Anyone who has found himself in another locale for an extended period knows that there can be two types of homesickness. An aching longing for friends and familiar places characterizes one variety. The other type arises from living alone out of a suitcase or in cramped quarters for too long–simply missing a home.
A relatively new wrinkle in the real estate rental market–the corporate apartment–has sprung up to relieve the latter condition. Fully furnished, down to coffee makers and pots and pans, corporate apartments attempt to offer all the comforts of home, and usually must be rented for a minimum of one month.
“The prices (of corporate apartments) depend on the amenities, but they are typically cheaper than residence-style hotels,” says Kim Livingston, a spokeswoman for the National Interim Housing Network (800 742-6446), a Dallas-based trade group of 58 corporate apartment companies.
When he recently transferred to Chicago from Salt Lake City, a corporate apartment provided a comfortable environment for the month and a half that Alex Jelenevsky lived and worked here while his family sold their home and wrapped up the school year. A fully furnished apartment eliminated moving furniture twice and paying for utility hookups, says Jelenevsky, who now lives in Hawthorn Woods. Not only that, he adds: “When you travel a lot, you grow to despise eating out. You can eat a lot healthier with a fully stocked kitchen.”
Transferees, especially those who are told to report to another location immediately, are the most common users of corporate apartments, says Shawn Olszewski, of Presidential Villas Nationwide Corporate Suites, a Clarendon Hills-based provider of corporate rentals.
“It’s increasingly common for employees to be told on a Friday that they must start work in a different city on Monday,” says Paul Sorrentino, of the Naperville office of Pinnacle Group Associates Inc., a relocation consulting firm. Fully furnished short-term rentals fill the bill for these workers, who are often leaving their possessions behind in a house that must be sold.
Indeed, the term “corporate” apartment reflects the orientation toward the transferee market, and accommodations for business people working or training in a different location for an extended period. But relocating employees are by no means the only market, says Olszewski. People waiting to close on a new home who’ve sold their previous residence are another market. So are homeowners temporarily forced from their home due to remodeling, and snowbirds who come back to the Chicago area for the summer, adds Olszewski.
The term “corporate apartment” is also somewhat of a misnomer because town homes, and even in rarer cases, single-family homes are included in this category.
Some corporate apartment companies operate regional or nationwide chains. Village Suites, based in Farmington Hills, Mich., has apartments throughout the Midwest. “We try to analyze what the most requested geographic areas are (for short-term stays),” says George Quay, vice president and general manager.
In the Chicago area, Village Suites rents blocks of apartments and then sublets them temporarily in the Loop, and in Naperville, Downers Grove, Lisle, Oak Brook, Schaumburg, Arlington Heights, Wheeling, Gurnee and Buffalo Grove.
Increasingly, corporate apartment chains are vying with hotel chains for temporary guests, notes Daniel Amdur, president of Orion Relocation Services, Chicago.
For stays of at least a month, though, corporate apartments are often more economical, “and they are usually homier,” says Kathy Lanphier, manager of destination services for Pinnacle Group Associates. To compete head-on with hotels, many corporate apartments offer maid service.
Olszewski says a one-bedroom Presidential Villas apartment in Chicago costs renters from $1,710 to $2,430 a month, depending on the location. Maid service, utilities and phone hookup are included.
Some small-scale corporate apartment providers offer more unusual accommodations than chains can provide. Janet Conomy, for example, started Transition Home Living a few years after she and her husband transferred here from Ohio. The coach house on their Libertyville property has two one-bedroom units, and the Conomys didn’t want to rent the units long-term. Remembering how difficult it was to live in a hotel during their own transfer, the Conomys struck upon marketing the units to transferees looking for short-term housing. Now, Janet has expanded the business, adding a six-unit building in Mundelein.
Lynn and Curt Alpeter spent several months this past year in one of the Barrington Corporate Townhomes owned by Barrington resident Jane Washburn, who also started the venture from a need she perceived as an executive transferee’s spouse. Lynn relates: “We left our furniture in storage and just brought our clothes and a crib for our baby.” Not only was the hassle and cost of moving furniture from an apartment to a permanent home eliminated by using a fully equipped town home, but Lynn says she felt as if she was able to really get a feel for local neighborhoods, and is now a Barrington homeowner.
Some transferees do not select corporate apartments on their own, notes Quay. Instead, the rentals are arranged by their employers. However, the trend is for employers to simply hand a transferee a lump sum, says Amdur, and let the employee decide how to allocate the dollars among temporary quarters, moving expenses, etc.
Subleasing an apartment is another temporary living option, which can be cheaper, especially because subleases usually prorate the rent at the annual rate, notes Abbey Schrager of The Apartment People, Chicago. Most subleases are only available in three-month terms, however, adds Schrager. Moreover, subleasing an apartment from someone else usually means you take the apartment unfurnished.
Amdur of Orion Relocation Services says that while a sublease may be cheaper, transferees have to factor in the cost of moving furniture–and the potential damage that can occur from multiple moves.
Indeed, one of the chief features of the corporate apartment concept is that it allows you to move in with only a suitcase. “It was a much more relaxing way to do it,” shares Alpeter.
