Urban Igloo Blog

Will Fitzgerald is a Leasing Manager for Equity Residential, where he oversees a luxury building in the Gallery Place/Mt. Vernon Triangle area along Mass Ave.

How long have you been working with Urban Igloo to find renters?

Approximately one year.

The apartment vacancy rate in DC is relatively low and your building is in a highly desirable spot.  Why do you need the help of an apartment finder service?

The vacancy rate is relatively low but that goes hand in hand with the transience of this city. There is constant turnover and always something available or on notice. Like many other buildings in DC, we do have to market through a multitude of mediums. While the internet (ILS’s, Craigslist, property website) is still our largest provider of traffic, getting those extra few leases each month from Urban Igloo clients makes a huge difference – particularly in a smaller building where a couple of move ins can dramatically increase your occupancy! Urban Igloo has also marketed us on the internet and posted videos of our floor plans on youtube.com – which has been incredibly helpful.

Tell us how the process works from your perspective?  What happens when an Urban Igloo renter is interested in your property?

Once an Urban Igloo agent knows their client is interested in our community, the agent will contact me with a detailed description of what their client is looking for. I compare their needs and wants with my availability and let the Urban Igloo agent know what we can do for their client. While we do send Urban Igloo weekly updates on availability, pricing, and any specials, I still appreciate them contacting me before they come in given that anything can change over the course of a couple days.

The Urban Igloo agent will then set an appointment with us for their client, and typically the agent will meet their client here for the tour. I’ve even noticed that the agents will sometimes drive their clients around from property to property as well, showing them the neighborhoods, local shopping, dining, and so forth.

If a client chooses to rent at our community I generally take over from there.

What are the top 3 reasons you continue to partner with Urban Igloo?

They bring in qualified traffic.

Their clients usually already know a good amount about the community before they get here which makes my job much easier.

They are the best locator service in DC.

What else have you found to be effective in attracting renters in this market?

Craigslist and a truly effective property website are important. We also do outreach marketing to local businesses; it’s amazing how effective even a simple phone call can be.

We recently spoke to Urban Igloo CEO Rick Gersten to learn more about the company’s exciting expansion to Philadelphia.

Why is Urban Igloo expanding?

Our customers tell us that our service is valuable and so we want to expand that service to other markets. Based on what we’ve learned, we have a game plan to replicate this in other cities.

Why Philly?

As Washington is renowned for government, Philly is known for being a growing market of “meds and eds,” meaning it’s a hot spot for the medical and educational industries. These growing sectors offer a wealth of jobs, and thus a great need for housing.

Also, Philadelphia has the second lowest stabilized vacancy rate in the nation for Class A and B properties combined, just behind New York (#1)  and above DC (#3).

Oh, and I love cheesesteaks!

What’s the biggest lesson learned from DC that’s helping you hit the ground in Philadelphia?

This is a business of connecting people and our agents are a critical component to that equation. We’ve learned the importance of hiring people with a passion for real estate and an entrepreneurial spirit.

Where’s your Philly office?

Right now, we are located in Center City in temporary space. As soon as we can find the perfect storefront location, we will make a move!

In what neighborhoods are you seeing the most activity?

I equate Rittenhouse Square to Dupont Circle; everything concentric to it is extremely popular. We’ve also seen a lot of action in the up and coming Northern Liberties area.

What’s your favorite cheesesteak spot? (Be careful!)

Jim’s Steaks, without a doubt.

What’s next for Urban Igloo?

We are going to keep doing what we’re doing and try to do it better.

The September/October issue of Rent Check went out yesterday.  It’s packed with news and useful information, including updates on our new website and our new car, insights on Cleveland Park, new properties in South Arlington and Bethesda, and our favorite September events.  Check it out!

Since 1999, Bill Adler and Peggy Robin have run the Cleveland Park listserv.  With over 11,000 members and hundreds of messages each month, it’s now the largest neighborhood email list in the U.S.  In recent years, Bill and Peggy have launched a companion blog, All Life Is Local.

Thanks for joining us, Bill and Peggy.  Briefly describe Cleveland Park to someone moving to DC who’s looking for the right neighborhood fit.

Cleveland Park is the neighborhood with something for everyone. It’s best known for the large Victorian houses that line the sidestreets of the Cleveland Park Historic District, mainly occupied by families, but there’s also a tremendous variety of apartment buildings – from highrise to garden apartments, in all sizes and price ranges – along our two major avenues, Connecticut and Wisconsin – and all less than 10 minutes from downtown DC on the Metro.

To achieve such a vibrant online community, clearly you two have done a masterful job moderating the listserv.  But the neighborhood must play a role as well.  What is it about Cleveland Park that encourages such passion about local affairs?

Cleveland Park has been a cohesive, activist neighborhood at least since the early 60s, when residents came together to fight a plan to put an interstate highway right through the middle of the neighborhood (about where Reno Road is now). In the late 60s and early 70s neighbors fought off a plan to build a “mini-city” of high rise office buildings in place of an older, charming development of garden apartments (McLean Gardens) and in the 80s the Cleveland Park Historical Society was formed and the Cleveland Park Historic District was created to preserve the turn-of-the-century houses and the 1920s Art Deco storefronts on Connecticut Avenue. When we started the Cleveland Park Listserv in 1999, we drew on some of the existing community groups for our initials members, but almost immediately the listserv started growing by word-of-mouth, and by the end of the first year we had about 1,000 members. Now we have over 11,000 members and we’re growing by 30 to 50 new members a week.

One of the hottest debates on your listserv over the years has been whether to modernize the Giant Food at Wisconsin and Newark – and add retail and residential development around it.  Your last report said it’s moving forward.  What’s the latest?

We learned the latest just the other day that Giant is still searching for a financial partner and that groundbreaking (which was supposed to have started this fall) is now put off until at least the beginning of 2012. We just posted an update on All Life Is Local.

Speaking of local businesses … a couple years ago the Post reported that on Cleveland Park’s main strip 11 of 64 storefronts were vacant.  Why have many restaurants and shops struggled in CP?  Is the business environment improving?

Yes, most if not all of those vacant storefronts are now occupied, but the underlying problem remains: The Cleveland Park commercial strip is hampered by a zoning cap of 25 percent of street frontage by restaurants. This restriction was put into place in the early 90s when it seemed that there was a danger of loss of variety of stores, and that by capping the number of restaurants, it would force landlords to rent to other types of neighborhood-serving businesses. We think in practice it’s been a big flop. The space just sits empty, which isn’t good for anyone. If a restaurant wants to move in badly enough, they have to jump through a lot of hoops to get a variance from the zoning cap. In most cases, they’ve received it, but it does mean a much longer period of vacancy while the hearings drag on and people wait for agencies to hand down decisions.

Over the years what have been the most noteworthy changes or causes that were sparked by the listserv?

There have been a number of causes that got organized on the listserv but the main one has been the neighborhood group in support of the Giant. It got its start when the Cleveland Park Citizens Association came out unexpectedly in opposition to the new Giant. That controversy is still ongoing and continues to make sparks fly on the listserv.  Other issues always good for rousing debate are school expansions, speed bumps, and door-to-door magazine solicitors.

What changes would you like to see in Cleveland Park?

We would very much like to see the 25 percent cap on restaurants taken off the commercial strip on Connecticut Avenue. We can see that it has not worked to increase the variety of businesses in the neighborhood, but has had the opposite effect, of discouraging all kinds of businesses, by giving Cleveland Park a reputation of being a tough place to set up shop. We also would like to see a restoration of the wide sidewalk on the east side of the commercial strip on Connecticut Avenue, which would make the block much more pedestrian-friendly, and allow room for sidewalk cafes. Right now it’s a “service lane” – but mainly a parking strip for short-term shoppers. It’s the only part of Connecticut Avenue with this feature. It’s not needed in other neighborhoods, and we think the block would be so much more walkable without it.

Would the neighborhood need another parking lot if they removed the service lane?

Some of the people who have been looking at the parking question have proposed some creative solutions to get back at least some of the spaces that would be lost, by reconfiguring the spaces that would be left, or making more spaces available in the alley behind the shops, but there is no room for a parking lot. Others have noted that during most times of the day, except for the rush hours and Friday and Saturday nights, parking isn’t difficult at the Park’n’Shop lot, and the metered spaces directly on Connecticut Avenue are usually available. There’s also the argument that the other commercial zones on Connecticut Avenue do well without a service lane; this lane was installed in the 1950s when people were encouraged to drive everywhere. We have a different mindset now, especially when we have the Metro right on the corner.

Please share some of your neighborhood favorites:

Favorite place to get a drink or coffee: Nanny O’Brien’s
Favorite upscale restaurant: Palena
Favorite cheap restaurant or carryout: Vace’s deli
Favorite area to walk around: Peirce Mill in Rock Creek Park
Favorite neighborhood hidden gem: Tregaron (the old estate that now houses the Washington International School at 3100 Macomb Street)
Favorite (other) DC blog: DCist

Thanks Bill and Peggy! See you around on the CP listserv and All Life Is Local.

The latest issue of Rent Check hits email boxes today. It features an interview with DCist, properties in Pentagon City and Georgetown, and our own Alexis Rollert. Check it out here.

Thanks for joining us Aaron!  You wrote for DCist for 3 years before becoming editor-in-chief a year ago.  What topics did you cover?  What were your favorites?

I covered pretty much everything in the years I wrote for DCist before becoming editor, which was perfect preparation for being editor. Plus, that’s one of the best things about the blog — we have so many bright contributors who are versatile and can hop on most any story. As for me, I started out doing some food and music reviews here and there, and then moved on to do the transportation beat for about a year. I also took over editing all our sports coverage and covered D.C. United, and became one of our weekend editors in 2009, which I did until I was promoted. As you can see, there really wasn’t a whole lot I was missing.

What story are you most proud of?

Oh, geez, that’s kind of an impossible question. Since I took over as editor, I’ve been most proud of the work that our contributors have done that I’ve been able to lend a helping hand with. I will say that there are definitely moments — off the top of my head, covering Stephen Strasburg’s debut, working on the Obama Inauguration, big news stories like the hostage situation at the Discovery building in Silver Spring or the whole Tea Party thing — that I remember the most, but I think I’m mostly just proud of the consistency, that everyday we’re producing something that people want to read.

You know DC’s hyper-local happenings and trends as well as anyone.  What changes do you see or foresee that would be most interesting to residential renters and landlords?

I think that there are more neighborhoods in the District that people who aren’t necessarily thinking about staying here for the long term are now willing to look at as viable locations to live. And obviously, there’s a trickle-down effect with that: neighborhoods like Historic Anacostia or Brookland or Trinidad, or a corridor like Bladensburg Road NE north of H Street, are seeing a real rejuvenation in the amount of small businesses opening up. Of course, as more people expand their housing horizons, places like 14th Street are only getting more and more popular, as well. D.C. has really been an up-and-coming place now for a few years, and I think that we’re really starting to see some of that growth begin to materialize in very visible ways. Take the streetscape work on H Street, for example.

What are your favorite things about DC?

Personally, I find the District an incredibly manageable place to live. It’s a small city, which is a good thing for me. I know the people, the geography, the business owners, the politics. It’s just familiar. There’s also a magnetism to D.C. — people either seem to fall in love with the place or hate it, and the people that love it stick around, which makes it a great place to be if you’re one of those people. Also: this is, bar none, one of the best cities to run a blog in. It’s so plugged in, people are engaged, residents are so aware of what’s going on at such a hyper-local level that they really keep you on your toes, the city’s embraced Twitter, and so on. It’s just a fantastic city to work in the field I’m in.

What would make you like DC even more?

In terms of infrastructure, I think I want more of the things that have proven to be crowd-pleasers: more Bikeshare, more walkable neighborhoods, more small businesses who truly want to be a part of their neighborhood. On a more conceptual level, I’ve always thought that people in D.C. just need to laugh more, you know? I don’t know, I’ve always felt like locals constantly bemoan Washington’s reputation as a very uptight city, but there’s definitely some truth to that, especially when it comes to topics like development.

Oh, right, and some kind of governmental autonomy from Congress would be great, too, but hey, one thing at a time.

Your Gentrification Bingo post a couple months got a lot of attention.  What was the idea behind that?

I’m a pretty serious guy about our work, but I like to have fun when I can in my writing. The Gentrification Bingo post was just a knee-jerk reaction to a critical mass of, you know, serious talk about the topic. Not everything is life and death — sometimes it’s okay to laugh about things. Otherwise, you just go crazy, buried under the gravity of it all.

Speaking of which … what are the next hot neighborhoods for DC’s youth?

Well, I think that there are far more great neighborhoods in the District than bad ones. But a lot of them are getting progressively too expensive for young people that are coming here, trying to pay off loans or land their first job. I always tell people I know that Columbia Heights is a good starting point for younger people making their first foray into the District — it’s centralized, there’s bars and food, you’ve got DCUSA and lots of transportation options, there’s affordable housing with group houses and there’s a good community vibe there.

Thanks for your insights Aaron!  See you around on DCist.

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Want more DC area blogger interviews?  See last newsletter’s interview with Arlington blogger Scott Brodbeck of ARLnow.

This is a recent rapid-fire chat with Urban Igloo leasing agent Alexis Rollert.

Where did you grow up?
Chicago, IL and Grand Rapids, MI

Favorite activities when you’re not helping people find apartments?
Travel, the DC Junior League, and volleyball — I played 4 years in college and still play.

Favorite sports teams?
Chicago Bears, Redskins, Capitals, and any college basketball!

Favorite books?
Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela, A Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin, and Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth GIlbert.

Favorite movies?
Shawshank Redemption, Back to the Future, Steel Magnolias, Dirty Dancing, and Driving Miss Daisy.

Interesting fact that most people don’t know about you?
I got my graduate degree from the University of Cape Town in South Africa.

Interesting fact that most people DO know about you?
Half my childhood was spent on a farm and the other half in a major city.

Any pets?
A fabulous little dog named Pepper

Neighborhoods you’ve lived in DC?
Chinatown, Brookland, Cleveland Park, and just moved to Arlington.

Favorite thing about DC?
There is always something new at one of the Smithsonian Museums.

Where would you like to live if you weren’t in DC?
Overseas trying out new countries.

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Interested in becoming an Urban Igloo leasing agent?  We’re hiring!

As Urban Igloo continues to expand throughout the DC area, we need more great leasing agents to match renters and landlords.  We’ve recently updated our leasing agent job description.  Please pass it to anyone you know looking for jobs in sales or real estate?  Thanks!

Check out the latest issue of Rent Check, our bi-monthly newsletter.  It features our interviews with Scott of ARLnow and agent Evan Housel as well as hot properties in Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom.  Enjoy!

Summer in DC means great outdoor movies, and the list seems to get longer every year.  Rosslyn has already kicked off its Outdoor Film Festival, NoMa starts this week, and U Street and Capitol Riverfront launch next week.  Below is the full list of festivals in DC, Virginia, and Maryland.

DC

Capital Riverfront
Thursdays through July
Theme: Best of the Oscars

Columbia Heights
Wednesdays in June
Theme: School’s Out for Summer

NoMa
Wednesdays through August
Theme: Trains

U Street
Once a Month on Tuesdays through October
Theme: Washington DC

Virginia

Crystal City
Mondays through August
Theme: By the Numbers

Rosslyn
Fridays through August
Theme: SNL in the Movies

Maryland

Bethesda
July 26-30

Expect others for Alexandria, SW Waterfront, and Fairfax — as well as Screen on the Green.  We’ll add them as they’re announced.  Did we miss any?  Please let us know!