A Walkable Portfolio Changes Who You Can Hire
By Richard Joseph Spinelli, Sandhills Real Estate A new hire started on a Tuesday and I did not hand them a map. I handed them a route, a loop that begins on Belmont Avenue, turns onto Lorillard Place and finishes on Bathgate Avenue, and by noon they had stood outside every door we own. My name is Richard Joseph Spinelli and I cofounded Sandhills Real Estate in 2020, a student housing owner and operator that buys, renovates and manages housing around the Rose Hill campus of Fordham University. This is written for operators running student housing in other college markets, and for small landlords deciding whether concentration is worth the risk that comes with it. Almost every argument for density is an argument about maintenance speed or leasing. The one I want to make is about hiring, and it is the one most operators never think to count. A Walkable Student Housing Portfolio Is Learnable on Foot We own 13 student housing assets and 27 units, home to more than 100 students, and we...