Industry experts are hailing the apartment industry as a bright spot in the housing market, which comes as no surprise, given the recent hardships experienced by this industry and the public at large.
Apartment communities stay on top by knowing when it’s time to update the buildings. Property owners must be up to date on new regulations, as well as keep communities looking fresh and not outdated.
Stoneham-based Brickpoint Properties Inc. recently undertook a complete renovation of its Burlington community, Beacon Village Apartments, originally constructed in the early 1970s. The three-building, 420-unit community spent around $15 million over a period of four years to completely transform its outdated property.
People who don’t know Beacon Village Apartments was built 40 years ago are surprised to learn it isn’t brand new, said Colleen McAnespie, property manager. Much of the renovations were geared towards the exteriors and redesigning the buildings, she said.
Upgrades included new roofs, fiber cement siding and new windows. Updates were also made to the fireplace, carpeting and furniture in the community’s clubhouse, which is often used by residents to host private functions. One of the community’s older buildings was renovated to include a fitness center for the tenants.
Recycling Back In Vogue
Recycling also played a big role for Beacon Village Apartments’ renovations. Older materials coming out of construction were scrapped to recycle instead of being senT to the dump. Tenants now also have the option to participate in recycling in addition to traditional trash pickup.
Perhaps the most creative use of recycling came when redesigning the landscaping. Beacon Village Apartments tried to save the mature plantings it had, McAnespie said. New plantings were added, but the community preserved as much of the older plants as it could “as opposed to just throwing them in the dumpster and getting all new.”
Recycling is important to Woburn-based construction firm Tocci Building Cos. as well. The company only works with waste haulers that separate debris and recycle it, said Joseph P. Ferolito, vice president of planning and cost engineering. The company has a 90 percent recycling rate with its own construction waste.
Whether Tocci uses recycled products during construction depends on the owners, said V.J. Tocci, senior project manager. The most popular – and environmentally sensitive – solutions include using linseed oil products for linoleum flooring and using bamboo, a readily replenishable product, he said.
More popular upgrades in multifamily properties include making the heating and cooling capabilities in older buildings more energy efficient, Tocci said. Options include utilizing naturally occurring energy sources for heating and cooling the building, such as implementing solar panels and using geothermic wells.
Roof replacements are at the top of most communities to-do lists, Ferolito said. “All of these properties are getting their roofs replaced, from – more than likely – an old tar and gravel, [or] even an upgraded membrane roof with minimal insulation, to a much more stringent, insulated membrane roof that meets current energy requirements and energy codes.”
Upgrades On A Full House
The age of a community also factors in knowing when to perform an upgrade, said Michael Roberts, vice president of development at Avalon Bay Communities’ Boston office. Minor renovations for a community several years old could include upgrading interiors, kitchen appliances, common areas and a facelift for the exterior.
The next level is typically older generations still in very attractive locations, Roberts said. “We might go in and do something a little bit more intensive – not only upgrade interiors and common areas, but reconfigure a clubhouse in the amenity package.”
While the preference is to get all of the renovations completed at once, it depends on the property, Roberts said. “You want the work to be compressed from a time perspective, and you try to minimize the disruption at the community.”
Beacon Village Apartments was 100 percent occupied during its renovation. “We knew that was going to be difficult,” McAnespie said. “We met long and hard beforehand. These are people’s homes. How do we go in and disturb them for a number of weeks?”
The solution came by creating packets for the community. Tenants “got plenty of heads up notice and a packet giving them detailed information of what we would be doing and the timeframe that we would be there,” McAnespie said.
“Rarely do you have a situation where it’s a vacant community,” Roberts said about apartment complex renovation. “It is more the rule than the exception that you will have residents living in the community.”
Funding the renovations on Beacon Village Apartments, the largest co-op in Massachusetts, came in the form of $10 million of excess proceeds from financing and $5 million from capital assessments.
