dave this is how Homestead rolls." - Rae Mckenney, Community Manager at Old Towne Apartments
Thank you, Rafael, for demonstrating the Homestead Core Values through your actions, work ethic, and support. You have made a huge impact on our team and our property in a short amount of time, I can't wait to watch you grow with us. We appreciate you!!
HU February Champ Chain Winner: Mikayla Lewis
Please join us in congratulating our February Champ, the person who not only demonstrated our mission statement, but also our core value "Do the Right Thing": Mikayla Lewis, our Community Manager at The Valley in State College, PA!
"Mikayla has been such a huge helping hand to our team at The View with Dana out on maternity leave. She is always available to answer questions, no matter how small. She is constantly checking in and offering assistance wherever she can. She recently helped me navigate some issues as a first-time leasing manager, and I could not have done it without her. Mikayla is always so nice to the residents and staff, and displays a fantastic attitude every day in how she carries herself as a leader. With The Valley being short-staffed in CA's, Mikayla helps out with packages, prospective residents, and manning the front desk. She is an excellent leader who works hard and that work ethic is infectious; every day I try to mirror her charisma and untiring drive to do more. I show up to work every day happy, because of Mikayla!"
- Team nomination by Emily Wiltrout, Rylan Romesberg, Thomas Reitz, Michael Koch, Lindsey Scott