Introducing the Avenue Living Centre of Excellence

Creating a Foundation for Service Excellence  

At Avenue Living, we believe exceptional resident experiences begin with a well-trained, empowered team. That’s why we established our Centre of Excellence (CoE) — a purpose-built training institute located on the main floor of our Glenmore Gardens building. The CoE equips both new hires and long-standing team members with the tools and training they need to deliver consistent, high-quality service across our 500+ properties. 

By investing in our people, we’re building the foundation for sustained operational excellence. The CoE standardizes training and ensures every team member aligns with our commitment to service, strengthening resident relationships and reinforcing our position as the property manager of choice. This focus directly supports our goals: increased resident satisfaction, higher retention rates, and stable, long-term occupancy — all of which drive asset performance and portfolio stability. 

The Inspiration Behind the Centre of Excellence 

Over the years, Avenue Living has grown substantially as an organization. And as we’ve continued to scale up, it became clear that there was an opportunity to centralize and standardize key operational processes we use daily, ensuring the delivery of exceptional service uniformly across our portfolio.  

Our goal was to create an exceptional experience that encourages resident loyalty. According to Avenue Living’s Director, Operational Training, Trent Schaber, “A key component in creating that kind of loyalty is consistency. A great resident experience drives retention and contributes to thriving, stable resident communities. We decided it was time to create a purpose-built facility where we could train our new and current employees.”   

Core Training Programs 

Training at the Centre of Excellence will cover every aspect of the resident journey. The initial program has been divided into 10 core functions:  

• Leasing 
• Renewals 
• Collections 
• Move-Ins 
• Move-Outs 
• Suite/Building Inspections 
• Suite Turns 
• Work Order Management 
• Purchase Order/Financial Management 
• Yardi (use of) 

The training team has also created training modules on such additional functions and topics as the following: 

• Insurance 
• Utility Management 
• Lease Modification/Addendums 
• Managing Payments/Zenbase 
• Quality Assurance 

Training will be delivered through various methods, including in-person and online sessions and self-paced e-learning modules.  

Raising the Bar for Industry-Standard Property Management Training 

The Centre of Excellence seeks to elevate the standard for property management training with a unique approach and inclusive delivery. Prioritizing earned experience, Schaber shares that “the individuals who create the Learning & Development materials and the Facilitators who deliver them have over 36 years of combined direct field experience as well as industry-leading facilitation training.” The CoE team is “not simply teaching general industry processes and principles, we’re building customized modules and teaching our teams based on actual Avenue Living field operations and leadership experience.” 

With the flagship Centre based inside an actual Avenue Living building, the environment doubles as a live training tool. Team members attending training events at the Centre aren’t simply taking in information from a book — they are given the opportunity to apply and practice all aspects of their learning in a real-world environment. Schaber stresses the importance of this model of delivery, as it “not only reinforces the theoretical applications, but helps solidify understanding of those concepts for people of all learning styles.” The Centre was designed for inclusive delivery methods that take into consideration different learning needs and preferences. “Our model for learning/training is designed in a way that no one gets left behind,” says Schaber.  

Training is done in small groups of six to eight people to encourage the questions and conversations that facilitate deep learning. Groups are made up of individuals from various markets throughout the organization, so attendees can learn from each other as well.   
 

Delivering Consistent, High-Quality Service Across Our 500+ Properties 

One of the most important parts of the CoE’s training is the follow-up — it helps make sure attendees not only understand the material but can actually use it in their day-to-day work. Attendees are accountable for applying what they learn at the Centre. “We deliver best-in-class content in an environment that reinforces concepts with practical experience. But as with any form of learning, it’s up to the student to commit to putting it into practice,” says Schaber. All change takes time, but the team behind the CoE works closely with senior field leadership to provide feedback, communicate expectations, and track performance. We anticipate seeing elevated results post-training in the team members who visit the Centre of Excellence. 

Want to learn more about the Centre of Excellence? Stay tuned for our next post, where we explore how team training at the CoE leads to more satisfied residents long-term.