Korman Communities' Co-CEO Brad Korman and AVE President Lea Anne Welsh sat down with Matt Slepin on the Leading Voices in Real Estate podcast to share the story behind AVE — and the five generations of family history that built it. What started with Brad's great-grandparents arriving in Philadelphia in 1904 has grown into a company spanning 40 properties nationwide, with AVE now offering nearly 6,000 apartments across seven states and thousands more in the pipeline.
The conversation traces the roots of AVE's signature flexible-stay, furnished apartment model back to the 1960s, when Brad's father first experimented with fully furnished units at a Philadelphia property. What began as a simple solution to an oddly shaped building became a defining idea: that there should be an option between a hotel stay and a year-long lease. That belief still shapes AVE today, where residents can choose an apartment with or without furniture, for a few months or several years — all within the same welcoming community.
Throughout the episode, Brad and Lea Anne return to the idea that hospitality and genuine care set AVE apart. Team members are trained to see every resident as part of one community, whether they're staying for a month or making it their long-term home. That's reflected in the language AVE uses every day — residents, not tenants; team members, not employees; apartments and homes, not units — and in a service philosophy that favors real human connection over the industry's growing shift toward self-guided tours and unstaffed properties.
The two also discussed AVE's continued growth, including recent openings in Santa Clara, California and Paradise Valley, Arizona, along with new communities underway at Philadelphia's historic Navy Yard. Looking ahead, both leaders shared pride in welcoming AVE's fifth generation of family leadership into the business — a milestone they see as proof that the values guiding Korman Communities since 1904 are built to last.
