With New Year 2022 upon us, we’re taking a moment to reflect back on an action-packed 2021. With tons of acquisitions, events, and news throughout the year, 2021 definitely helped us to grow and evolve!
We started 2021, with a virtual Kickoff Party! While going virtual meant the festivities were a little different than those of previous years, the new setup definitely didn’t get in the way of team members across the Venterra portfolio having a blast, and we enjoyed announcing our annual winners including our 2020 WOW Matters grand prize winner, Terry.
For Venterra leaders, the virtual fun rolled on throughout the year with Venterra Leadership Conference 2021. VLC2021 started up in March and rolled on in April with more learning and the announcement of our WOW-EE Grand Prize Winner. Michael Bungay Stanier joined in for the VLC fun in July with one of our event’s big keynote speeches, and the year-long event was packed with plenty of other activities and speeches before it officially wrapped-up in November.
Ensuring safety during another year of COVID challenges didn’t keep our teams enjoying regular festivities like Fun Fridays, our Better Living challenges, Leasing Appreciation Week, Halloween contests, and holiday celebrations. Our annual Maintenance Appreciation Week was also one for the books, especially given the winter storm challenges that so many of our maintenance team members tackled earlier in the year.
Our unique company-culture was recognized outside of the organization in 2021, too! The year marked the third time we were recognized by Glassdoor.com as a Best Places to Work winner, and, in June, the site again named our COO, John Foresi, one of their Top CEOs based on anonymous employee reviews. We later took the #1 spot in our size category for the Great Place to Work® Institute’s Best Workplaces in Texas list, and, in June, we celebrated the institute’s Certification Nation Day 2021 with other Great Place to Work Certified companies across the US. Later in the year, Great Place to Work named Venterra one of the 2021 Best Workplaces for Millennials™, “certified” our Canada office, and, for a sixth year in a row, the institute and Fortune named us one of their overall “Best Workplaces.” And, naturally, our customer experience got some attention in 2021, as well! We were recognized for our ability to create an amazing resident experience with a 2021 Kingsley Excellence Award and by having our communities Top Rated by our residents on ApartmentRatings.com.
On top of all of the 2021 action, we also managed to make Venterra history by branching into new territory with community development starting in September and we expanded our presence to 13 cities with plenty of community acquisitions in 2021. Among others, new additions to the our portfolio included Elation at Grandway West in Katy, TX, The Retreat at Lakeland in Lakeland, FL, Cane Island in Kissimmee, FL, Advenir at Stone Park in Houston, TX, and Villages at Oakleaf in Jacksonville, FL.
Given as busy and exciting as 2021 was for us, we can’t wait to see what 2022 has in store!