Picerne Military Housing forms new parent company, Corvias Group, and launches Corvias Campus Living to serve private colleges and universities
East Greenwich, RI (July 24, 2012) – Picerne Military Housing, a pioneer and leader in the privatization, construction and management of U.S. military housing, today announced its expansion into the student housing market with the launch of a new parent company, Corvias Group, and a new student housing division, Corvias Campus Living.
“Student housing across the country is rapidly deteriorating,” said John Picerne, founder of Picerne Military Housing and CEO of Corvias Group. “Faced with dwindling endowments and rising infrastructure costs, many schools have simply not been able to keep up with deferred maintenance, let alone pursue modernization. We believe we have a truly innovative housing solution that will allow schools to substantially improve living and learning environments for their students and will allow them to focus on their core mission of education.”
According to Picerne, the United States Army suffered similar deferred maintenance issues when the company was selected as one of four to pilot the privatization of military installations in 2001.
“Through long-term public-private partnerships and revitalization, we’ve literally reshaped both the quality of life and people’s expectations of what military housing can — and should be — across the country,” said Picerne. “We can do the same thing for student housing.”
While many colleges and universities routinely work with developers to build one-off campus housing facilities or new academic buildings, no institution has ever given one company full responsibility for the construction, management and maintenance of all student residences.
“Part of what makes us uniquely qualified to take on this challenge is the sheer scale of some of our projects,” Picerne continued. “At our program in Fort Riley, Kansas, for instance, our responsibilities in terms of buildings, beds and acreage are more than three and a half times the size of the entire University of Kansas campus. As a privately-held company, we are also able to offer our higher education clients innovative and more cost-effective financing solutions.”
The company delivers high-quality housing and management services to service members at seven Army installations. Since its founding, the company has partnered with the military to build, renovate and manage nearly 21,000 homes with more than 65,000 bedrooms, situated on more than 10,000 acres of land nationwide.
“Our strengths as a company — developing win-win partnerships, providing exceptional customer service and improving our residents’ quality of life —will translate successfully to solve the housing needs of private colleges and universities,” Picerne said. “Building on our innovation in financing, management and construction is a natural step for the company’s expansion. Our new corporate structure will allow us to continue our pioneering work in military housing, while Corvias Campus Living leads our entrance into the higher education market.”
Residents recently awarded Picerne Military Housing the number one resident satisfaction ranking for portfolios with at least 10,000 homes based on the 2011 SatisFacts Annual Resident Survey. The company has previously earned the number one resident satisfaction distinction four times.
Picerne’s charitable foundation, The Our Family for Families First Foundation, also was recently recognized at the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama as a winner of the first Joining Forces Community Challenge. Picerne established the foundation in 2006 to support military families in the pursuit of higher education, establishing a tradition of community service, and encouraging professional career paths. Since its founding, it has awarded more than $3.5 million in scholarship funds.
About Corvias Group
Corvias is a privately-owned, vertically-integrated real estate solutions group dedicated to building strong communities through partnerships that deliver the highest quality development, construction and management solutions to a range of clients, including the military and higher education. Applying our success as pioneers of real estate development and management as Picerne Military Housing, Corvias delivers customer service that exceeds client expectations and an innovative, holistic approach to facility financing, management and construction. We have the ability to forge partnerships that consistently put the interests of our clients first and the flexibility to pursue creative, sustainable long-term solutions to their most difficult challenges. www.corvias.com
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