When it comes to living in an apartment complex, feeling like you’re a part of a community is a notably rare thing. However, our management team at 124 Marketplace, some of West Chester, PA’s best luxury apartments, don’t just want to have another apartment building where residents feel isolated or like they’re living near a bunch of strangers.
Their initial goal might sound like a lofty idea, but we think we have actually done a superb job at achieving the rather difficult task. With a little planning, many conversations, and quite some perseverance, the tenants of our complex have made great strides in saying “hi” in the hallways, or grabbing lunch together on the weekend.
We’ve even seen many of the people who live in these apartments in West Chester go from being merely circumstantial neighbors to great friends. Where there used to only be quick greetings or nods in passing, there are now residents chatting it up, hanging out and laughing.
For the most part, our attempts at building and fostering community have all been centered around getting our residents to meet up and congregate in a couple areas like the lobby or one of the nearby neighborhood restaurants, bars or cafes.
To get people to actually spend time in the building’s lobby (instead of just quickly passing through) and strike up conversations with neighbors, we supply fresh coffee and tasty snacks – that way even “good mornings” are a little more believable and friendly. Aside from meeting inside our building we also host weekly Networking Happy Hours at Más Mexicali Cantina (down the street from our complex) between 6 and 9 pm, so our residents can get out, mingle (maybe even make some business connections!), and grab a beer or some fajitas together. Our residents also meet up regularly at Boxcar Brewery; we’ve held Sports Quizzo Events and get together to watch Eagles and Flyers games, and our residents get special rates and VIP coupons for the bar.
We also realize a lot of our residents spend a lot of time in out in cyberspace, so we run regular social media contests to get people participating and making friends online, which has proven to make for a friendlier community all around. We also use our Facebook and Twitter pages to announce and share community events we think our residents would be interested in attending. We all got together for a Halloween Open House, where we dressed up for the West Chester Halloween Parade, decorated the lobby and provided food and drinks for our tenants.
While we’ve made serious progress in getting our tenants to get to know one another, we are still committed to introducing many more new activities, gatherings and contests. It’s the hard work put in by our staff that makes 124 Marketplace shine, and makes our residents feel comfortable and like they live in a genuinely friendly environment (because they do!).
Once you decide it’s time to move from just an apartment building to a complex with a real, active community, head to 124 Marketplace to get a tour of the building and check out the beautiful units that are still available. If you have any questions about our leasing specials, amenities or floor plans, call us at 610-696-5687 or send us a message online and we’ll get back to you right away. If you like what you see and can’t wait to call 124 Marketplace your home, apply online today and be a part of this amazing community.
