Question–“Smart” is to “Home” . . . as (blank) is to “Apartment”?
Answer–Depends on whether we’re talking about the past or future.
OK, that’s hardly a satisfactory answer. The reality, though, is that until now, the term “smart home” has been bandied about on a regular basis, while apartments remained outside the realm of most home-technology conversations. It’s as if smart homes represent an exclusive Mensa-type society with membership limited to technology-driven mortgage payers.
Well, rental dwellers need no longer feel like home-tech ignoramuses. The era of the smart apartment may be (finally) upon us. Apartment operators in Chicago and around the country are increasingly filling new and renovated buildings with high-tech amenities such as high-speed Internet access and “smart cards” that can be used for everything from security to doing the laundry.
Like so much else in our technology-driven world, the change is coming fast and furious. Last year, when we wrote about a New York apartment manager who wired his building for high-speed Internet access, we asked several Chicago-area landlords if they had similar plans. Most were very sketchy and non-committal.
Not today. Work-at-home types and surfers used to high-speed Internet access at school or work have spurred property owners to wire buildings for similarly speedy access to the Information Superhighway.
Examples: In Romeoville, the new 552-unit Highpoint Community will feature lightning-fast I-way access via fiber optics for about $40 a month, as well as a “Cyber Cafe” where residents can access the Web for free.
At Park Evanston apartments up on the North Side, The John Buck Co. wired a 24-unit building it manages with asymmetric digital subscriber line (ASDL), which hooks users to the Info-bahn at speeds normally reserved for businesses with T-1 cable lines. It’s a bit pricier, with the cost of an ADSL modem, Ethernet card and installation.
Another high-tech trend in the apartment business seems to be the proliferation of “smart card” systems. Today, with one card, some residents can access their apartment, the parking lot and health club.
Another favorite target: converting coin-op laundry facilities to smart-card technology. Mac-Gray Corp., which operates some 120,000 washers and dryers in apartment buildings and colleges throughout the Midwest and Northeast, recently announced it would convert half its portfolio to smart-card laundry terminals.
Aside from the obvious benefits (no more scavenging for quarters), smart-card laundries offer some other subtle advantages for lessors and lessees. The cost of a load, for example, can be programmed down to the penny, instead of raising prices in 25 cent increments. Residents also tend not to overstuff the laundry units when card-based systems are available to them, the company says.
One savvy marketer, perhaps sensing the trend, has begun referring to its technology-packed rental units as Smart Apartments. Massachusetts-based Princeton Properties, which manages 5,000 units in the Northeast, is luring renters to its smart apartments with amenities such as high-speed Internet access by cable modem, card-operated gates and doors, and the latest in programmable electronic thermostats.
“Smart features are really making a difference,” says Terence F. Flahive, president of Princeton Properties. “The high-tech employees who live in the area are attracted by the opportunity to have the latest technology in their homes.”
Of course, there is a danger to all of this. If, as Princeton Properties suggests, Internet access, electronic security and coinless laundries are replacing swimming pools and tennis courts as amenities desired most by apartment residents, we’ve got to wonder if renters are going to get any exercise. You hardly burn any calories clicking a mouse key.
– Bits `n’ bytes. Regardless of how smart your apartment is, there’s one item no renter can ever seem to do without: extension cords. Now, even if you live in a plain old rental unit, you can get a “smart extension cord” thanks to a Clearwater, Fla., company. Technology Research Corp. has introduced an electronic power cord with a “brain” that monitors the flow of electrical current and shuts it off when a problem arises.
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Don Hunt and Brian Edwards can be reached via e–mail at hitekhome@aol.com, or hitekhome@iserv.net, or you can write to them: The High-Tech Home, Chicago Tribune, Your Place section, 435 N. Michigan Ave., 4th Floor, Chicago, Ill. 60611.
