Property Development Services
In the role of owner/operator and developer, we have developed over $120 million of student housing assets in 5 markets. This ownership background brings a high degree of focus to managing our properties from an owner's perspective.
Through a national network of industry contacts and long term relationships, Innovative Student Housing continues to identify potential development opportunities. As a component of this process, Innovative evaluates market housing needs, assists with financial modeling, aids in the entitlement process, and works with architects and engineers to ensure that the best product is delivered to the target demographic.
More specifically, Innovative offers the following services:
Market Feasibility Studies
To develop a site, developers require essential market information to design and develop successful projects. They need credible research to answer the following questions.
Are the supply/demand dynamics sufficient to predict the project’s success?
How to interpret the current student housing projects’ rent and occupancy and what this will mean for your project?
What are the major risk factors for the development?
What features will give the project a competitive advantage from the student’s perspective?
What rents to expect for each unit type given the property class?
What amenities are essential for the project and which are just desired by the market?
What school policies will be relevant to the project’s success?
How will the site location be perceived by the students at the university?
What market segments would be most likely to lease the project in the future?
Finding the answers to these questions is not easy. Assessing student preferences is challenging, and requires a unique skillset to effectively lead focus groups and surveys to obtain reliable data.
Innovative specializes in a proprietary approach to assess demand with a combination of desktop and field research.
Components of our unique approach:
- We combine both hard data and the “voice of the customer” to fuel our research.
- We have conducted focus groups with over 8,000 students in the past and can selectively draw from this knowledge base when appropriate.
- We have experience in successfully developing student-housing properties ourselves, and know what to analyze to give developers the information they need to gain a competitive advantage.
- We do not “fill” our reports with useless market data that has no bearing on development.
- We are very direct with the strengths and risks we observe so investors can make informed decisions for risk management.
Architectural Design Services
After we conduct a Market Feasibility Study, we may assist the developer in architectural design services based on feedback from the market analysis and our direct experience in student housing development. This would include input in areas such as:
- Desired amenities
- Ideal unit mix
- Room layouts
- Product differentiation
- General traffic flow
- Parking requirements
- Finish-out recommendations
Sourcing Land
Innovative begins the process of sourcing land by conducting research on the ideal campus locations in the country. We then work with local brokers and people in the industry to source land we feel would make ideal development sites.
We may also assist the developer in negotiating the right terms and price for the land, or we may obtain the land ourselves and sell the contract to the developer.
Lease Up & Marketing
Principals of our firm have overseen 20 successful new project lease-up’s with an average occupancy the first year of 99%. To gain such leasing velocity for new projects takes a very unique approach not found in most third-party managers that operate stabilized properties.
Establishing early interest in the project as a scarce resource takes some marketing finesse in the lease up campaign. Utilizing an effective web strategy along with using student leaders to attract interest, we know how to gain such leasing velocity.
Early leasing momentum will improve the value of the project and momentum can carry it into its first few years of operations. This can mean a lower CAP rate at sale.
Development
We also develop projects or co-develop with another developer not experienced in student housing.