Corporate Housing Comes to Mattoon
Online, February 16, 2010 (Newswire.com) - Apex Property Management in Mattoon, IL is now providing corporate housing for out-of-town professionals and visitors who require extended stays in the Mattoon-Charleston, Illinois area. Logan Place Suites, located at 217 Logan Street in Mattoon, is the first known local apartment complex to convert to corporate housing.
Corporate housing is defined as fully furnished and equipped apartments with housewares, linens, utilities, and other available optional services.
The only thing that the employees or travelers need to do is basically bring their personal items, clothes, and then go out and get the food of their choice.
Although 'corporate' is part of its name, corporate housing is a very flexible industry which offers its services for various use purposes, such as insurance needs, vacations and military housing.
There are many other uses of corporate housing. Theater groups may use corporate housing when performing in town for maybe three-month stretches. Television and film crews will sometimes take advantage of corporate housing when shooting on location away from the studios.
Corporate training programs often require employees to visit an out-of-town facility for extended stays while on training assignments. The health care industry also has high demand for corporate travel to house traveling nurses, doctors, and medical interns. Furnished housing units are also in demand by traveling professors, administrators, and grad students from colleges and universities.
The leisure market is a growing market segment for corporate housing providers because many corporate housing locations are in very desirable areas of the cities and offer easy access to public transportation and the tourist attractions. At a lower cost than a hotel, vacationers can feel more like home away from home.
Some retirees who live in warm climates such as Arizona and Florida will stay in corporate housing for the summer while visiting family in the Northern States.
"That's the beautiful thing about this industry," Cory Sanders CEO of Apex Property Management and Sanders and Co. Real Estate said. "We're always able to respond to various types of housing needs as they come up."
For relocation, the goal of the corporate housing provider is to provide temporary accommodations that will help ease the transition between the old location and the new. A corporate apartment is designed to make it easy for a transferring employee, and frequently his or her family, in adjusting to the new city. This makes it easier to be productive in the new office while getting accustomed to the new surroundings.
"You simply can't get off the plane and close on a house the same day," said Sanders. "There's a fairly long period of time required to find a house or the home you want and arrange for financing and closing, so our services are a helpful and necessary transition during that process."
Employees and their families who stay in a corporate apartment near the area where they are attempting to make living arrangements can assimilate themselves to the area before the home sale is completed. Their children will be close to their new schools and it will be easier to take care of various registration needs.
One of the advantages of corporate apartment housing over extended-stay hotels is the cost savings over comparable hotels. Most companies look closely at the overall picture for travel spending, whether it be for temporary projects, relocations, or regular business travel, therefore corporate housing is looked upon very favorably by upper management.
"Hotels are great, but after a week or two, most people prefer to have more of a home environment," said Sanders. "I think it makes for more productive employees when they are living among the city residents. When staying in a hotel, everybody is a visitor."
It is also a trend for human resource managers to lock in a longer-term lease to ensure their executives or consultants have the comfort and privacy of home they deserve while on temporary assignments. The idea is to rotate occupants as the need arises.
While this practice may result in some time segments without an occupant, the long-term advantages will be to always have something available and save time as well as money.
Mattoon - Charleston in East Central Illinois is a good example of an area where locking in a long-term lease could be very beneficial. With the billion dollar government-funded FutureGen project potentially taking off soon, there is expected to be a real shortage in available temporary living housing available.
FutureGen is a public-private partnership to build a first-of-its-kind coal-fueled, near-zero emissions power plant. The FutureGen plant will cost approximately $1.5 billion to build. By using cutting-edge technologies it will generate electricity while capturing and permanently storing carbon dioxide deep underneath the surface of the earth. Additionally, the plant will produce hydrogen and certain byproducts for possible use by other industries.
The Alliance currently plans to have a visitor's or education center at the FutureGen facility.
The idea is that sometimes when the government works with private enterprise they are able to accomplish a lot more with a lot less. This particular initiative is a result of what happens when government and free enterprise private sector partnerships come together to work on solving a problem and improve our country.
The diversified economy of the Mattoon-Charleston area requires the presence of out-of-town professionals and guests on short-term assignments. Logan Place Suites offers a unique temporary housing solution for the following visitors:
• Corporate Executives
• Energy Executives for the FutureGen project
• Medical Doctors and Traveling Nurses
• Medical Interns and other Medical Professionals
• Visiting University Faculty and/or Administrators for
Eastern Illinois University and/or Lake Land College
• Graduate Students seeking short-term housing
• Homebuyers in-between homes
• Employee relocation
Usually corporate housing stays are 30 days or longer according to a survey conducted by the Highland Group and funded by CHPA (Corporate Housing Providers Association), the industry's trade organization.
In many other parts of the world, corporate housing has also experienced a very rapid expansion. It is clear that there is a permanent opportunity in temporary housing.
As reported in numerous publications, U.S. population trends will favor the apartment industry over the next couple of decades.
Not only is renting becoming an economic choice, but also a lifestyle choice.
Apartment living is considered by many to be the solution to a possible future housing crisis. Currently the U.S. homeownership rate stands at 67.5%, however it is more than a remote possibility that it could decline 6% to 8% over the next decade. For every single percentage point of declining homeownership, there will be created a potential demand for approximately one million rental units.
Prior to the Baby Boomer generation of buyers homeownership remained below 60%.
Gen Y finds renting appealing and, at almost 85 million, the overall Generation Y population is larger today than the Baby Boomers. Many of them are at or close to the ages when they become renters. Generation Y prefers urban living to suburban living and do not have enough savings or income to buy a home.
Generation Y tends to put personal and professional development ahead of marriage.
It is a continuing and growing trend for those with college degrees to postpone marriage until they are more ready. Balancing work and personal life is very important and they are willing to pay more for housing in order to avoid time consuming commutes.
Today 57% of those under age 34 rent.
As a furnished rental property, Logan Place Suites offers a new and comfortable home-away-from-home alternative to standard hotels. For general questions please call Cory Sanders at 217-234-7368 or visit www.LoganPlaceSuites.com.