BRG Realty: Creating community with a foundation of caring

Not only is caring embodied in their mission statement, but BRG Realty team members exhibit it on a daily basis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, BRG helped ease some of their residents’ stress and uncertainty by waiving late and month-to-month fees, suspending rent increases, absorbing credit card transaction fees, and not processing evictions. Their ask was simple: communicate and demonstrate a hardship, and the team would offer flexibility. As an essential business during the pandemic, the site teams were on the "front lines," maintaining properties and interacting daily with residents. For their 200 dedicated employees, BRG provided many COVID-related bonus programs and “mental health" days throughout 2020-21, in addition to standard payroll and incentive increases.

BRG consistently has below industry-average turnover rates: during the pandemic, the company had zero layoffs and maintained 100 percent of their payroll. Team members refer to fellow colleagues as the “BRG Family” – the organization celebrates weddings, babies, promotions, retirements, and gathers together when facing life challenges, including illness or loss of loved ones. Innovation is a cornerstone of BRG’s culture: the company launched BRG App, which facilitated online payments and maintenance requests, and began conducting virtual tours with online lease renewals. They created a paperless invoice workflow solution, 3D apartment drawings and layouts, and invested in water-saving plumbing solutions and high-efficiency HVAC systems to manage utility costs for the benefit of their residents, communities, and as part of their “BRG Go Green” initiative.

As an essential business, BRG had a duty to keep properties operational with minimal impact on the level of service delivered to residents. BRG exclusively focused on delivering three key tenets: team member and resident safety; job and financial security of team members; and housing stability for their 7,600 residents. In addition to a competitive compensation and benefits package, the organization provides other benefits, including company outings, a new hire orientation program, lunch and learns, maintenance roundtables, and continuing education programs, such as BRG University. BRG takes pride in their Employee Assistance Fund and has an open door policy, encouraging their employees to share suggestions, personal needs, or concerns. Maintaining and updating the apartment communities is a critical part of the business, and it is important to have business partners that share their core values. BRG’s commitment to strengthen their community is not only evident in their resident spaces, but throughout the city, as they support over twenty-five organizations through financial and volunteer efforts. As a relationship-based organization, their partnerships – built on trust, transparency, and honesty – will continue to flourish in the years to come.

Featured image from left: Don Brunner (CEO) and Alex Parlin (CFO) of BRG Realty Group, LLC

The Goering Center is sharing this content as part of its 2022 Family and Private Business Awards celebration.