CORT Brings NACAS Professionals Housing Solutions that Generate New Revenue Streams and Contain Expenses

FAIRFAX, VA (April 19, 2010) An imperative for educational institutions to find new streams of revenue and prudently manage expenses is driving a shift in student housing policies. CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is delivering solutions for managing overflow students on campus, generating profits from off-campus housing and reducing the asset management burden of dormitory furniture.

“Each year, CORT supports the temporary housing and furnishings needs of over 20,000 interns nationwide, and we feel that this experience allows us to bring a new perspective on solutions to help educational institutions as they confront housing and budget challenges,” said Mark Koepsell, senior vice president at CORT. “We are prepared to help universities and colleges meet these challenges and operate as efficiently as possible to save money and potentially create new revenue sources.”

Student enrollment is at record levels as schools admit larger student populations as a revenue generating strategy and many students choose to return to school while the job market remains depressed. The resulting growth in the student population places a strain on campus infrastructure. Many institutions are facing restricted housing inventory due to ongoing renovations to aging dormitories and infrastructure, compounding the strain on campus facilities.

CORT is working with universities to develop direct and indirect relationships through which schools can offer furniture rental packages to students living in temporary campus housing in lieu of purchasing furniture inventory that may not be needed in later years, when student population levels stabilize. Rented furniture can be delivered and removed “on-demand,” ensuring students maintain the highest quality living standards, and frees schools from the burden of purchasing and managing furniture.

“Higher education support services providers appreciate operational quality, service, flexibility and value,” said CORT Senior Vice President Mark Koepsell. “From both a cost and service perspective, rental furniture can be considered a strategic best practice.”

Many students choose to live off-campus, whether by choice or by necessity. CORT can help universities capture some of this lost revenue through partnership programs. CORT can work through a university’s Web site to create a portal that will offer students apartment locating and furniture rental services, tracking sales to share resulting furniture revenues with the partnering institution.

CORT’s robust experience in locating includes online search through ApartmentSearch.com in addition to a comprehensive suite of relocation services for renters, including touring and neighborhood orientation services that appeal to international students and visiting professors.

CORT offers a furniture purchase-leaseback program that may provide educational institutions another option to transform their existing inventory of dormitory furniture into cash for better strategic use. Through this program, CORT will purchase furniture from a university and lease that inventory back to the school, removing and updating individual items as needed.

In addition to meeting immediate needs and providing the flexibility to reduce or add furniture based on future needs, rental furniture helps institutions avoid the “hidden costs” of managing, maintaining, repairing and storing furniture. CORT provides “on demand” furniture that is delivered and removed as needed with the confidence that all furniture will be maintained to the high-quality standards that students, faculty and staff expect.

The facilities management industry reports that organizations invest far too much time and resources maintaining, redeploying and storing furniture, and many use off-site storage facilities for furniture that they are unlikely to ever use again. When all of these hidden “costs of ownership” are tabulated (facilities, staffing and manpower, logistics and delivery, as well as the on-going depreciation of unused assets) the total dollars expended are significant.

According to a survey by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, more than 80 percent of institutions rate cost containment as very or extremely important to their overall strategic plan, with 41 percent rating it “extremely” important. The current environment necessitates new ways of approaching the procurement and management of resources necessary to support student populations, and will uncover potential revenue streams that can continue to support universities after the effects of the recession.

For the past 40 years, CORT has been a leading provider in rental furniture for residential and commercial use, as well as for conferences and other special events. CORT, a Berkshire Hathaway company, is the only national furniture rental company with offices in every major U.S. market and a global furniture rental network of affiliates in more than 50 countries. CORT has provided services to more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500 companies and today, CORT also provides the industry’s most robust range of rental relocation services. For more information about CORT, visit www.cort.com.

Amanda Manna
919-459-6456
amanda@largemouthpr.com