Landmark Properties Hires New VP Jonathan Bove

By Elizabeth Putfark

This month Landmark Properties welcomes Jonathan Bove as its new vice president of student housing development and consulting services.

Bove brings 10 years of experience from his start in university residences and his last eight years with Campus Advantage, where he specialized in third-party management and student housing.

“Landmark has a strong foundation in property development, management and operation,” says Bove, now in his second week with the company. “I think what drew me to Landmark was I felt like it was a great pairing of my own expertise and their expertise.”

Bove hopes to use that combination toward two particular ends. “First of all, I’ll be assisting with further expansion of the third party managed portfolio, helping bring Landmark’s expertise and their successful track record to a number of other clients,” Bove explains. “Additionally, I’ll be offering strategic input based on my own areas of experience, particularly consulting services related to university housing.”

Those consulting services will be geared toward new entrants to the student housing market who want to transition from multi-family backgrounds into university developments and communities. Bove expects the need for highly trained consultants to continue to rise in the upcoming years as the student housing market continues to grow and diversify.

“The number of new entrants to [the student housing market] means that it’s gotten very crowded at the top,” says Bove, who has assisted with the development of student housing communities both nationally and internationally. “A lot of folks are looking to develop based on what’s worked well in the past – high end, almost luxury student housing at tier-one institutions. That’s only about 10 percent of the market.”

As the industry matures, Bove expects that many developers will be wise to look for the next “big thing” in property development.

“I think we’ll continue to see folks trying to identify what that next new style or new property type is that’s going to work best for the tier-two and tier-three institutions. There’s only so much property available across the street from the nation’s top schools,” Bove adds.

As a result, the biggest challenge in the coming years will be to identify, forecast and predict the demand for student housing in untested markets. And that’s where Bove’s expertise comes in.

“I think there’s a real opportunity for savvy investors to play in the space,” Bove claims.

“I do think that while [student housing consultation] is a service that Landmark hasn’t traditionally offered, by adding me to the team, it’s something we hope to be offering as we move forward.”