Apartment Operators Put Plans in Place to Re-Open Leasing Offices, Amenities and Clubrooms

Expect a gradual re-opening of leasing offices, club rooms and amenities, with some opening their doors as soon as mid-May.
Editor’s note: I recently reported on the re-opening of apartment communities for NMHC. Following is an expanded version of that article, and includes comments from more sources, such as Camden and Bell Partners. It also covers more of the operational strategies, such as maintenance requests, prospect tours and info about the expanding number of states and their policies.
JUST IN TIME
Many apartment owners and managers currently are preparing to open their communities and have intimated that it will happen in the days after shelter-in-place policies are lifted in their states.
Just in time. The New York Times reported today that Nearly half of the United States will reopen in some form beginning this week. Interestingly, public officials have begun to dig in, as some are saying, “the states are open, but the cities are not.” You figure that one out.
Plans also are in place or are being finalized about how to perform in-unit maintenance work orders, the pursuit of additional personal protection equipment (PPEs) and cleaning supplies, as well as crafting liability waivers for residents and prospective residents.
Most say they will follow the recent Phase 1-2-3 guidelines announced by the White House last week. For management companies, some decisions will be left to individual owners, rather than expressing one blanket policy for their entire portfolios.
Georgia last week was among about a dozen states to re-open for business to ……