Alosant Innovator Series

Welcome to Episode 33 of the Alosant Innovator Series! We're joined by Deborah Blake, Principal at The Ipsum Group. With decades of experience in 55+ active adult real estate development, Deborah shares her thoughts on the market and how it is evolving.  

Today’s 55+ buyers are less interested in “retirement” than “what’s next”.  Deborah explores the value of doing thorough research that may reveal opportunities for relevance, like enabling self-funded passion projects, encouraging giving back and incorporating ‘“Blue Zones” inspiration. 

Deborah and April begin by talking about the "Baby Boomer" generation. They dive into why these folks aren't all the same and break up some common stereotypes about them. The latest 55+ adults are shaking up the traditional retirement scene, and Deborah is perfectly positioned to stay on top of these changes.

Deborah digs into why it's crucial to focus on more than demographics. She explains the importance of understanding their interests and needs. Using examples from Amblebrook, in Gettysburg, PA, she shares real-world  wellness partnerships and amenities using biophilic design principles.

Episode 32 of The Alosant Innovator Series delves into the world of real estate marketing with Jaimee Reinertsen, Principal & Creative Director at SparkFire Branding. 

With a rich background in marketing, specifically in real estate and MPC branding, Jaimee brings a wealth of experience and invaluable insights into understanding the psychology of real estate consumers.

Throughout the episode, Jaimee passionately describes herself as a storyteller, emphasizing her dedication to documenting the distinctive stories of communities and their members. This approach serves as a powerful strategy to connect with potential customers on a deeper level.

Jaimee sheds light on the unique challenges faced by real estate marketers. She shares her perspectives on the tools they deploy to overcome these challenges and explains how and why they work.

Episode 31 of the Alosant Innovator Series spotlights John Marlin, the Founder & CEO of MA Partners. 

In this episode, April and John dive into MA Partners' newest project, Elevon. John chats about the details of the land planning process, giving us some great insights on how they're putting together a variety of home designs and amenities that could suit folks from all walks of life.

John walks us through his early years prior to forming MA Partners, from humble beginnings in Melbourne FL to providing much needed development support in the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew.  He shares being drawn to entrepreneurship at an early age, his fearless approach to tackling new challenges and value from a strong mentor.

John shares his passion for creating spaces that embody the spirit of community. His commitment to instilling a profound sense of community and capturing the essence of where people live shines through in this conversation about Elevon.

The 30th episode of the Alosant Innovator Series features Lesley Deutch, Managing Principal at John Burns Research and Consulting. Lesley has more than 25 years of consulting experience  - working across a wide spectrum of the real estate industry.

Lesley stresses the importance of understanding the demographics of your potential customers, and providing amenities tailored to them. She goes on to share stories demonstrating how this approach has given her and her consulting clients a competitive advantage.

Lesley also shares her perspective on the state of the real estate market in 2024.

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Connect with Lesley:

Episode 29 of the Alosant Innovator Series features Dan Grosswald, Division President SE Florida at Mattamy Homes. 

Dan lays out the vision of Newfield and its unique features for residents, as well as some of the obstacles they’ve faced along the way and how they overcame them.

Dan unpacks some of the planning, programming, product segmentation, and community outreach efforts that are making the project feel like a natural addition to the community at large.

Websites:

In episode 28 of the Alosant Innovator Series, April is joined by Mark Kehke, Chairman & Founder of Pacific Ventures Management, LLC.

Pacific Ventures is a fully integrated real estate development and operating company focused on residential and mixed-use communities of scale. They have a long history of developing some of the greatest communities in the West.

Mark describes their process to drive value through creativity and execution. More specifically he shares how they built a strong track record and reputation for successfully replacing developers of partially developed master planned communities on behalf of their capital sponsor.

The 27th episode of the Alosant Innovator Series is a special episode, which features a compilation of segments from previous podcast guests. In every episode, April asks her guest, “What advice would you give to your 25-year-old self?” Episode 27 highlights and showcases some of the very best answers to that question from the first 26 episodes.

We chose 5 guests to highlight, but there is so much more wisdom contained in the answers from all of the guests we’ve hosted since launching the podcast. If you like what you hear, we encourage you to go back in our episode catalog and find more valuable insights.

Find the full episodes for each of the highlighted guests below.

In the 22nd episode of the Alosant Innovators Series, April speaks with Lita Dirks of Lita Dirks & Co. 

Lita is an interior designer passionate about creating positive emotions with potential homebuyers, and creating a deep desire to live there. That is what Lita Dirks & Co. has been doing successfully for more than 25 years.

They discuss design, marketing, branding, and merchandising principles implemented when decorating model homes, and how subtle creative decisions can shape the emotional experience of homebuyers. No piece of furniture is randomly oriented. Mirrors are placed so shoppers can envision themselves in the home. It's not trickery - it's strategic interior design intended to evoke emotional reactions from potential customers, bringing them closer to making the purchase.

Lita reminds us that it's important to not lose sight of the forest through the trees. The main reason that she does the work that she does is to support people. Individuals who are all at unique stages of their home-buying experiences, and are seeking emotionally supportive and comforting sellers rather than cold salespeople.

Connect with Lita

In the 21st episode of the Alosant Innovators Series, April LaMon speaks with Jenna Louie, Chief Innovation and Strategy Officer at Ivory Innovations.

Ivory Innovations seeks to promote the most compelling ideas in housing affordability by working across sectors, providing monetary awards for groundbreaking innovations and leveraging its network and resources. The organization seeks to find and boost the profiles of innovative housing entrepreneurs, and to bring their ideas into the mainstream.

Jenna has worked an enriching career furthering Diversity, Equity & Inclusion across multiple industries. She has found a home, and a passion, working to increase housing affordability with Ivory Innovations.

April and Jenna discuss all of the key initiatives that Ivory Innovations focuses on. Topics include:

• Engaging students & interns to create passion for housing affordability in future generations

• The Ivory Prize: a prize given to various innovative entrepreneurs and businesses with revolutionary housing ideas

• Providing Education resources to developers

• Past Ivory Prize Winners and what they've already contributed

This episode is full of insights and tips regarding how developers can strive to close some housing gaps and create a more equitable and inclusive housing environment in our communities.

In this episode, host April LaMon, Co-founder and CEO of Alosant is joined by Matt Thornhill, Founder of Cozy Home Community. 

Matt has spent his career understanding the behavior of older adults. Matt ran a think tank called The Boomer Project, where he helped big companies like Nasa, Hersheys, and Google understand the boomer generation.

In 2020 Matt founded Cozy Home Community. Back in 2016, senior care facilities began reaching out to Matt to understand older adults better. Through the research and interaction with these facilities, Matt saw an opportunity to do senior living differently.

Matt saw the senior care industry as bifurcated, with no product for the massive middle. It was clear to Matt that the future of senior living was to provide it as a service. His vision is to build homes for older adults that bring individuals together and bring services to that community. 

Listen to the full episode to learn more about the first Cozy Home Community going beginning construction this fall, how senior care facilities and universities are looking to leverage the concept, and the creative approach Matt takes to accelerate human connection amongst residents through the Get Cozy profile.

Connect with Matt

This episode of the Alosant Innovator Series features a conversation between host April LaMon and Barbara Wray, SVP of Strategic Growth at Wick Marketing. 

Barbara recently completed a study of homebuyers who purchased in the last 15 months as interest rates began to rise. The study takes an in-depth look at the attitudinal landscape of who’s buying right now and why.
In this conversation, Barbara breaks down what made them buy, insights from their purchase experience, and how we can better connect with prospects. 

On June 29, Barbara will be sharing the full results of the study plus more insights on Beyond Buyer Profiles & Demographics: Who Is Buying Homes Now and Why. We highly recommend tuning in to this conversation. Learn more and register for the webinar below.

Beyond Buyer Profiles & Demographics: Who Is Buying Homes Now and Why

June 29 @ 9am PST

Location: Zoom

Join us as we unpack the results of our brand-new study of homebuyers who purchased after interest rates began to rise. Hear what motivated them to buy anyway and about their homebuying experience overall. Importantly, learn how you can leverage those insights with the prospects in your pipeline now and in the months ahead. 

Welcome back to the Alosant Innovator Series. In our 15th episode, host April LaMon is joined by Pfilip Hunt, Partner at Wrathell Hunt & Associates. 

In this episode, Pfil demystifies special district financing options for master planned communities, and talks more specifically about why developers leverage these tools, the upside for those involved in said project, and more. 

Special Districts are a way for developers to fund public infrastructure like bridges, roads, water, and infrastructure using tax-exempt municipal bonds. 

If you’re a developer exploring different financing options, Pfil describes this tool is most appropriate when you have a heavy infrastructure cost spread across many units (minimum thresholds approx. 300 resident units, 300-400k sqft on a commercial project).

Welcome back to the Alosant Innovator Series. In episode 13, host April LaMon is joined by Peter Dennehy, VP of Customer and Market Insights at Brookfield Properties. 

April and Peter discuss ‘geographic mobility’ and the trends he observes within Brookfield communities on where people are moving, and why, after the pandemic.  Peter recently presented at the New Home Trends Summit hosted by John Burns Research & Consulting, where he spoke on migration trends and their impact on growing markets.  

In addition to geographic mobility, Peter and April discuss the introduction of Gen Z buyers to the home buying market and how product within master planned communities is being designed to accommodate this emerging generation of buyers. 

Connect with Peter

Welcome back to the Alosant Innovator Series. For the second episode in Women’s History Month, host April LaMon is joined by Christen Johnson, Senior Vice President of Marketing at Johnson Development Corp.

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Welcome back to the Alosant Innovator Series. In our tenth episode, host April LaMon is joined by Mollie Carmichael, Principal at Zonda, for a conversation on the intersection between research and home building, and how virtual reality and the metaverse is forever changing the way homes are shown, bought, and sold.

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It is with no doubt that mentions of the Metaverse and Virtual or Augmented Reality have consumed much of the internet since COVID-19. Introduced to VR from her son, Mollie discusses her take on how VR has and will continue to shift how homes are shown, bought, and sold. For master planned communities, Mollie sees a large opportunity for master planned communities to build virtual environments where potential residents can walk the community, explore amenities, view model homes, and more right from their desktop of VR headset.

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For the potential resident Mollie sees how, through the proper application of VR, confidence can be instilled and the decision to buy can be de-risked by providing a life-like, easy to navigate experience that is accessible on any device. The efficiency and accessibility that virtual reality provides the real estate industry is grand, and since the start of COVID Mollie has seen a shift towards the attention that leading firms are placing on integrating VR into their marketing and sales strategies.

About Mollie

Mollie began her career in development, then home building, before finding a role grounded in consulting that combines her development and home building experiences with her passion for consulting and market research. For the past 16 years as a Principal at Zonda, Mollie works on consumer research, strategy, planning, finance, advisory, and much more. Mollie’s commitment to primary research has cemented her expertise in providing firms with the knowledge they need to be successful.

Connect with Mollie

In Ep. 8 of the Alosant Innovator Series, host April LaMon is joined by Debra Wyatte for a conversation on the importance of connecting brand pillars to all aspects of a project, challenges the industry may face with Gen Z buyers entering the market, and more.

President of WE Consulting, Debra explains how she works with communities to examine and align many aspects of the project with their brand pillars. She also discusses how she helps communities measure and analyze this work.

Welcome back to the Alosant Innovator Series. In the first episode of season 2, April LaMon is joined by Tom Hoban Owner at Kitson and Partners.

Mission, Vision, and Today at Babcock Ranch

Tom and the many teams working at Babcock Ranch are collectively inspired by the mission of creating great places to live that enrich the lives of those who live there. In this episode, Tom discusses how these teams are collaborating to elevate the innovation throughout new development at Babcock Ranch and how they are successfully facing the challenge of building a town for the future.

Tom has been involved at Babcock Ranch since the inception of the town planning in 2005. Since then, he has seen the plan evolve into one of the largest and most innovative communities in the world. Today, Babcock Ranch is over 18,000 acres with more than 20,000 homes. Seeing first time home buyers and families choose Babcock Ranch continues to validate the grand vision “they” had for the future back in 2005. Babcock Ranch continues to deliver an unprecedented experience to residents through solar power, fiber internet, a school system, the first autonomous shuttle service, and more.

Innovation at Babcock Ranch

In 2019, Tom went to the executive team at Kitson & Partners and proposed an event that would soon shift the attitude around innovation at Babcock Ranch. Innovation Summit, first held in 2019, was designed to bring the best and brightest in home building together to discuss new ideas for building practices, technology, and more.

A positive byproduct of the first Innovation Summit in 2019 is Innovation Way. Innovation Way is a street in Babcock Ranch dedicated to showcasing homes of the future. Forging partnerships with the largest home builders in the country enabled Babcock Ranch to expand what is feasible with the model homes, putting on display cutting edge features.

The next Innovation Summit will be held in the spring of 2023, and will be more comprehensive to include topics of home building like the last summit, and also include areas of focus on common area, infrastructure, technology, and parks and place.

Connect with Tom

In this episode, host April LaMon is joined by Rick Severance, Division President at Wellen Park, Mattamy Homes.

Rick discusses how he and the team at Wellen Park are building one of the fastest growing, most environmentally conscious communities in the country. He also discusses how collaboration, fresh perspectives and high energy are key components to designing a multi-generational community that can withstand the test of time.

Rick joined the Wellen Park team just over three years ago and brings a wealth of industry knowledge with him. His mission: infuse energy, rebrand and create diversification. Rick believes the best master-planned communities in the country are those that have true diversification including single family homes for purchase, multi-family communities for rent, the right mix of healthcare, schools, commercial interest, amenities and a connection to the natural environment. Within the first 90 days of his tenure, he and his team had a plan for Wellen Park’s town center in place.

Rick speaks to the importance of quality and why it's at the core of their design process. Whether that means investing more to create a better retail mix or creating “aha” moments that feel distinctive and special, Rick always prefers to err on the side of quality.

Rick shares his perspective on designing communities around hallmark features. In the case of Wellen Park, building the community around solar technology was essential. He also discusses how he and his team are creating a community that fosters walkability and encourages alternative modes of transportation like bikes, golf carts, electric vehicles and even kayaks.

Rick is a trusted voice in the industry and has often been commended for creating a collaborative and energetic environment during design charrettes. He prides himself on creating an environment where it is safe to express new ideas and even disagree.  He encourages others, particularly junior-level executives, to have the confidence to  “speak the truth, even if your voice shakes.” This cooperative approach has added tremendous value to these hands-on planning meetings.

About Wellen Park

Wellen Park is a mixed use, master planned development on Florida’s West Coast. Formerly land that was used for cattle ranching and citrus, the land has been transformed today into one of the most advanced, environmentally friendly and interactive communities in the country.

About Rick

Rick finds inspiration everywhere! From traveling around the world to public art and unique branding, Rick believes imitation is the greatest form of flattery.  While he’ll never duplicate what’s been done, he often seeks to create his own unique spin on a great idea.

Connect with Rick

In this episode, host April LaMon is joined by Nicole Godfrey, Global President at Runway.

Nicole discusses the origin story of Runway amidst the financial crisis of 2008, how Runway is leveraging the metaverse to create virtual, immersive home buying experiences and how PropTech can empower consumers when buying a home.

About Runway

Runway is an international, award-winning inventory management and sales and marketing tool partnering with leading community developers and home builders. Runway solves the most complex back office challenges faced by the industry and delivers incredible home shopper experiences that increase sales velocity and conversion rates. Runway is privately held and was established in Melbourne, Australia in 1997.

The metaverse, and the new immersive homebuying experience

In Australia, developers sell land directly to consumers, followed by builders selling home designs to those same consumers. That means there are two separate transactions, each with different contracts. In order for a builder to generate leads, they must put together detailed virtual house and land packages outlining all details and expenses. This process can be time consuming, inefficient and can often lead to mistakes.

Upon entry into the US market, Runway quickly recognized the challenges of that process and in turn, developed a series of configurable algorithms to allow builders to create thousands of these packages within minutes. Runway’s cutting-edge technology creates dollar-perfect packages that are compliant with all rules and design guidelines. Builders can generate a PDF and publish these virtual packages to websites and major portals within hours rather than weeks.

By eliminating that manual, repetitive effort, Runway has been successful in getting builders what they need faster, more efficiently and from a single source of data.

Typically, only builders and sales teams have had access to these virtual packages, however in 2018, Runway released the first version of Homebuyer, a program that enables consumers to access, build, and customize these virtual packages for their home. Through confidence in their market pricing and integrity of their data, Runway is able to empower consumers with key information and allow them to customize their home with precise detail.

Connect with Nicole

In this episode of the Alosant Innovator Series, Paul Johnson sits down with host April LaMon to discuss his notable career in community development, how residential lifestyle trends are changing in a post-COVID world, and what he sees on the horizon for the industry.

Johnson has over 25 years of experience in building, planning, and developing some of the leading master-planned communities in the country including Ladera Ranch and Rancho Mission Viejo in Southern California. From the start of his career, Johnson has always believed in the core values of having fun and building communities that are financially feasible, sustainable, and innovative.

In this episode, Johnson speaks to the power of those around you. He accredits the innovation at Ladera Ranch and Rancho Mission Viejo to the legacy of the ownership and the teams that challenge themselves to innovate and enhance the resident experience in unprecedented ways.

Connect with Paul and Rancho Mission Viejo

Thanks for listening to the Alosant Innovator Series. In this episode we learn more about the host of the Alosant Innovator Series, April LaMon

April is the CEO and Co-Founder of Alosant, and is an experienced entrepreneur and real estate technology expert with an innate curiosity for consumer behavior. Together with Co-Founder Michael Swanson, the duo has pioneered the creation of purpose-built software that connects real estate developers and their communities with residents, prospective home buyers and local businesses. Alosant-powered apps allow users to seamlessly engage with their community by providing a solution that helps them stay informed while receiving relevant content.