CHARLOTTE, N.C. – Cradle-to-Grave. That’s Campus Crest’s unique approach to maintaining its student housing assets. Campus Crest Communities, headquartered in Charlotte, NC, is a national developer of first-class student housing across the United States.

 

Not only does Campus Crest develop its properties, all of which are branded The Grove, but it also builds, manages, and owns them as well. Taking advantage of its vertical integration, Campus Crest Construction (CCC), which has built all Grove communities, has taken over the asset maintenance responsibilities of each property once it transitions from a
construction site to an operating property.

 

The benefits of the vertical integration are both compounded and cyclical. Campus Crest Development (CCD) identifies markets, selects sites, acquires all entitlements, and works hand-in-hand with Campus Crest Construction (CCC) in designing each project. CCD hands off the fullyentitled projects to CCC for them to begin construction.
 

In true vertical fashion, the company that built the property is now held accountable for ensuring that the asset functions as intended, retains value, and that the structural integrity of the project remains intact.

 

“Our construction team has intimate knowledge of all materials, fixtures, and processes that are used,” said Mark Zych, VP of Administrative Operations for CCC. “Taking over facilities maintenance responsibilities from the property management group was a logical step. We’ve been able to streamline this process and have seen an immediate improvement in both results and timeliness.”

 

Prior to CCC taking over, the General Managers of each property who are responsible for the daily operation of The Grove, including rent collection, expense management, resident lifestyle programming, sales efforts, and managing property-level staff, were relaying their maintenance needs to their superiors, who would then seek assistance from the construction team. As the property management team has less technical lingo and knowledge base of the physical assets, the exact needs of the situation were often lost in translation and therefore took longer to resolve.

 

With CCC at the helm of facilities maintenance, a continuum of accountability is in place and starts with the construction project manager who was in charge of building the project from start to finish. The same project manager is then held accountable for the quality, functionality, and longevity of that same The Grove property year after year. This driving of accountability and knowledge is essential in building long term asset quality and
value.

 

Life at The Grove includes fully-furnished units that are within close proximity to the university’s campus and are fully loaded with all the amenities and services that its student residents desire.