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Skansie Pointe – Redefining “Rental”

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Skansie Pointe apartment interior of beautiful kitchen with stainless steel appliances, a kitchen island, and pendant lighting

Skansie Pointe is an exciting new entry to the south sound multifamily offerings. Breaking from the traditional formula of garden-style or mid-rise; Skansie Pointe consists of 174 three-bedroom single family homes for rent across 18 acres. The team at Skansie Pointe serves as a shining example of Edison’s commitment to the best resident experience. Launching a new category is difficult even under the best conditions; throw in a pandemic, resulting global supply issues, and public hesitancy and that would be enough to crumble the most resolute teams.

Skansie Pointe is proud to define a new category in multifamily living and throw previous conceptions of renting aside.

Our community was designed with the multifamily resident in mind, residents who have come to rely upon many of the amenities so many take for granted. Skansie Pointe delivers with Valet Trash service, fully equipped 24-hour fitness center and expansive clubhouse. Residents can also take advantage of the dog-run, play structures and fireside amenity spaces.

Build, Lease, Repeat

A project of this scale resulted in an 18 month lease up, with anywhere between 10 and 20 homes receiving TCO monthly. Approximately three quarters of the way through the project being built, we had the challenge of turning and re-renting the first set of homes that came online to a new set of residents, all while continuing to simultaneously lease more new product as it came online.

Skansie Pointe apartment outdoor amenity with seating and a fireplace

Running a lease-up in conjunction with managing continual construction on site, was a unique challenge our team had never faced before.

One of our greatest challenges was trying to sell the future amenities not yet built to residents currently leasing. Whenever possible, our team worked to turn the negatives of living in a construction zone into positives. Tailgating-inspired block parties, ice cream trucks, and “yappy-hour” dog meetups gave residents a taste of the close, community feel we were all actively building together. This unique neighborhood experience made it an easy decision for residents to invest in the future of our completed project; if we can have this much fun in a parking lot, imagine what we will do with a 3,000 square foot clubhouse!

At Skansie Pointe, we have also overcome unique financial and operational challenges. Typically, our multifamily units operate with expenses at $6,500 per unit per year. Skansie, on the other hand, runs $12,000 per unit, per year. Maximizing financial performance is a daily focus for our teams – maintenance is a huge factor in this cost.

Skansie Pointe community aerial view

We typically contract vendors for 1 building or perhaps 10 for a garden style community, at Skansie we sign contracts for 174 buildings, 174 roofs, 174 sets of windows, garage doors, pest control, etc. Vendors charge upwards of $2,000 or more to paint the inside of our homes.

Having as much maintenance work done in-house as possible, has resulted in savings of more than 50%. Across 63 move outs last year, this totals savings in excess of $120,000 on just vendor paint costs alone!

Our greatest competition continues to be potential home-buyers. With housing costs high, and supply low, we found a strong market in advertising the benefits of renting a home rather than purchasing. We highlight the lack of property taxes, insurance, down payments, and lengthy loan terms. Couple that with the ability to be in a luxury home, have access to a state-of-the-art clubhouse, and have all your maintenance needs met by our team – and we capture a group of what we call, renters by choice.

Skansie Pointe is honored to be a finalist for Best New Development of the Year, Washington Multifamily Housing Association, Emerald Awards 2023