Madison Landing at Research Park and the Cottages, Freeman Webb Company, Realtors
Major Rehab Community Community of the Year

Madison Landing at Research Park and the Cottages are centrally located in Madison, Alabama near key employers Redstone Arsenal, Cummings Research Park, Intergraph, Boeing, and Madison Hospital. The greater Huntsville area property has quick access to I-565 and is minutes from a variety of shopping, dining, and entertainment options including the new Town Madison Development, location for the new Toyota Baseball Field which is the home of the Rocket City Trash Pandas, the Double-A affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles. Madison is also home to some of the best elementary, middle, and high schools in the state. Madison Landing consists of two properties. The original property was acquired in 2017 and is a late 80’s community with 514 units on 44.5 acres. In 2020 the property was expanded to include 48 additional 1 and 2 bedroom units from an adjacent property that was acquired for a total of 562 units. The combined properties include three pools, multiple outdoor kitchen areas, covered pavilions, an outdoor food burning fireplace, a large fitness center, walking trails, fire pits and many other amenities for the residents. The 2020 addition of the Cottages at Madison Landing has afforded us the opportunity to expand our idyllic living experience to the residents of Madison in a meaningful way by expanding our footprint of gated living with stellar amenities.

Since taking over the properties, Madison Landing was awarded in 2018 by the Apartment Association of North Alabama the “Maintenance Team of the Year”, “Beautification”, and “Reaching for the Stars” (renovations). The property won “Reaching for the Stars” (renovations) again in 2019. There were no awards given in 2020 due to the pandemic.

The United States is currently experiencing a shortage of affordable apartment units and this is even worse in rapidly expanding Southeastern markets like Huntsville. Every year apartment homes are lost to obsolescence and new product is brought to market at record setting prices. By investing approximately $15 million of capital into Madison Landing, Freeman Webb was able to drastically enhance the community while offering upgraded living for Huntsville residents at a much more affordable rents.

When we acquired the first of the two properties there were several broken windows, leaking roofs, deteriorated Masonite siding, neglected amenities, overgrown landscaping and multiple other physical issues. Most importantly, there were also life safety issues that needed to be addressed at the community including lack of water pressure in fire hydrants and lack of firewalls in attics. Local police, city officials and residents also told us the property was well-known in the area to be plagued by criminal activity. Our thesis of rehabbing Madison Landing proved to be correct for the Huntsville market as the property has been well-received by the community and occupancy for the property was 97% in 2020.

The response to our renovations have exceeded our highest expectations, particularly in the areas of resident retention, overall living experience, and brand.

Resident retention remained strong as renovations amped up towards the beginning of January 2018 and continued through the end of 2019. Additionally, at the start of 2018, we began a forced turnover on most units with expiring leases to achieve the goal of completing renovations with an aggressive two-year timeline. At the conclusion of 2018, we achieved a total of 119 onsite transfers from un-renovated units to renovated units paying the increased market/premium rent. In 2019, we continued to build upon this success with an additional 65 on site transfers from un-renovated units to renovated units and 146 renewals. With a superior product that our rehab team provided, we reached 100% leased on July 13, 2019. The first full year after renovations, we renewed and/or transferred 269 units (52%).

The overall living experience for our residents has improved drastically. We utilize J Turner to gage our prospects and residents experience in all aspects of living at Madison Landing. J Turner has a unique approach that provides us a useful tool in how we improve our community and allows us access to direct feedback from residents regarding those improvements. Our ratings and reviews have significantly increased across all platforms. In 2017, our Google review score was 2.12 and it increased to 3.32 within 2 years of renovations. Please see attached uploads for some of our resident testimonials concerning our renovations.

In terms of branding, our rehab team and top leasing staff have made Madison Landing one of the top desirable places to call “home” in the Huntsville and surrounding areas. We are the official “Home of the Huntsville Havoc”, 65% of all applications are associated with our preferred employers (the most sought out work places in the Huntsville market), and our marketing strategy has allowed us to have the largest networking portfolio of any property in the area. Our residents are extremely active on our social media pages and any community events being shared or posted.

We have had the same community manager at Madison Landing even prior to acquisition. In total she has been the community manger for five years (at the property for over six) and can unequivocally state that this past year was one of the best years at this property and within our market. We are extremely proud of the product we have and the brand we have become.The response to our renovations have exceeded our highest expectations, particularly in the areas of resident retention, overall living experience, and brand.

Resident retention remained strong as renovations amped up towards the beginning of January 2018 and continued through the end of 2019. Additionally, at the start of 2018, we began a forced turnover on most units with expiring leases to achieve the goal of completing renovations with an aggressive two-year timeline. At the conclusion of 2018, we achieved a total of 119 onsite transfers from un-renovated units to renovated units paying the increased market/premium rent. In 2019, we continued to build upon this success with an additional 65 on site transfers from un-renovated units to renovated units and 146 renewals. With a superior product that our rehab team provided, we reached 100% leased on July 13, 2019. The first full year after renovations, we renewed and/or transferred 269 units (52%).

The overall living experience for our residents has improved drastically. We utilize J Turner to gage our prospects and residents experience in all aspects of living at Madison Landing. J Turner has a unique approach that provides us a useful tool in how we improve our community and allows us access to direct feedback from residents regarding those improvements. Our ratings and reviews have significantly increased across all platforms. In 2017, our Google review score was 2.12 and it increased to 3.32 within 2 years of renovations. Please see attached uploads for some of our resident testimonials concerning our renovations.

In terms of branding, our rehab team and top leasing staff have made Madison Landing one of the top desirable places to call “home” in the Huntsville and surrounding areas. We are the official “Home of the Huntsville Havoc”, 65% of all applications are associated with our preferred employers (the most sought out work places in the Huntsville market), and our marketing strategy has allowed us to have the largest networking portfolio of any property in the area. Our residents are extremely active on our social media pages and any community events being shared or posted.

We have had the same community manager at Madison Landing even prior to acquisition. In total she has been the community manger for five years (at the property for over six) and can unequivocally state that this past year was one of the best years at this property and within our market. We are extremely proud of the product we have and the brand we have become.