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AvalonBay Communities has been at the forefront of centralizing apartment operations for almost 20 years now.

In 2007, the Arlington, Virginia-based REIT opened a service center in Virginia Beach that still provides back-office financial administrative support for its properties. It was one of the first of its kind in the apartment industry. Now, the firm is opening a second in San Antonio, Texas, which should employ 50 associates by the end of the year.

The call center also provides support for some of AVB’s other initiatives, like its neighborhood model, teams can be shared for up to 1,500 units. “It [the neighborhood model] wouldn’t be possible without our remote support,” Michael Coyne, AVB’s vice president of operations, told Multifamily Dive.

Here, Coyne talks with Multifamily Dive about the neighborhood model, the centralization of customer-facing tasks and the benefits of sharing resources.