Category: Announcements

Growspace was created in response to employees seeking more educational resources centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion development.  The Peak Link Council collaborated with Blue Ocean Brain to ensure that the platform would meet employees needs and also fulfill their overall mission to connect people and their experiences by creating platforms to learn, feel valued, and be a part of the change.

“Working with the team at PeakMade to create a space for their employees to learn & grow at work has been fantastic. The team is so passionate about Growspace and it shows,“ said Marcy Osborn, Client Success Manager at Blue Ocean Brain.

Growspace offers courses ranging from DEI topics like confirmation bias, celebrating diversity, and understanding intersectionality to leadership lessons like empathy in the workplace, cultivating compassion, and empowering your teams.

“This platform gives us an opportunity to learn, grow, & evolve as individuals who can positively influence our teams & communities.  We can make an impact and it starts with each of us making the commitment,” commented Jennifer Hill, Chief People Officer and Executive Sponsor of The Peak Link Council.

Featured lessons are highlighted every month within the platform to keep conversations relevant to current events and diverse celebrations like Juneteenth, Pride Month, AAPI Month and more.

PeakMade recently reported that over 120 managers and leaders have accessed over 400 lessons and completed over 240 brain exercises within the first week of launch.

“We are so excited about the engagement with Growspace just one week after launch, our associates are hungry for diversity, equity, and inclusion resources. Launching Growspace is a huge step to bringing our diversity mission to life, and reinforces Peak’s commitment to a workplace powered by diversity and focused on inclusion,” added Ashly Poyer, Vice President of Sales and Council Chair of The Peak Link.

PeakMade Real Estate, one of the nation’s leading apartment operators, announced today the hiring of Jeff Eckard as Chief Technology Officer and the promotion of several key team members.

 

A veteran in the real estate industry for more than 32 years, Jeff Eckard began his career working in a hotel as a front desk and night audit associate. Prior to joining Peak Made Real Estate, Jeff held senior technology leadership positions at InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) for 22 years. Prior to IHG, Jeff was with Marriott International where he held roles of increasing responsibility in technology with extended-stay and limited-service brands. As Chief Technology Officer for PeakMade, Jeff will have responsibility for overseeing the successful delivery of property, corporate and business intelligence technology solutions, initiatives, and infrastructure services across all PeakMade businesses. He brings an emphasis on customer service experience, maximizing client/operations value related to their investments and enabling innovative improvements for Peak, Clients and Customer stakeholders.

Ashly Poyer has been promoted to Vice President of Sales. She joined the Company in 2010 as a part-time leasing consultant in Huntsville, TX and quickly became the first regional marketing and leasing specialist for the Company. After relocating to Atlanta, GA, she has led Peak’s national Sales team since 2016 in both Director and Senior Director capacities. She is the architect and visionary behind the Company’s Sales department and is an active leader in other areas of the Company and the broader multifamily and student housing industries.

Opal Cox has been promoted to Senior Director of Operations. Having joined the Company in 2007, Opal has held roles of increasing responsibilities, including the oversight of the national operations support teams and overseeing policies and procedures for the Company. She has also led numerous company initiatives, most recently the portfolio-wide migration to a new Property Management System. In her expanded role, Opal will have oversight of National Facilities and Learning and Development teams in addition to operations support.

Maria Filippone has been promoted to Senior Director of Marketing. In her five years with the Company, Maria has been instrumental in evolving Peak’s property marketing platform, specifically expanding the Company’s digital strategy, and recently led a portfolio-wide website migration. Her new role will allow her to support and advise on corporate marketing strategy while continuing to lead property marketing support functions. Prior to joining the Company, Maria served in regional marketing support roles for Greystar.

About PeakMade Real Estate

PeakMade Real Estate, based in Atlanta, GA, is a diversified real estate services company, operating multiple brands for management, development, and advisory services for conventional multifamily and student apartments. PeakMade Real Estate provides support and infrastructure to its subsidiary companies, Peak Campus, one of the leading private developers and operators of student housing apartments in the U.S., and PeakMade Communities, a boutique conventional multifamily development and management company. The PeakMade Real Estate family of brands was built to execute on strategies consistent with the goals and long-term investment strategies of its partners.

For the past decade, the team at Peak Campus has been singularly focused on providing best-in-class property management, development and consulting services to our clients in student housing by bringing together the best people in the business, and then giving them the platform, culture and resources to thrive. To that end, Peak Campus has developed over 15,000 beds of purpose-built student housing, and currently manages nearly 50,000 beds, with a combined valuation of more than $3 billion for investors nationwide.

“Over the years, as our relationships with our partners have expanded, we’ve been continually asked whether we would consider venturing into other non-student housing management and development services.” said PeakMade Real Estate’s CEO Bob Clark. “As those requests continued, we began resource planning and making investments in both systems and personnel. We decided last year to take on a few assignments which will take place under the PeakMade Communities brand.”

Peak Campus will remain highly focused on student housing. PeakMade Real Estate will be the new home of all executive oversight, support functions and shared services. The PeakMade Real Estate team will continue to provide the same high level of support to Peak Campus, as well as PeakMade Communities, and the new structure will provide the ability to explore new opportunities in the future.

”As we continue to grow our student apartment development platform, we see other residential and multi-family development opportunities in the markets that we serve. Having the PeakMade Real Estate master brand allows us to more effectively pursue these other asset classes and establish new real estate verticals under a single master brand,” said PeakMade Real Estate’s President of Development, Jeff Githens.

About PeakMade Real Estate

PeakMade Real Estate, based in Atlanta, GA, is a diversified real estate services company, operating multiple brands for management, development, and advisory services for conventional multifamily and student apartments. PeakMade Real Estate provides support and infrastructure to its subsidiary companies, Peak Campus, one of the leading private developers and operators of student housing apartments in the U.S., and PeakMade Communities, a boutique conventional multifamily development and management company. The PeakMade Real Estate family of brands was built to execute on strategies consistent with the goals and long-term investment strategies of its partners.

Peak Campus, one of the nation’s leading student housing operators, announced today that Mark Winkelmann has been promoted to Vice President.

The promotion is in recognition of his continued expansion of responsibilities, his many contributions to the organization, and his ability to build strong relationships.

In his new role, Mark will oversee Peak’s recently established Client Services team. Client Services will provide support to future and current clients by performing market research, project consulting, architecture review, underwriting guidance, rate analysis, asset strategy reviews, and additional services as needed. Additionally, the team will manage the on-boarding of new projects and remain heavily involved in the early stages of the company’s portfolio of new development lease-ups.

“I’m thrilled to be leading a team committed to and focused on the success of our clients and partners. We’re looking forward to leveraging our vast industry and market experience to expand our relationships with our current clients, build relationships with new partners, and ultimately deliver high quality property operations and investor returns,” said Winkelmann.

Casey Petersen, Chief Operating Officer for Peak Campus, commented “I’m very excited to have Mark in his new role. In his seven years with the organization, Mark has continually proven that he can be relied upon to take on more, build strong teams and deliver high quality service to his customers – both internal and external. He and his team will be great partners to our clients as they grow their businesses.”

Mark has been active in student housing for over 12 years. He joined Peak in 2013 and has served in a multitude of on-site and corporate positions, most recently serving as the Director of Portfolio Integration where he was responsible for the creation of the dedicated New Development team. He was honored internally with the Peak Campus Pacesetter Award. Prior to joining the company, he held management positions with a real estate development company out of St. Louis. Mark earned his bachelor’s degree in Leadership and Change Management from Saint Louis University.

If you are interested in learning more about Peak Campus’ Client Services team, please reach out to Mark Winkelmann at mwinkelmann@peakmadere.com or 404.920.5385.

About PeakMade Real Estate

PeakMade Real Estate, based in Atlanta, GA, is a diversified real estate services company, operating multiple brands for management, development, and advisory services for conventional multifamily and student apartments. PeakMade Real Estate provides support and infrastructure to its subsidiary companies, Peak Campus, one of the leading private developers and operators of student housing apartments in the U.S., and PeakMade Communities, a boutique conventional multifamily development and management company. The PeakMade Real Estate family of brands was built to execute on strategies consistent with the goals and long-term investment strategies of its partners.