Abstract
The apartment industry in West Lafayette offers a unique business opportunity. The
nearby university, Purdue, has enrollment of nearly forty thousand students, yet only provides
housing for twelve thousand every year. The surrounding community houses the remainder in a
combination of apartment buildings and house rentals. Nichols Apartments is a short walk from
Purdue and has achieved 100 percent occupancy since 2005. This paper analyzes the profitability
of the apartment industry, examines the market, evaluates the needs of Millennials, identifies
current technology expectations, and recommends the use of an interactive Website. Although
business income is maximized, improvements in technology are needed to continue its success
with today’s Millennial tenants. Several recommendations are offered: transfer the Web domain
to Web.com, update the Website regularly, monitor finances closely, watch the West Lafayette
tax situation, improve advertising on the Internet, and identify different means of measuring
success. The culmination of this project is the creation of NicholsApts.com using Web.com,
which is ready for posting to the Internet.
