Madison Landing wins national award as the “Major Rehab Community of the Year”

MADISON – The National Apartment Association (NAA) has announced Freeman Webb Company as a 2021 NAA Excellence Award winner in the category Major Rehab Community of the Year. The award is for the company’s efforts at Madison Landing at Research Park and the Cottages, located at 2002 Flagstone Drive in Madison.

The annual awards program recognizes outstanding performance and leadership in the rental housing industry – celebrating communities, industry professionals and affiliated apartment associations that make unique contributions to the industry.

“NAA extends congratulations to Freeman Webb Company for being selected as a winner of this year’s
NAA Excellence Awards,” said Bob Pinnegar, NAA President and CEO. “Despite the challenges of the past
year, Freeman Webb went above and beyond to create a lasting and meaningful impact on our industry.
Your award emphasizes our sincere appreciation for all that you do.”

“I am pleased to learn that Freeman Webb is being honored by the National Apartment Association
(NAA) with the NAA Excellence Award for Major Rehab Community of the Year,” said Freeman Webb’s
Chairman and Co-founder Bill Freeman. “It is a tribute to our employees for their hard work and
achievement.”

The original property, Madison Landing, was acquired in 2017 and is a late 1980s community with 514 units on 44.5 acres. An adjacent property was acquired in 2020 that expanded the community with 48 additional 1- and 2-bedroom units to expand the total property to 562 units. The combined properties include three pools, multiple outdoor kitchen areas, covered pavilions, an outdoor wood burning fireplace, a large fitness center, walking trails, fire pits and many other amenities. Freeman Webb invested nearly $15 million to extensively refurbish the 44 acre property with quality upgrades, beautiful landscaping, and modern amenities to create a community more reflective of the growing city around it; a city known for excellent schools and large employers.

Vice President of Construction for Freeman Webb, Tommy Bumpous feels Freeman Webb was honored with the NAA Excellence Award based on the merits of the property and how extensively it was rehabbed.

“This is a 33-year-old property that was pretty tired, blandly painted, full of rot and it needed some TLC. It’s in a nice part of town but undesirable traffic was driving or walking through. We immediately put perimeter fencing all the way around it and gated it – then went to work to renovate the property. We re-did the pools, created an awesome outdoor kitchen area, added a huge playground, did all these things to make it a family-oriented type property. For interiors, we used higher-grade carpeting, trendy paint colors, granite, things that add to the quality. We use high quality products with good warranties because we want things to last long after the rehab team is gone.” Bumpous further added that Freeman Webb has the gift of a trifecta. “We acquire the property, manage the property and
we have our own in-house construction team, and we feel that’s pretty unique. It allows us to provide the best in quality materials. Further, wherever we live is our castle, so we strive to give our residents a place that’s very nice inside and outside.”

“I was a property manager here for about six months prior to Freeman Webb acquiring the property,” commented Michell von Oven, Madison Landing at Research Park’s community manager. “Freeman Webb took over on August 26 of 2016, and by the end of September or early October that year we had our first interior renovated unit,” continued von Oven. “With 514 units, we were on a very aggressive two-year timeline to have the multi-million dollar renovation complete – all 514 were complete – and we pretty much hit the mark on that.”

Exterior improvements were found to be the detail that made significant improvements to security and occupancy rates. “About nine months into the renovation process, we started with the exterior,” informed von Oven. “Once we were able to see a difference in the exterior is really when we started seeing a change in demographic. The 2020 addition of the Cottages at Madison Landing has also 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.” The community’s rehabilitation has been well received by both the community and residents; occupancy for the property was at 97% in 2020.

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. Further, Madison is home to some of the best schools in the state, so many new residents are finding that the community improves the quality of their lives with shorter commutes and good schools while living in a top-notch property.

Since Freeman Webb acquired the properties, the Apartment Association of North Alabama has awarded Madison Landing multiple awards, including the 2018 “Maintenance Team of the Year,” “Beautification,” and “Reaching for the Stars” awards, as well as repeating the 2019 “Reaching for the Stars” in 2019, which is the award given to the best rehabilitation services. There were no awards given in 2020 due to the pandemic.

According to a press release announcing the award, Freeman Webb is not only well regarded for rehabbing, they are also well known as a company that places their employees, their residents, communities and investors first. The company has been repeatedly voted by its employees as a Top Workplace throughout its many decades, including the past five years. Further, Freeman Webb recently received an additional honor from StatisFacts (sister company to ApartmentRatings.com), which named four Freeman Webb communities in the Top 250 communities to live in the United States. That award was based on resident reviews and manager interaction and engagement.