CA Ventures hires Steve Boyack to lead new property management arm

CA Ventures tapped property management veteran Steve Boyack to oversee its international crop of more than 2,000 apartments and 19,000 student beds.

Boyack was appointed CEO of CA Management Services, which launched in December to oversee day-to-day operations in the Chicago-based developer’s growing portfolio of dorms and apartment buildings around the United States, Europe and Latin America, the company said. CA had already managed its own student housing facilities, but it had outsourced management of its multifamily properties to another company.

Prior to joining CA, Boyack was chief operating officer of Larimar Group and senior managing director of Greystar, where he mostly oversaw renovations of existing buildings. But joining a company focused on ground-up development creates an opportunity to “break the script” of traditional property management, he said.

“My greatest interest lies in applying technology more holistically into the operating platform,” Boyack said. “You hear a lot about people trying to do a ‘smart apartment,’ but you don’t hear them trying to bring it to the next level … by getting them integrated into the network infrastructure of the buildings.”

Specifically, Boyack envisions far-reaching communication networks that give maintenance workers and concierge services instant access to units where they’re needed, he said.

“The goal is to transfer low-value tasks, like filling out guest logs and work orders, to tech so that staff can focus on meaningful interactions with residents,” he said.

CA has a number of Chicago-area apartment projects in its pipeline, including a joint venture with White Oak Realty Partners to build a 261-unit apartment complex in River West.

But the company is also fresh off a selling spree of some recently completed projects. In the past six months CA and various partners sold their newly-completed South Loop apartments at 1140 South Wabash,, the 227-unit Kinect complex in River West and a South Loop student housing center for a combined $279 million.

Tom Scott founded Campus Acquisitions in 2004 to focus on development and management of student housing. He rebranded the company in 2012 as CA Ventures and created subsidiaries to build offices, apartments and senior living facilities.

Last year the company launched CA Industrial, promising to pump $500 million into the construction of new warehouse spaces from Chicago to Houston.

With CA Management Services, the parent company now counts eight subsidiary groups.