In Residence: From a Program to a Portfolio Brand

What started as a single artist residency program at a downtown Phoenix high-rise became a portfolio-wide brand.

When my CMO brought me the concept for Moontower, a multifamily high-rise that opened in 2023, I ran with it from the ground up. I built the initial pitch and contract materials for investors, developed the artist selection process, recruited judges, and found and onboarded the resident artists. I handled all the marketing and produced the resident events that brought the program to life. The idea was simple: during a lease-up, vacant units sit empty anyway. Why not put artists in them and create community in the process?

It worked. The first year at Moontower drove sold-out resident events, press coverage, and genuine social buzz around a building that was still leasing up. That performance made the case for a second year, and the second year made the case for something bigger. Moontower Phoenix went on to win Multifamily Development of the Year from CoStar.

When Paseo opened in Austin in 2025, we brought the program back at a significantly larger scale and expanded what "in residence" could mean. Where Moontower had a small cohort of artists, Paseo launched with ten artists in residence alongside five content creators with a combined following in the millions who generated over three million views around Paseo's opening, plus fitness instructors in residence running boutique classes on site. Same concept: offer people a place to live and create in exchange for genuine community engagement. Bigger scale, broader definition. The artists also had access to a dedicated gallery space where they hosted public events, including Austin Studio Tour and the debut of Mosaic Fest in the Rainey Street alley, positioning Paseo as a genuine contributor to Austin's creative community. Paseo was 53% leased in less than 90 days and went on to win Multifamily Development of the Year from CoStar as well.

To carry all of this across the portfolio, we created an umbrella brand called In Residence, giving us a single cohesive platform for creative content, events, and programming that could scale to future properties. What started as one idea in one building became infrastructure.