Apartment construction and unit turns: how the work really runs

The leasing office had already signed twelve residents for the first building before the parking lot was paved. That is the reality of multifamily work: the move-in date is not a milestone at the end of the job, it is a date somebody sold before the job was half done. Everything about how we run an apartment project starts from that fact.

Phased delivery is the whole game

A ground-up community is not one building, it is a sequence of them, and the schedule that matters is the one that hands over buildings in the order leasing needs them. We plan the trades so that building one gets framing, rough-in, drywall, paint and flooring while building three is still at foundations, and so the finish crews roll from one to the next without idle weeks. The owner walks the job every day with that sequence in hand, because a week lost on building one is a week of rent lost on every unit in it.

Certificates of occupancy come building by building, which means inspections, utility releases and life-safety testing have to be staged too. We keep those on the calendar from the start rather than treating them as paperwork at the end.

Turns run on a different clock

Unit turns, the work between a move-out and the next move-in, are the other half of apartment construction and they behave nothing like new build. A vacant unit costs money every day, so the point of a turn is to be in and out fast and to leave the unit looking new. Paint, drywall patching, flooring, fixtures, cabinet fronts and countertops repeat unit after unit, and the crew that has done the same floor plan forty times moves faster and misses less.

Our own crews handle the paint, drywall, tile, stone and millwork on turns, which keeps the schedule in our hands instead of a sub's. For an owner running an occupied property, that means a predictable number of days per unit and a single person to call when a unit needs to be ready before the weekend.

Building next to people who live there

Almost every multifamily job has residents on site somewhere. New phases go up next to occupied buildings. Turns and amenity renovations happen in the middle of a community that is fully leased. That changes how the work is run: quiet hours are real, parking for crews cannot take resident spaces, corridors and elevators need protection, dust has to be contained at the unit door, and the property manager needs to know where we will be a week ahead.

We treat the property manager as a partner in the schedule. A daily note on which units and which areas are active, a weekly look-ahead, and an owner who answers the phone when a resident complains keep an occupied job from becoming a leasing problem.

Amenities are a leasing tool, not an afterthought

Prospective residents tour the clubhouse, the pool and the fitness room before they ever see a unit. If those spaces are still behind fencing when leasing starts, the property is competing with one hand tied. We schedule amenity buildings to finish with the first residential building, not the last, and we stage FF&E installation for the clubhouse and leasing office so the furniture is in place the day the doors open. Our crews receive, stage, install and punch that FF&E ourselves.

What moves the budget

On new construction the usual suspects apply: unit mix, finish level, site work and the mechanical package. On turns the number depends on the condition the last resident left, how much of the existing finish can stay, and whether the owner wants a like-for-like turn or an upgrade to justify a higher rent. On renovation of an occupied community, phasing is a cost of its own, because working around residents adds days and protection that an empty building does not need. Get all of that on the table before pricing so the number reflects the job you actually have.

We are licensed and insured. The principals carry over 20 years of combined experience between them, and on every apartment project the owner is the person on site and the person you call. Send the site plan and the unit mix, or the turn scope for an occupied property, and we will lay out a delivery sequence built around your move-in dates.