10,000 And Counting: Lloyd Companies Hits Multifamily Milestone
There was a time when the only goal was to grow enough that Lloyd Companies could support some extra help.
“In 2006, before I even started working here, I was talking to my mom and asked about her goals for the company and she said, ‘I just want to get to 2,000 units.’ I didn’t completely understand what she meant at the time,” said Christie Lloyd Ernst, who now serves as executive vice president of property management for Lloyd Companies.
Christie’s mom, Pat, co-founder of Lloyd Companies, knew that if the company could reach that many apartments under management, it meant she could start to evolve her role.
“Maybe we could hire more people,” Pat remembers thinking. “So I wouldn’t have to do everything from marketing to human resources.”
That’s the nature of a family business, especially in the early years. While Lloyd Companies began growing its team in the 1970s, much of the day-to-day demand of managing apartment communities still fell to the owners
“They were everything,” Christie said. “I remember growing up my sister and I would collect coins from the laundry machines. We would mow the lawn, clean the pools, water the flowers. It was common for our home phone to ring with maintenance calls in the middle of the night and it was not uncommon for them to spend weekends picking up trash, painting or cleaning apartments.”
When she joined in the mid-2000s, Lloyd was growing by 75 to 100 apartments per year. A lot of projects were 20 or 48 units at time.
But, times have changed. In the last month, Lloyd Companies celebrated reaching 10,000 apartments under management, from its headquarters in Sioux Falls east to the Des Moines metro area and west to Rapid City.
“This last year brought a lot of growth – we increased by 2,000 units just in 2023,” Christie said. “And that’s what’s nice about being in three growing communities, because to have that kind of activity just in Sioux Falls would be very challenging.”
The apartment industry has changed considerably since Lloyd Companies began managing its first properties more than 50 years ago. Today’s apartment communities are filled with amenities inside and out and technology integrated into the living spaces and are supporting by strategic digital marketing.
About half of Lloyd Companies’ property management, known for its 334-RENT brand, supports projects Lloyd developed. The rest are for other owners, including a longtime, deep relationship with Sioux Falls-based Signature Companies.
“It’s really difficult, because management is so precise and sometimes I think this team makes it look easy,” Pat said.
Led by Ashley Lipp, vice president of residential property operations, Lloyd Companies estimates it takes about two people to support every 100 apartments under management.
“Ashley has done a great job and cares very deeply for our people and it shows,” Christie said. “Our staff has to come to work on the worst days, whether we’re having a blizzard or whatever else is going on, and we have a team that will be there to make sure residents are taken care of. It’s why some people have lived with us 30 years and why we’ve been able to build trust with other owners and investors.”
And Lloyd Companies isn’t done yet. The company has a goal of reaching 20,000 units under management by 2031.
“We mapped it out in a way that would be attainable, but you never know because it depends on a lot of market factors,” Christie said.
“What we do know is that we are going to keep improving and evolving what we do to meet the changing ways that people live. And I do think we wouldn’t have been able to get to 10,000 units at all without Pat’s really strong foundation. She started with policies and procedures at 2,000 units and we now have all of that knowledge from years prior that we’ve spent meeting those high standards.”
