Not many apartment communities have a ribbon-cutting ceremony and launch party for their laundry rooms. Then again, not many apartment communities have as much to show off as Colesville Towers, a 272-unit, upscale apartment building in Silver Spring, Md.
Realty Management Services (RMS), which manages the community, completely remodeled the laundry facilities last year after renegotiating its contract with the community’s laundry service provider. The room now sports fresh solid-surface countertops, updated blinds that can fill the space with natural light, new classically styled lighting fixtures and a flat-screen TV.
As part of a case study for the Energy Star program, the laundry supplier replaced the community’s 14 washing machines with Energy Star-rated models that are expected to save more than $3,000 per year on the building’s energy and water bills, according to Elaine De Lude, Vice President of Marketing for Bethesda-based RMS, which owns or manages more than 30 communities and 9,000 apartments in the Washington, D.C., area.
“We had the opportunity to offer a green amenity in a location where residents and prospects are very receptive to it,” De Lude says. “In an older community, you can’t go back and change out some potentially green features. The new laundry facility gave residents an opportunity to participate in saving resources.”
Wired Washing
While the party included a green ribbon-cutting, the efficiency of the washers wasn’t the only upgrade. The laundry provider included at no charge a technology called Check My Wash that allows residents to go online from their apartments and see which machines are free and receive an e-mail or text message sent when their laundry cycle is complete.
“It’s very popular with residents who are using technology on a daily basis, especially those that have Blackberries and iPhones. They love it,” De Lude says. “Because of Check My Wash and the fitness center being right next to the laundry room, doing laundry isn’t the boring chore it used to be.”
The community includes marketing materials about the laundry room and its time-saving online tool for prospective residents, and the leasing staff shows off the facility on tours, says Property Manager Dana Green. “My famous words to describe it are ‘a brand-new, state-of-the-art laundry facility,’ ” she says. “When a prospective resident hears that, they want to learn more.”
The laundry room upgrade also provides the management company with an ongoing opportunity to talk with residents and ask them what they think, De Lude says. “When you’re talking to them throughout the term of the lease, you want to make sure you’re reestablishing the value of the community, and this is one way to do that,” she says.
Resident feedback about the technology has also been favorable at Archstone, a real estate company that owns or operates 83,000 apartments worldwide and provides LaundryView laundry room monitoring at some of its communities, according to Shannon Amundson, the company’s Manager of Contracts. “Being able to remotely manage the laundry process allows residents to make the most of their time,” she says. “It is an unexpected and very welcomed amenity.”
At least two laundry service providers offer wired laundry rooms. Beyond providing residents a new, high-tech amenity, the facilities make life easier for a community’s management. Because the machines are connected to the Internet, they can place automated service requests. Community managers can view collection, payment and service records online, allowing for fuller transparency and accountability with their laundry service provider.
Jeffrey Lee is NAA’s Staff Writer. He can be reached at jeffreylee@naahq.org or 703/797-0647.