Product Profile: Highmark Residential

 

INDUSTRY

housing

Category

apartment management and development

product Profiled

apartments managed by Highmark Residential

 

H-Score

 

55

ranked 11th of 13 within the housing industry

ranked 30th of 76 overall

 

product description

 

Highmark Residential is a multi-family property management division of the Starwood Capital Group, an investment firm that focuses on global real estate, located in Dallas, Texas. Highmark Residential serves over 100,000 residents across 300 communities in 15 states.(1)

 
 

who’s affected

 

Highmark Residential serves people living in urban areas who rent apartments. Fifty-seven (57) percent of apartment renters in the US have household incomes of less than $50,000 per year.(2)

 
 

influence on health-related behaviors

 

EATING

slight negative influence

 

Proximity to grocery stores with healthy food options can positively influence eating habits. One metric of a neighborhood’s food environment is whether it is characterized by the USDA as “low access to food stores.”(3) In a sample of Highmark Residential locations reviewed by Building H, 25% were in low-access neighborhoods.

 

opportunities:

  • Review the food environment – both access to fresh foods and prevalence of unhealthy food outlets – as part of the decision of where to locate future properties. Use the potential of aggregated demand that a new apartment property would create to encourage investment in local fresh food outlets like grocery stores.
  • Facilitate home cooking through:
    • experimentation with provision of indoor hydroponic gardening appliances
    • establishment of community gardens within properties
    • partnerships to provide discounted memberships to local community-supported agriculture (CSA) farms
    • partnerships to provide discounted grocery delivery services or meal kit subscriptions
    • experimentation with the promotion of food sharing apps to help residents share excess groceries
 
 

PHYSICAL ACTVITY

neutral to slight positive influence

 

The walkability of a geographic location has an influence on the physical activity of its residents. In a sample of Highmark Residential locations reviewed by Building H, 13% were in neighborhoods rated as “very walkable” or better by Walk Score. Sixty-three (63) percent of locations were in neighborhoods rated “car-dependent” by Walk Score.(4) Mean Walk Score was 40.4; the median was 40.0. A higher Walk Score rating for a given neighborhood has been associated with increased physical activity among neighborhood residents.(5)


Highmark Residential provides a number of amenities that facilitate physical activity in their communities. They offer fitness centers at 90% of a sample of apartment communities reviewed by Building H, playgrounds at 68% and swimming pools at 95% of their communities.

 

opportunities:

  • Review the walkability, bikeability and access to transit of a neighborhood as part of the decision to build or buy in a certain neighborhood. Use the potential of aggregated demand that a new apartment property would create to advocate for and encourage investment in sidewalks and bike lanes, if not already available.
  • Publish data on the walkability, bikeability, and access to transit of property locations.
  • Provide bike sharing and scooter sharing services at properties.
  • Provide bike storage and bike repair facilities at its properties.
  • Provide amenities such as fitness centers, playgrounds, swimming pools, parks and walking paths at more of its properties.
 
 

Sleeping

slight negative influence

 

There is no indication that Highmark Residential does anything in the design of their properties to enhance their residents’ sleep experiences.

Smoking is associated with poor sleep and designating a community smoke-free discourages smoking among its residents. A total of 8% of Highmark Residential properties that Building H reviewed were designated as “non-smoking” communities. More than 90% did not have a community-wide no-smoking policy displayed on their webpage.

To the extent that Highmark Residential’s locations and property designs influence physical activity and time spent outdoors, they could indirectly influence sleep as both of those behaviors are positively correlated with better sleep.

opportunities:

  • Promote healthy circadian rhythms by installing circadian LED lighting systems that adjust color temperature to mimic natural light throughout the day.
  • Monitor indoor air quality, as it has shown to influence sleep(6) and mitigate where it is poor.
  • Provide smart thermostats and appropriate instructions in order to optimize nighttime temperatures for better sleep.
  • Use soundproofing and other acoustic design techniques, such as sound-absorbing materials, to reduce noise that could interfere with sleep.
 
 

Engaging Socially

slight to moderate positive influence

 

Highmark Residential offers amenities at many of its properties that can facilitate social interactions among its residents. These include lounges or other social gathering areas (in 90% of a sample of communities reviewed by Building H), swimming pools (95%) and outdoor grills (70%).

 

opportunities:

  • Engage with residents to understand social interests and develop social programming to foster social interaction and bonding over common interests.
  • Offer indoor and outdoor common spaces – such as lounges, clubhouses, playgrounds, swimming pools, sports fields/courts and outdoor cooking facilities – that facilitate both planned community events and casual social interactions among neighbors at more of its properties.
  • Offer an app for residents to engage with each other and to coordinate plans.
  • Experiment with buddy programs, where longtime residents welcome new residents and help them get situated.
  • Create arbitration/mitigation plans for neighbor disputes.
 
 

Getting Outdoors

slight to moderate positive influence

 

Neighborhood walkability is a key driver of spending time outdoors. The walkability of Highmark Residential’s locations (discussed above in physical activity) has an influence on how much time its residents spend outdoors. 

Access to public parks can also encourage people to go outdoors. In the sample of Highmark Residential locations reviewed by Building H, 53% were within a 10-minute walk from a public park.(7)

The natural environment around one’s home can influence how much time people spend outdoors. In the sample of Highmark Residential locations reviewed by Building H, 78% were rated “Nature Rich” or “Nature Utopia” by NatureQuant, an organization that characterizes the natural environment around any location.(8) Twenty-one (21) percent of Highmark Residential’s locations were rated “Nature Light” or “Nature Deficient.” Mean NatureScore was 70.5; the median score 81.4. A higher NatureScore for a given neighborhood has not been directly correlated with more time spent outdoors by its residents, but it has been correlated with many improvements in health outcomes that are consistent with more time spent in nature.(9)

Highmark Residential offers a number of amenities that can facilitate outdoor activities. These include playgrounds (in 68% of a sample of communities reviewed by Building H), outdoor grills (70%), dog parks (28%) and sports courts (28%).

 

opportunities:

  • Pursue opportunities noted above related to neighborhood walkability, bikeability and access to transit.
  • Pursue opportunities noted above related to outdoor amenities such as playgrounds, community gardens and walking paths.
 
 
 

Notes

 

  1. Highmark Residential website, accessed November 10, 2023.

  2. Household Incomes. National Multifamily Housing Council website, accessed November 10, 2023.

  3. The “low-access to food” designation means that a significant portion of residents of the Census tract are more than one mile (if urban) or more than 10 miles (if rural) from the nearest supermarket or large grocery store. See U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Food Access Research Atlas: Measuring Access to Food.

  4. Walk Score is a methodology for assessing the walkability of a location, using a proprietary algorithm that factors in walking proximity to amenities and pedestrian friendliness. Walk Score is based on a scale of 0-100. Locations scoring 49 or under are considered “car-dependent;” Locations scoring 70 or more are rated “very walkable.” Those scoring 90 and above are labeled “walker’s paradise.” See https://www.walkscore.com/methodology.shtml for more on the Walk Score methodology.

  5. Erica Twardzik et al. Walk Score and objectively measured physical activity within a national cohort. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Volume 73, Issue 6 (June 2019), pp. 549-556.

  6. Jianhong Liu et al. Air pollution exposure and adverse sleep health across the life course: A systematic review. Environmental Pollution. Volume 262 (July 2020).

  7. Based on a geographical analysis using ParkServe, a tool provided by the Trust for Public Land.

  8. NatureScore is a methodology for measuring the amount and quality of natural elements of any location developed by NatureQuant. NatureScores are on a 0-100 scale and are translated to descriptive assessments using the following code: 0-19.9: “Nature Deficient”; 20-39.9: “Nature Light”; 40-59.9: “Nature Adequate”; 60-79.9: “Nature Rich”; 80-100: “Nature Utopia.” See  Delivering Technology to Assess and Promote Nature Exposure. NatureQuant White Paper. 2020.

  9. NatureQuant (2020).