Campus Village has 1,071 beds and offers students a variety of floor plans including: efficiency, two-, three-, four-, and five bedroom apartment homes. All units come with direct TV, RocketNET High Speed Wireless Internet and full size washers, dryers and refrigerators. This community hosts the city’s only onsite Lazy River along with a sand volleyball court, basketball court, tetherball court, large outdoor HD movie screen, tanning salon and multiple study rooms.

Asset Plus/Asset Campus team members attended the annual Student Housing InterFace conference last week along with 700 peers in the industry. The team took home the Innovatorawardfor Best New Development Over 200 Beds for the development of 25Twenty in Lubbock, Texas.

The Innovator Awards recognize the student housing industry's most original and successful developers, owners, architects and managers.

25Twentyis a compelling investment for Asset Plus/Asset Campus since the property is located in a public university market with solid enrollment growth and strong barriers to entry.  Prior to the grand opening in July 2011, the team had successfully pre-leased the property to 100% occupancy for the fall 2011 academic school year.

25Twenty’s premiere location separates it from other student housing developments in the market. This development is located within walking distance ofTexas Tech Universityand the Jones AT&T Stadium. Residents are provided convenient access to parking in the adjacent 11-story Raider Park garage, which is a mixed used development with an open-air rooftop bar and ground level retail.

Asset Plus/Asset Campus designed this property to feature top of the line amenities including: a 15-seat computer lab, “Full Swing Golf” Simulator, tanning room, 1,800-sq.ft. fitness center, soft serve ice cream machine, two courtyards   containing a sundeck with swimming pool, poolside hammock area,   outdoor grilling station, pro-style sand volleyball court, competitive horseshoe pits and an outdoor fire pit.

The Domain at Town Centre, a new student housing development in Morgantown, West Virginia, was recently featured on their local news station for their fundraising efforts with the 2012 ACH Charity: Water campaign.  As many of you know, last Thursday, March 22nd, was National Water Day, below is the article and video link that features The Domain's story.

Cities across the country, including Morgantown, are celebrating World Water Day.

The Domain at Town Centre sponsored a Charity Water Drive at 15 area businesses.

Instead of receiving a free cup of water the stores asked patrons to donate 50 cents to the cause.

"We are raising money for an international organization that drills wells in developing countries for those who don't have water," said Courtney Jurasko of the Domain at Town Centre. "So what we like about the company is that for ever dollar that we donate, they are able to take that and track it online. Which is really notable for a charity. Its really cool."

The Domain has offices across the country and hopes to raise $50,000 for the water charity.

http://wboy.videodownload.worldnow.com/WBOY_20120322180242613AA.mp4 

We are so proud of the new development team out in West Virginia for going above and beyond and including their entire community at large in this fundraiser. We also want to thank the 15 restaurants that partnered with The Domain to help raise money: Coach's Bar and Grill, TCBY, Kenyan Cafe, Tudor's Biscuit World, Oliverio's, Tutto Gelato, Lira, Chico's Fat Burrito's, Cold Stone, Boston Beanery, Rosa Pizaa, Ali Baba, Zenclay, Wild Mountain Bakey and Cafe Mojo.

*ACH student housing properties all across the nation have joined together in hopes of raising over $50,000 for the non-profit Charity:Water. Charity:Water is a non-profit that assists in providing clean drinking water to people in developing nations while tracking every dollar that is donated to the cause. Follow this link: www.mycharitywater.org/achspring to learn more or make a donation today!

With all the different means of communication available to residents on our student housing properties, YouTube continues to be a popular way to connect with the targeted demographic.

The Pointe at 3636, an ACH student housing property located in East Lansing, MI, recently used YouTube to invite residents to their upcoming Block Party. Not only did they inform residents about the event details (time, location, food, prizes, etc.) but they also used their property mascot, Pointy the Penguin, to help promote the event. 

ACH student housing properties nationwide have different property mascots that are used to draw attention to their respective properties. Whether the mascots are walking around campus passing out flyers, being seen on the jumbotron at the university football games or making appearances on YouTube videos like such, they are extremely helpful during the leasing season!

We will share more photos and videos of different property mascots in the near future - stay tuned!

When welcoming a prospective resident to your community, there are 5 things that are essential to include in your property marketing video.

• Captions.

Every slide, photo or employee needs to have a detailed caption.  This helps prospective residents know which features are onsite as well as become familiar with employees' faces that they will be interacting with on a regular basis

• Timely Transitions.

Often times we see videos that rotate photo frames too quickly.  We recommend spending at least 5 seconds on each photo you highlight before transitioning to the next.

• Music. 

Nothing is worse than a beautiful video with smooth transitions and great photos, but has NO music. The video needs to have background music that is appealing to your target demographic - multifamily and student housing videos' music may differ slightly.  Contact us if you would like to see further examples of our music selections on student housing or multifamily videos.

• Call to Action.

A strong marketing video ends with a call to action.  You want to keep the text short and sweet because chances are, if they are watching a video about your property - they don't much want to be reading about your property.  A powerful call to action will include the property's phone number and website along with any current promotions.

• Contact Information.

Every video you can upload includes an area to fill out information about your video - DO NOT overlook this step! This is where you can include all of your property's contact information AND your property's website URL.  This will provide an easy way for prospective residents to find you if they do not make it to the end of your video, or if they like what they see in the first 20 seconds and want to contact you immediately!

HOUSTON, February 28 -- GHP Management, a subsidiary of G.H. Palmer Associates, recently awarded Asset Campus Housing with the management of their most recent student housing development.

The Lorenzo is a 2013-2014 mixed use student housing development located in Los Angeles, California. The property will be built in two phases: Phase 1 will be completed in fall 2013 with just under 2,000 beds, while Phase 2 will be completed in fall 2014 with an additional 1,658 beds. Upon completion, The Lorenzo will have a total of 913 units and 3,648 beds available to students in the greater Los Angeles area.

The site is located less than one mile away from the University of Southern California,  St. Mary’s College, LA Trade Tech, Exposition Park and the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Further entertainment near The Lorenzo includes the renowned Staples Center, LA Live, the Music Center and the Disney Concert Hall. In addition, the site is directly adjacent to one of the 19 stations on the future Expo Line, which will be the first mass transit line to connect Downtown Los Angeles with the Westside.

Paving the way for all future student housing developments, The Lorenzo will offer an unparalleled variety of amenities available to residents. Community amenities will include: five libraries with computers and break out study rooms, a fully amenitized virtual gaming and arcade room featuring XBOX 360 and Wii, a theatre room with stadium seating and   karaoke features, a three story fitness facility complete with a climbing wall, a running track and an aerobic/dance fitness room. Outdoor features will include five rooftop sundecks with views of downtown, four resort style swimming pools with cabanas, three heated outdoor Jacuzzis, two indoor basketball courts with elevated joggings tracks circling each court, and a pro-style sand volleyball court. All apartments will be fully furnished with granite counter tops, brushed nickel hardware, stainless steel Whirlpool appliances, wood plank flooring in living and kitchen area and plush cut pile Berber carpet in bedrooms.  

Asset Campus Housing is proud to work with GHP Management in the lease-up of this new development and looks forward to introducing The Lorenzo as the premier student housing community in Los Angeles, California.

About Asset Campus Housing

Headquartered in Houston, Texas, ACH is an affiliate of Houston-based Asset Plus Companies, a third party property management firm specializing in real estate services for investors, developers, and owners. Asset Campus Housing manages a student housing portfolio of 65+ properties, exceeding 42,000 beds located throughout the United States. For additional information, please visit: www.assetcampus.com.

About G.H. Palmer Associates

G. H. Palmer Associates, established in 1975, is a diversified real estate company with an   aggressive commitment to the future of high-quality, investment grade real estate. The firm has been involved in a variety of properties as a general partner for acquisition of residential, commercial and industrial properties. To these partnerships, the company has contributed the creative and administrative leadership as well as the financial depth to assure each property’s successful operation and performance.

Hosting a Casino Night at a student housing community is a great way to get residents, staff and the local community excited and involved with your property. Most of our student housing properties host a Casino Night at the beginning of the spring semester (usually end of January/early February) and attract a wide range of guests including: residents, non-residents, prospective students, community members and ACH corporate team members.

Spending weeks ahead of time planning the event, our staff is responsible for hiring a third party Casino Party Rental Company to bring in the poker tables, poker chips and professional card dealers and requesting local vendors to donate prizes for our attendees during the Casino Night. In the past, we had one property collect over $5,000 in donated prizes! Other essential elements to consider when planning a successful Casino Night include: food & drinks – must have some delicious hand food & bubbly soft drinks at all time during the event, decorations – follow a generic Casino theme and delegate your most creative staff member(s) to be in charge of cost effectively turning your property into the Wynn Casino, and lastly promotion – you have got to sell this event to not only your residents, but also their friends and the entire University student body. Promoting this event will be easy if you have everything planned and organized; you will be able to let everyone know the prizes they could win, the games they can play (Roulette, Craps, Poker, Black Jack, etc.) and what they will be served! 

Our team at Gateway at Lubbock is hosting their annual Casino Night this coming Tuesday and has created a YouTube video to promote their event.  Watch their creative promotional video below:

The Heights at Tallahassee, a student housing property located near Florida State University, often receives questions from their residents on what it is like to be a community assistant. The staff told us that they wanted to be able to provide feedback to their residents through examples, so they have created a series of YouTube videos called “True Life - I’m a Heights CA”.

Our community assistants attend university full time and serve various roles on a day to day basis; leasing agent, bookkeeper, mail-sorter, outreach marketer, community liaison and maintenance assistant. With their ability to manage all of these tasks while maintaining a positive attitude, these young adults are true role models for their peers as well as their corporate team members. We applaud all of our student workers and look forward to learning more about what it is like to be an onsite CA through the series: “True Life – I’m a Heights CA”.

Asset Campus Housing begun the 2012 Annual Training Seminars Nationwide this week. With a portfolio of over 60 student housing properties, ACH hosts 4 regional training seminars for all onsite team members. The seminars cover a wide variety of ACH's most successful leasing strategies and property management skills.

This past Monday, January 16th, was the first of four training seminars in College Station, Texas. Over 150 ACH employees were in attendance including: college student CAs, Leasing Agents and Property Managers from all over Texas! 

The training kicked off with an ice breaker that allowed for all of our student employees to mix and mingle and see what they held in common with other college employees in the company. After learning that most of our staff is Tebow fans, we buckled down and reviewed some of the basics such as: Customer Service, Fair Housing and The Perfect Tour! 

What is unique about our management approach is that we allow each of our employees the opportunity to lead. The various topics discussed were covered by a different individuals in our company who have demonstrated exceptional knowledge and expertise in the given field. For example, the property manager and leasing team at the Crossing Place, a student apartment community in College Station, TX, went over the importance of a guest card. The Crossing Place Apartments have leased 100% for the past 4 years, so taking tips from that team was no time waisted!

Along with the key apartment management skills that were discussed at training; we also rolled out the 2012 ACH Charity Water campaign. ACH properties have been challenged to raise over $50,000 at their communities by April 9th, 2012!  With the caliber of young adults we have working at our properties, it was not surprise that by the end of the day, students had donated over $238 of their own money. The college students were giving whatever cash they had in their pockets, $1, $5 and $20 to show their support! 

It is truly a pleasure to work with such talented and giving individuals. Good luck to everyone going into the the 2012-2013 leasing season!

Follow the blog for future updates on Charity Water!

All of the multifamily and student housing properties that we manage are held accountable to host at least one monthly Resident Event.

Resident Events provide all tenants a time to meet their neighbors and their property management team.  It is important that we as property managers not only provide our residents with a great place to call home, but also a place where the ENJOY living.  These monthly events are free for residents and we encourage them to bring their friends and family members.  Most events include free food, drinks, music and planned activities that involve everyone.

The team at Knights Circle made a YouTube video that gives you some "Tips For Throwing A Good Party" if you need some ideas, check it out!