I’m a renter
Don’t pretend to be a big-time spender
I’m just an average guy
And I hope you’ll try to keep me satisfied.
These lyrics are from “Renters Paradise,” the title number from a new CD put out by one of those hip Chicago labels you never heard of–Equity Residential Properties Trust.
No, it’s not Sam Zell, who controls Equity as part of his financial empire, representing himself as an average guy. But the truth is only somewhat less strange.
The composer, lyricist, keyboard artist, drum programmer and lead vocalist on the album is Gerry Wiatrowski, senior vice president of marketing for Equity Residential, the country’s biggest publicly traded apartment company, with 538 properties in 35 states.
Wiatrowski, 41, is a Chicago-area native who had a band and released his own CD some 13 years ago before getting fed up, he says, with the sleaze of the music business and going into real estate. He set up a professional studio in his Naperville home to record the album after coming up with the idea.
“It was not inconceivable that if rental prospects liked music, it would be a subliminal ad for the apartment lifestyle,” Wiatrowski said.
The album, which contains nine songs with lyrics plus an instrumental suite, is the centerpiece of a marketing campaign to push the idea that Equity’s apartment complexes are fun places to live.
The campaign is starting this summer in about 15 different markets across the country, and local property managers will be able to tailor related material to their own needs. The Chicago CD package, for instance, includes a list of Equity’s Chicago properties and a raffle ticket to win a vacation trip.
The music has a new age flavor and the lyrics seem to convey a combination of rootlessness and hedonism (which some might think unfair to renters).
Among the specifically rental-linked titles are “Brand New Lease on Life,” “Every Room Has a View,” and “Layin’ by the Pool.” Another one, “Got to Manage,” complains about having to pay bills (including, one supposes, the rent to Equity).
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Wiatrowski said Equity has an agreement with Blockbuster Music to carry the CD in selected stores, and Equity will promote Blockbuster in its marketing materials. People can listen to the CD at Blockbuster, but have to go to an Equity property to obtain their own copy.
Wiatrowski insisted that this wasn’t just a backdoor way to get his own album into the stores. “If I was going to do it for real, I wouldn’t do apartment songs,” he said.
High rent district: CD promotions for rentals probably won’t be needed in Chicago’s central area.
A report by the LaSalle Partners Investment Banking Group says tight market conditions will favor the owners of high-rise luxury apartments in the central business district for the next decade.
The report says nearly 6,100 apartment units have been converted to condominiums since 1991, and only one project is currently under construction (though others have been announced).
Occupancy is at 97.5 percent, and rents have gone up 6 percent since 1995, rising to $1.75 per square foot per month, or $1,400 for 800 square feet–a typical one-bedroom apartment.
That growth actually understates the increase, because landlords have raised parking rates and started to charge for other amenities such as cable television, the report added.
Truck parking: San Francisco-based Catellus Development Corp., which began as a spinoff from the railway land holdings of Santa Fe Pacific Corp., is doing well in the trucking business.
Catellus doesn’t actually run trucks, but it does own Internationale Centre in Woodridge, a 920-acre industrial park with a flourishing warehouse and distribution business that acts as a truck hub.
Catellus recently leased an entire 352,000-square-foot speculative building at the park to American United Logistics, a company that stores and distributes products for food companies.
It leased 46,000 square feet in another spec property to Athena Industries, which makes display racks, for a distribution center, and is thinking about a new spec building.
The company also has started construction on a 174,000-square-foot build-to-suit divisional headquarters and distribution center for Follett Educational Services, a leading provider of reconditioned textbooks and instructional materials.
There’s nothing like owning land in the right place at the right time.