As soon as an architect friend showed him a video of the Ori system, Matt Branagh knew it was just what he was looking for. The fourth-generation Owner/CEO of Branagh Development, Lafayette, Calif., saw that Ori could make his studio apartments feel like junior one-bedroom unitsâperfect, he said, for the âhuge wave of peopleâ coming to Oakland from San Francisco to get more space at lower rental cost in a first-class building.Â
He leased five Studio Suites and purchased eight Pocket Closets for Maya, his firmâs 47-unit apartment building in Oakland, which opened in March. Heâs bundling a $275/month premium into the leases for units with a Studio Suite and $95/month for those with a Pocket Closet.
Branagh said tenant adoption for the Pocket Closet was âreally strong.â âPeople get it,â he said. âItâs a price point that theyâre willing to pay for, and itâs uniqueâtheir friends donât have it.â He said some prospective tenants were âa little intimidatedâ working the robotic keyboard at first, but âonce they did it a couple of times, they loved it.â
He said Ori turned his floor plans around in 3-4 days and suggested several options. The manufacturer flew in two technicians from Boston to install the systems. They had to do a work-around for the Pocket Closets because the nonmoving section of the two-part system would have bumped into the apartmentsâ mini-splits. Even so, âthe installation was quicker than expected,â just a few days, he said. Branagh has ordered six more.
For Nova Quincy, a 171-unit mixed-use rental community in Quincy, Mass., 10 miles south of Boston, Jonathan Miller, Vice President of LBC Boston, has ordered 40 Studio Suites. âOur prospective tenants are young professionals looking for value outside Boston but close to transit in a lively downtown center,â said Miller. The MBTA Red Line stop is a seven-minute walk.
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Nova Quincy will open in September, but already thereâs been âa ton of interestâ in the Ori system from prospective tenants âlooking for something innovative.â
Studio Suites will be installed in 10 studio apartments and 30 micro-units (330â400 sf). âOne of the primary benefits of Ori is your usable square footage is much greaterââabout 100â150 sf more, he has calculatedââthan what youâre paying for.â LBC Boston will include a $200â250 monthly rental premium for what theyâre calling âOri Smartâ Studios.
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SEE ALSO: Robotic interiors: How to make a studio apartment feel as big as a one-bedroom unit
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Miller said he wants to see how the leasing goes for the Ori-outfitted units, but so far heâs âdefinitely bullishâ on using Studio Suites in future projects in Quincy, Allston, and Brighton, where LBC Boston has permitting for 1,500 apartments.
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