Photo courtesy of Peabody Properties
Adam Kenney
Vice president of operations, Peabody Properties
Age: 48
Industry experience: 20 years
Big data, AI, attracting and retaining apartment tenants in a temporarily saturated high-end market – it’s all in a day’s work for Peabody Properties’ vice president of operations, Adam Kenney.
Peabody Properties manages nearly 15,000 units in 215 apartment communities, handling operations and leasing strategies for landlords, developers and condominium associations throughout the eastern U.S. Recent additions to the Braintree-based real estate company’s portfolio include Fenway Community Development Corp.’s 72 Burbank St. and 20 Charlesgate West properties in Boston, and the Kent Village complex in Scituate developed and owned by the Boston-based Planning Office for Urban Affairs.
Kenney recently passed his 20-year milestone at the company, overseeing the residential housing portfolio, and helps shape industry policy as a director at the Massachusetts Apartment Association.
Q: What metrics do you use to track the performance of individual properties, and what are some of the newer categories you’ve added?
A: In terms of the information we have access to across the portfolio: utility consumption, trends with vacancy turnover, work order completion. All of that is at our fingertips. We’ve pushed it down to our site managers and service managers, so everyone is looking at the same scoreboard and reviewing it in consistent fashion. And that scoreboard is live data. If the toilet is running in apartment 301, and you’re wondering why consumption is high, you used to have to wait until the quarterly bill. Now you get a notification on your phone, the service manager goes in and we address it.
Q: What are the opportunities and pitfalls for the apartment industry in use of AI in operations, leasing and management?
A: AI brings a lot to the table. It does help us streamline operations and energy efficiencies, enhance our leasing experience, just to make property management more efficient and help our resident services. It helps predict our maintenance needs, trend analysis and personalized interactions with residents: steering them through our resident portal. It is new to us, and doesn’t come without its challenges. While the potential for AI is great, the key to using it is making sure we’re focusing on transparency and compliance. It can be a little frightening, in terms of what we’ve heard about different challenges. It’s just taking it step by step.
Q: What did Peabody Properties and apartment landlords learn from the pandemic that carried over as permanent best practices?
A: The pandemic really highlighted for us the importance of flexibility, strong communications and then the technology side of the house. We are a very bricks and mortar, relationship-based organization and culture-driven. But we had to adapt to this new environment, and we’ve kept the virtual tours that we did during the pandemic. In leasing, a lot of our communication with our owner representatives are far more proactive in terms of what we are showing to them, sharing access to our software: just greater access, making sure they are receiving that information. Because we have all of the information and analytics; they want access to it, too. So, ensuring we’re supplying that to them is huge. These changes did not just make us more resilient. They showed our residents that we can adapt and support them no matter what.
Q: Have you seen faster business growth over the past year in the urban or suburban market in Massachusetts?
A: Boston has seen a little bit of a slowdown in rent growth and I think that likely is due to the oversaturated market. There is a lot of that out there in terms of rental markets. The Gateway Cities have been hotspots for growth: We’re seeing it in Chelsea and other areas. We’re used to seeing growth in Greater Boston, but a lot of the multifamily growth is in the suburban market, whether it’s low-income [housing] tax credit projects or workforce housing. The market-rate side is oversaturated in Boston, and it’s changing the landscape on how people are responding. You try not to increase concessions and you’re looking at other options like renewing those broker relationships, trying to do things to get heads in beds. Opportunities to extend those leases beyond an annual lease is an option we’re looking at to ensure that occupancy remains high.
Q: How are you updating your marketing strategy to prospective tenants?
A: We are using data analytics to make our campaigns more targeted, strengthening the social media presence and we’re also really focused on our online reputation management. You’ve got to make sure that your online reputation is tip-top: pushing those positive experiences, listening to the consumer. In target markets in the city, they are overly communicative on social media and that’s where the target market is getting a lot of their information, so it’s important to manage that. And if something comes up, you’ve got to address it.
Q: How is tenant screening evolving and keeping in compliance with latest state and federal laws?
A: Our screening is through RealPage, but it’s ever-changing, and our focus is on making sure we’re in compliance. We always keep an eye on the progressive markets, such as California, trying to stay ahead of the trends and any potential legislative changes. Getting your folks all that information is helpful allowing us to adapt quickly and make sure the screening is up-to-date and transparent and non-discriminatory.
Kenney’s Five All-Time Favorite Boston Celtics Players
- Kevin Garnett
- Larry Bird
- Al Horford
- Jaylen Brown/Jayson Tatum
- Robert “The Chief” Parish
