Yael (00:05)

Hello everyone. Thank you so much for joining us for another episode of Vertical Futures. My name is Yael Shemer. I'm the co-founder of Tulu. And today we have a very special friend of Tulu, guest of the show, Courtney Mulligan. Courtney is the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Russo Development — an incredible brand — and has spent her entire career at the intersection of real estate and brand building with stops at some of the most respected names in the industry: Equity Residential, the Durst Organization, and even Bobby Brown, and many more. You started your career in editorial and luxury PR at Condé Nast, and I think this gives you a really distinct lens on storytelling that real estate doesn't often give marketers. We're super curious to learn more about your approach, what you think about our industry, and learn more about the Vermella brand. Thank you so much for joining us.

Courtney (01:12)

Thank you for having me — it's so nice to be with you. And obviously every development, we're big fans of Tulu. You've really changed the game in our amenity spaces in terms of really offering a next-level opportunity for someone to grab something on the fly, but also a lifestyle enhancement that we're so passionate about. Our brand is the Vermella brand and we have just about 20 communities, two of them coming online in March and April — we'll be in Paramus and East Brunswick. I've been with Russo since 2019, and in joining then, we had COVID in 2020, which was such a total departure for the whole world. We really rose to the challenge. And I do think it shaped so much of the storytelling piece and the community engagement. People coming out of COVID crave — even still now, six years past the real change — community and connection. Our buildings are designed really around these lifestyle spaces. You're not just renting. I think of all the things I've done marketing for in my life, and apartments and multifamily is absolutely my favorite, because it's not like a restaurant or a hotel. You're giving someone their life. This is their home. This is their friendships. This is their family. So it's a really unique opportunity to tell a story about a brand. One of the things that draws me so much to my job is that I love people. Our properties are just chock full of third spaces — it could be a cool library where we do wine tastings, a golf simulator where a golf pro teaches a group, or as simple as a painting class or pottery class. We created something called the Vermella Social Club. The idea is that when you join our community, you're not just getting an apartment that's four walls. You're getting friendships and community and neighbors. That's really a lot of our secret sauce.

Yael (04:13)

Incredible. And I can attest that everything you're saying is not just words — it's truly part of your infrastructure. The buildings are set for interactions. I know you've been with Russo for over six years, which in marketing is practically a lifetime. What has kept you there, and how has your role evolved as the company has grown?

Courtney (04:42)

Almost seven — lucky seven. When I joined Russo in 2019, I had come from the Durst Organization managing some of their residential marketing. We had seven buildings at the time. Vermella Union is now really our flagship campus with almost 1,300 units of affordable and market-rate housing. I always say "hustle and heart will set you apart." I came in with that grind mentality and brought it to an already amazing team with an already excellent product. Since then, we've opened 13 buildings. One of the very big things I've been an integral part of is working with our architecture and engineering team — our real vision is building the brand into the experience. One of the first buildings I worked on was Print House in Hackensack, the former site of the Record newspaper. On my second week on the job, talking with our COO Michael Pembroke — and having been a journalism major at Syracuse — I said we have to call it Print House. And it stuck. If you walk into the building, even our logo has brackets around it designed to look like printing press brackets, and you'll find those stamps of branding throughout. I really said to myself when I walked into this company: I want to forge a relationship with our design team so that the branding is baked in from the beginning. And it gives such a special difference.

Yael (08:32)

I had no idea that's why it's called Print House. Incredible — and congratulations to you and the team. The Russo team won seven awards at the New Jersey Builder Association Sales and Marketing Awards. Can you share more about some of the other communities you've been a part of building?

Courtney (08:36)

One of the buildings we opened — where we also have a Tulu — is called Rev by Vermella in Belleville, New Jersey. We partnered with the largest motorsports dealer on the East Coast, the Motorcycle Mall, which is also an over-50-year-old family business, much like Russo. We created this brand around the idea of movement and cutting-edge lifestyle. But a lot of what was really important to us in the design was creating intentional spaces for community. This specific building has a piazza in the middle. Our SVP of design Diogo was just on a panel at the New Jersey Builder Show talking about how he identifies so much with the European idea of a piazza where people come and sit and have a coffee. We've really created that at this building. We're having our first Earth Day Night Market on April 22nd — live music, string lights — inviting the town as well as our residents. That's something Russo cares tremendously about: when we come to a place, we're finding ways to amplify what's already there. Not change it, not gentrify it, but just amplify. Another great example is Vermella Broad Street in Newark, where we have a 501(c)(3) woman-owned art gallery inside the building called Newark Art Space. They do quarterly exhibits of local New Jersey artists, open mic nights, poetry. To gift that gallery space to this group and have it be a living, breathing part of Vermella — that's the magic to me.

Yael (11:51)

You can really sense that you are raising the bar in the geographies you're in. Walk me through how that identity came to life — was there a clear vision from day one, or did it emerge over time?

Courtney (12:13)

Trends are definitely something that stay with us all the time. COVID introduced us to indoor-outdoor living in a big way. We have so many spaces with retractable glass walls that open up completely. Our architecture and design team is globally inspired, all from different countries. A lot of our design inspiration comes from hospitality. We're not just building an apartment building with a gym and a café — we're building this immersive space where you can grab a cappuccino and then go to the art gallery. Our CEO is a visionary and he really lets the team express that creativity. You walk into a building like The Ray in New Brunswick and it feels like you walked into a boutique hotel. The lighting design still takes my breath away after seven years. We always say: good, better, best. We're always pushing the limit. And we're now also going back to some of our legacy projects from 2017, 2018, and refining them with capital improvements — because they're still part of our history and where Russo really began.

Yael (17:26)

I want to move on to resident experience. To challenge what you've shared — was there anything hard about maintaining brand integrity across so many communities? Every market has its own personality, and you hold your brand to such high standards, but real life is real life.

Courtney (18:16)

Our buildings are wildly unique. We have a building in Newark across from Broad Street Station that's very transit-oriented and urban, where the art gallery was a big part of making that community special. Then we have Vermella Hackettstown, which is suburban Western New Jersey — with a totally different feel. Neighbors at our resident events there look like they've known each other their whole lives. We really have to look at each building with a different pencil — looking at the demographics, figuring out what makes that area tick. In New Brunswick, we see a lot of Rutgers staff and football players. In Hackettstown, Vermella was completely new to the market, so our concept was "Welcome Home to Vermella." At Vermella Woodbridge, we're set on a bigger plot with a lot of green space — community garden, dog run, expansive pool — so the tagline was "naturally inspired living." When things go awry, it's always about how you come back and over-communicate. If we have an elevator down, we send follow-up emails every day and put out donuts in the club room as a small thank you. Those things go a long way.

Yael (22:58)

We also find that at Tulu, when things go well we don't hear much. And when things go badly, it's enhanced language. So often when we hear from partners that residents came to them to complain about something with Tulu, we ask — have they tried reaching out to us directly? We have 24/7 customer service with real humans. When they do reach out and we respond in 30 seconds and resolve it, it feels really rewarding to show that customer service is actually part of the brand.

Courtney (25:34)

Responsiveness is everything. People just want to feel heard. A lot of our training focuses on empathy — something happens in someone's apartment, and it's all about saying, "I'm so sorry this happened to you. Let's find a way to work through it." I have to give five stars to all of our property teams because they're simultaneously carrying the brand and providing customer service — people are touring the building deciding if they'll call it home, and a resident comes in saying their refrigerator has a problem. Every single touch point is marketing. You walk into a building, the concierge stands up and smiles. You go to an event and they know your name — they know your dog's name. Those little touch points are such big differentiators. In a world where so much is automated and digital, to be able to talk to a human and have that experience where someone's really listening to you — it goes a million miles. It's just about being human and being authentic.

Yael (27:49)

It's about creating conditions for your on-site team to be human, because other things are running in the background. Do you spend a lot of time on-site yourself?

Courtney (28:00)

I love going to the buildings. If we have an open house on a beautiful summer Saturday, I'll go and chat with people while they're waiting — asking where else they looked, what brought them to Vermella. The richest stories come from those moments. Sometimes someone's going through a transition — a divorce, a move, a job change — and these things can be extremely stressful. But when I look at our Google reviews and analyze sentiment overall, the amount of times people say things like "they made my move seamless" — everyone hates moving — for someone to say that is to me invaluable. Good leadership and a good company truly comes from the top. All the way up to our president, Ed Russo, people attend resident events, people get on the phone with residents when something gets escalated. We go big or go home when it comes to our assets.

Yael (32:10)

Quick turn to tech, data, and the future. What shifts are you seeing in what residents are actually asking for — things that maybe weren't on anyone's radar three years ago?

Courtney (32:42)

The social life — and we're nailing it. The Vermella Social Club was really born in 2025. We've always done resident events, three to five per property per month. But I always struggled when I'd listen to leasing teams talk about it, because it wasn't packaged. So we branded it. Now it's this whole concept of: you come to our community, you get a social life, you get neighbors, you get friends. We've also really upped the ante with fitness — two classes a week per property, ranging from yoga to HIIT to Pilates to kickboxing, with personal trainers in small class settings of six to twelve people in our private studios. The reviews have been insanely positive. That's resident retention right there. We also see amenities like Tulu playing a big role. To be able to say: I don't want to buy a $500 Dyson vacuum, but I can rent one from Tulu, do my spring cleaning, and return it — it's right in my lobby at a low cost. Or in the middle of the night, your spouse is having a craving for ice cream and you can go downstairs and get it. Tulu is like the modern version of a piazza — you come down to your lobby, meet a neighbor, share a moment. It's technology, but at the root, it's still really people. And then we're coming out with Vermella Social Club swag — we just did a coffee event in March with custom mugs. This summer we'll have Vermella Social Club pool towels. It makes you feel like you're part of something bigger and special.

Yael (37:23)

People are so burnt out in big cities. When a building has your social life in mind and is actively investing thoughtful resources into it, I can see how that changes what people look for when they move. Given the economic uncertainty I'm hearing from many real estate partners — are you noticing any changes in consumer sentiment around renting?

Courtney (38:28)

We've had people dealing with job loss and we want to help them stay when we can. One thing we are seeing: we used to see a lot of concession hopping — someone at a neighboring property getting one month free and bouncing. We're actually seeing more people staying, because moving is expensive and they don't want to go through the process. Home is home. We're constantly looking at our weekly reporting, tailoring e-blasts and social media around exposure. Right now social media is really where we're getting the most traffic, so we're pivoting spend toward that. We also launched the Vermella app last year — residents can see community events, post a couch for sale, do a maintenance request, pay rent, join a running club, all in one place. We just won the best app award at the show. We've also really pivoted on how we communicate. A lot of residents now prefer SMS. Younger demographics love a quick text confirmation; someone who's a downsizer might want a phone call or email. Our job is to just answer that call. The beautiful thing about being owner-operated is there's not a lot of red tape. We can shift pricing, shift concessions, create different specials quickly. That agility sets us apart.

Yael (43:11)

We only have time for one more question. What excites you about the future of multifamily?

Courtney (43:15)

Joint ventures. We're really upping the ante on JV partnerships — finding other developers who know Vermella, who see us as a front-runner, and want to create this amazing mashup of what they do best and what we do best. One of our partners is Onyx Equities, and together we're a co-sponsor of the 2026 FIFA World Cup — Vermella is the official apartment brand of the World Cup. We're also working on a campus in Metro Park, a big transit hub in Middlesex County, where Hackensack Meridian has an ambulatory care center and their corporate office alongside Vermella Metro Park. Their whole concept is "from the platform to the exam room" — opening up doctor's appointments to people who may have no other way to get there, with the train as a solution. Finding smart people who share your passion and energy to make a product that's truly out of the box — that's what we're doing more and more. And I think that's really special.

Yael (45:52)

Incredible. And it's a testament to how Russo is not just thinking about buildings — it's thinking about New Jersey and the shape of the surrounding environment. If more real estate owners and developers were thinking that way, our cities would benefit. Courtney, I can't thank you enough for joining us. Every single person I've worked with at Russo is so diligent, determined, kind, and thoughtful. You don't see that every day in real estate. Something good is happening.

Courtney (46:48)

We're all rowing in the same direction and we all have a different piece — marketing, engineering, acquisitions, legal, architecture — and it's all in house. We do the construction ourselves. We do everything ourselves. That's where that enormous sense of pride really shows. Thank you, Yael. I loved it. Can't wait for the next one in person!

Yael (47:19)

Amazing. Cheers to Russo and cheers to Courtney. Can't wait for the next one in person. See you so soon, and have an amazing weekend.