City Club Apartments Launches Global Property Management Company

"This is a historic day for our customers, investors, partners and the industry," said Holtzman. "We are executing on the final piece of our CCA vision—rethinking, redefining and delivering the ultimate urban and suburban-urban apartment experience. From the outset, we committed to a design, hospitality, service, amenity and value creation plan that is unequaled.  And, as we move closer to full execution, we know there is no one who will care as much about our residents and our communities, or fully- realizing this big, bold and disruptive vision as we do. We are completing the 'relationship' with our customer."

Beginning May 1, CCA will begin managing the first five of its 30 properties.

Those properties include: Ann Arbor City Apartments, Ann Arbor; Central West End Apartments, St. Louis; Plaza Club City Apartments, Kansas City; 800 Tower City Apartments, Louisville and CCA, CBD, Cincinnati.  All of these communities will be rebranded as City Club Apartments and the rest of the communities will transfer to CCA Management by year-end.  "This is a great story," said Holtzman.  "It's the beginning of the next 100 years of a company that has been innovating, elevating and creating since 1919."

The CCA brand, which began less than a year ago with 20 employees, is expected to grow to more than 275 people by the end of 2017.  "We are recruiting the very best hospitality and apartment talent in North America," said Holtzman. "It's no coincidence that our executives are all owners. It's critical that the interest of the company is always aligned with our customers and investors."

That is reflected in CCA Management's first two hires.  Dale Phillips, a 23-year industry veteran and former President of Mark Taylor Residential joined CCA earlier this year as President and COO of City Club Apartments Management.  Phillips is nationally recognized for his hospitality and business acumen and his ability to develop and execute on industry-leading and award-winning employee engagement, loyalty, training and growth and performance programs. He is also credited for driving tremendous value creation for the Mark Taylor portfolio. According to Phillips, one of the most integral components of his team realizing CCA's bold vision is the fact that the company controls its real estate. "Stability is everything in our business and our ownership team manages for value and thinks generationally. That is a true differentiator," he said.

Don Gillette, CCA's Senior Vice President of People and Culture, joined the company after nearly five years with MGM Resorts and 15 years with Four Seasons, where he set the international bar for the delivery of uncompromising people centric service.  "We are attracting highly engaged, like-minded leaders and staff that always put the resident first, think differently, are hungry to learn and grow and wake up every morning saying 'I want to find a better way,'" said Gillette.  "In return, we are providing them with unlimited opportunities and will invest heavily into their growth.  Highly engaged employees create highly engaged residents."

This announcement follows the June 3, 2016 announcement that Jonathan Holtzman was leaving Village Green with all of the company's real estate but one, and the entire $500 million new development pipeline.  The story is below.

SETTING THE STAGE
Holtzman purchases Village Green real estate assets

Last June, Holtzman announced he had sold his 50 percent interest in Village Green Holding Company to Compatriot Capital, Inc. Under the agreement, Holtzman acquired all of Village Green's real estate assets but one as well as the company's entire $500 million development pipeline (six mixed-use communities) while Compatriot assumed ownership and control of the Village Green brand and its third-party property management, development, construction, corporate housing, and communications company.

City Club Apartments and its affiliates acquired ownership interests in five existing apartment communities located in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City and Louisville, along with the first option to purchase two additional projects currently under construction in Pittsburgh (which it plans to execute) as well as another 10 North American mixed-use communities in various stages of development and construction. Following the transaction, Holtzman and his Canadian partner Alan Greenberg's portfolio included more than 10,000 apartment and penthouse units in 30 single and mixed-use communities totaling more than $2 billion in value.  Village Green continued to manage the CCA portfolio immediately following the transaction.

Holtzman and Compatriot Capital had co-owned Village Green Holding since 2011. Holtzman was the third generation of his family to lead Village Green. His grandfather Joseph Holtzman started as a single-family home builder in 1919; father Irwin "Toby" Holtzman and uncle David Holtzman expanded the company to include commercial, retail and apartment development, construction and management. Under Jonathan, who joined the company in the late 1970s, the company focused exclusively on apartments and grew dramatically to become one of the apartment industry's oldest and most respected developers, owners and managers. 

THE NEXT 100 YEARS: 
DISRUPTING THE DESIGN, AMENITY AND HOSPITALITY PARADIGM
A transformational urban apartment brand is born

"There is a new American Dream," said Holzman.  "We are engulfed in a demographic, sociographic and attitudinal shift like none other in our lifetime.  Millennials, professionals, empty nesters and baby boomers worldwide are seeking connection and active engagement in vibrant urban and suburban-urban environments, and CCA is at the epicenter of answering that call with the creation of, and now management of, inspiring and experience-rich mixed-use environments."

According to Holtzman, who passionately urges that CCA communities should never be compared to what some would call peer projects, the difference between a good urban apartment community and a great urban apartment community can be found in an owners and operators "eyes, ears, intent and passion.  We deploy tremendous resources to understand our customers, our communities and the greater world around us," said Holtzman.   

CCA has immersed itself in a design driven approach to urban and suburban-urban mid-rise and high-rise mixed-use development with the hospitality, service and resort-class amenities of the world's best five-star hotels.  CCA communities feature a wide range of floor plans, carefully curated décor and exclusively manufactured cabinetry, furniture and fixtures, boutique lobbies and lounge areas, expansive outdoor spaces and sky parks, the latest life-driven technologies and a highly purposeful approach to green and wellness. City Club Apartments supports dozens of local charities and matches every application and lease administration fee three to one in support of the Red Panda Network through the Holtzman Wildlife Foundation. The Foundation actively supports advocacy, education and the preservation and re-population of endangered wildlife globally and will donate between $500,000 and  $1 million to such causes this year.

Those spaces, places and initiatives combined with premium services including 24/7 concierge, valet parking and community programming directors differentiate City Club Apartments from all others in the apartment industry.

About City Club Apartments:
The 100-year old City Club Apartments is an owner/developer of urban and suburban-urban rental apartments and penthouses with approximately 10,000 apartments in 30 apartment communities, $2 billion in real estate assets and more than $500 million currently under development/construction in North America. The company has offices in Detroit, Chicago and Toronto.

SOURCE City Club Apartments