The Retreat at State College has been named the winner of the Best Package & Offering of Amenities award at the Student Housing Business Innovator Award ceremony held during the Interface Student Housing conference in Austin, TX in April.
According to www.studenthousingbusiness.com, “this category [is] awarded to the off-campus project that [has] the best package of amenities to offer to its residents during the period of January 1, 2012-December 31, 2013 based on the following criteria:
- Breadth, depth and quality of amenities offered by project to residents;
- Occupancy and rental rate success compared to similar projects in the market and the market overall;
- ‘Wow’ and ‘buzz’ factor generated for the project by the amenities package and offerings”.
For this Retreat project, W&A Engineering’ design team led by Scott Haines, RLA, Director of Landscape Architecture, designed all of the outdoor amenities that contributed to this accomplishment. As expressed by Haines, “Working with the landmark team has been a unique experience that has provided countless opportunities to explore both creative and functional designs”. Exterior amenities for this project included an outdoor kitchen and grill, fire pit, pool, bocce ball court, cabanas, hot tub, and volleyball court.
Landmark Properties and The Retreat projects have won, among others, the Best Package & Offering of Amenities award three out of the last four years; The Retreat at Lubbock won in 2012, and The Retreat at Lake Tamaha, in Alabama won in 2011. W&A Engineering has designed all the exterior amenities for all the award winning projects since Landmark began the Retreat concept in 2004. “Our affiliation with Landmark has been a great experience, their commitment to produce award winning projects makes working with them exciting day in and day out for myself and all of the W&A employees” Jon Williams, president of W&A.
The 4th annual Student Housing Business Innovator Awards ceremony, focusing on student housing projects operating in the United States, was the most competitive in its history and had the most distinguished judging panel yet assembled. More than 100 entries were received this year from a wide array of public and private companies of all sizes and from a variety of industries and geographic regions in the United States. “The Best Package & Offering of Amenities category was one of the more competitive of the awards”, according to Student Housing Business Editor, Randy Shearin. Winners of the 2014 Student Housing Business Innovator Awards were determined by an independent panel of five to seven judges per category, consisting of high level executives in the student housing industry. As described by Shearin, “The 2014 Student Housing Business Innovator Awards are designed to honor excellence in development, architecture/design, sustainable design and development, financing, marketing and promotion and amenities in student housing properties, on- and off-campus”.
Landmark Properties is a fully integrated real estate firm specializing in the investment, development, construction and management of high quality communities. Backed by a deep understanding of the markets, a commitment to quality and a strong track record of success, Landmark has brought to market some of the most premier student housing communities in the nation. W&A Engineering works with Landmark on all their student housing projects across the nation by providing services such as Site Evaluations & Due Diligence Packages, Entitlements, Civil Engineering, Landscape Architecture / Amenity Design, Permitting on the Local, State & Federal level and Project & Construction Management.
Photo Credit: Zach Rolen of Rolen Image
