Area apartment complex flips almost 500 bed spaces in two weeks

STARKVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – If you’ve ever lived in student housing or had a child who did, you know this time of year can be difficult.

Most apartment complexes are going through a process called “Turn” where they repair units and make them ready for new residents.

The Folks at Helix Apartments in Starkville said they’re in the middle of fixing up 450 different bed spaces, and they only have two weeks to do it.

“Student housing is a little different from what we call conventional housing. so we’re going to have 450 people move out one day and 450 people move in within three days,” said property manager Shannon Latsko.

For the next two weeks, all twelve helix employees will be working day in and day out to make sure the units are ready for move-in day.

“Once everyone moves out, we’ll have our maintenance team go and punch the units, which means they’re doing the maintenance work on them. They’re fixing doors, little things around the apartments making sure things are ready…They’re going to go in and paint, then clean, and then carpet clean,” said Latsko.

“I actually helped with inspections. I get here at 8 o’clock, I usually check my emails, get with my partner Mary, she helps me do the move-out inspections. We go floor by floor. We start on the fourth floor and have to make our way all the way to the first floor,” said business administrator Kosha Clark.

On top of all of this, the office workers are still trying to get new leases.

“I still have to stop and approved leases like after I finish working and keys and stuff. We still have to be functional because we want to get to a hundred percent. We want to get as close to that as possible,” said leasing and marketing manager Tabriel Smith.

“It’s just one big giant juggling game, like she said, we’ve got to keep doing everyday stuff and then also add all of this craziness on top of it,” said Latsko.

“It’s a very calculated process because we have to do it in such a small time frame,” said Clark.

Move-in day marks the official end of Turn. Employees are finally able to get back to their normal schedule.

“It’s a major relief. It’s a major relief because usually we work anywhere from three to four weeks non-stop. So, it’s a relief to be at the finish line, to have everything done, to be welcoming our new tenants in. Everybody is pretty much just getting settled,” said Clark.

“When it’s all over and we get to meet new students that come from different countries that move in. That’s my favorite part – to meet the new kids,” said maintenance team member Shannon Prater.

“I know we love our jobs. It can definitely be stressful, but without our staff, you all the way around, everybody on board, we couldn’t do it,” said Latsko.

“Teamwork,” said Smith.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” said Latsko.

Employees said they start preparing for Turn as early as January.