When The Michaels Organization began planning The Maxwell, a 40 story luxury high‑risehigh-rise in downtown Brooklyn, they weren’t just designing another building — they were rewriting the playbook for modern access, operations, and resident experience.
For Tyler Davidson, Vice President of Facilities, the project started long before construction. “I was involved when it was still napkin drawings,” he said. “Even though I’m on the operations side, I’m very integrated in the design project and in how it will interact with our maintenance and facilities teams.”
Years of lessons from past developments shaped the vision. Michaels had built properties where access control was fragmented — one hardware set on unit doors, another on amenity spaces, and a patchwork of software trying to hold it all together. “We never had one entity to go to when something was wrong,” Davidson recalled. “There was always finger‑pointing — hardware blaming software, software blaming hardware.”
At The Maxwell, they wanted a clean slate. A unified system. A future‑proof experience.
They built it with Zentra and Allegion.
Building It Right From Day One
Davidson had spent nearly a decade refining Michaels’ access strategy. He’d seen what didn’t work: — short battery life, mismatched hardware, clunky software, and resident frustration. So when the team discovered Zentra, the decision was immediate.
“All of our new developments have Zentra as the platform of choice,” he said. “It’s become our standard.”
The shift wasn’t just about modernizing. It was about eliminating operational drag.
At UC Davis, Michaels replaced 1,300 locks with Schlage XE360 hardware mobile-enabled wireless locks integrated with Zentra. Davidson still laughs about the moment his maintenance supervisor realized how much money they were saving.
“He was spending over $9,000 in batteries every six months at other properties,” Davidson said. “At UC Davis, it was over two years before we replaced the first battery.”
That reliability, — paired with mobile credentials and unified hardware, — became the foundation for The Maxwell.
A Resident Experience That Sells Itself
The Maxwell’s resident base is young, mobile, and tech‑forward: bankers, tech professionals, students, and first‑job graduates. For them, convenience is more than just a perk,n’t a perk — it’s an expectation.
“Technology plays a big part in making their days go easier,” said Barrington Gibbs, Community Manager. “If they can use their phones instead of carrying keys, that smooths everything out.”
Gibbs doesn’t even have to pitch it. Prospects notice it on tours.
“We’ll be walking to the fitness center, and I’ll just tap my phone to open the door,” he said. “People immediately ask about it — ‘Oh, you have keyless access?’ They love that they can get into their apartment, the building, any amenity with their phone.”
From Robert Gaulden’s, Go To Market Director for Zentra, vantage point, “The Maxwell’s experience mirrors what we’re seeing across the student housing market: mobile access is no longer viewed solely as a resident amenity — it’s a meaningful operational advantage. Properties that adopt mobile credentials report fewer lockouts, fewer emergency calls, and significantly lower battery and labor costs. It’s a rare upgrade that improves both sides of the equation: residents get a smoother daily experience, and operators get a system that reduces friction and frees up staff time. The Maxwell is a standout example of that dual impact.”
In a competitive Brooklyn market, that differentiation matters.
Davidson sees it every renewal cycle: “Residents go look at other buildings, and they start asking, ‘How do I get into the building? What systems do you have?’ They realize other places don’t offer what they have here — and they choose to stay at The Maxwell.”
A Maintenance Team That Can Finally Focus on the Building — Not the Locks
For Antonio Tavares, The Maxwell’s maintenance supervisor, Zentra changed the rhythm of his day.
“When I first started, it took me a little while,” he said. “But now I have no issues with the locks. It’s pretty basic for me now.”
He’s worked in buildings with traditional deadbolts and mortise locks, and the difference is night and day.
“People always forgot their keys,” he said. “You’d get emergency calls all the time. But with Zentra, everything is in the palm of your hand. You always take your phone before your keys.”
That shift has dramatically reduced lockouts and freed up his team.
“It gives me time to do other things around the building — touch‑ups, paint, rug cleaning, making sure everything is up to par,” Tavares said. “We can focus on improving the building instead of dealing with keys.”
Even vendor access is easier. No key copying. No chasing down spares. Just digital credentials.
Support That Shows Up — Literally
One of the strongest themes across all interviews was the support from Allegion and Zentra.
“Every time I’ve had another software platform, we’d call an 800 number and go through steps we already knew,” Davidson said. “With Zentra and Allegion, the support has been absolutely fantastic.”
During a major conversion project, the support team didn’t just answer calls — they showed up.
“They were boots on the ground,” he said. “Walking units with us. Helping us update locks where they could. Not something they have to do.” — but they’ve done it every single time.”
Gibbs echoed the same sentiment: “We’ve tested a lot of different key software across the country. Nothing impressed us until we got to this point with Zentra.”
The Result: A Building That Works the Way Residents Live
The Maxwell isn’t just a beautiful building, it’s a place that genuinely works the way people and students live today. Residents move through their routines with a simple tap of their phone, slipping from the lobby to their apartment to the gym without thinking about keys or access at all.
Maintenance teams finally get to spend their time improving the building instead of troubleshooting lockouts or juggling hardware.
Leasing teams get to show off technology that quietly sells itself, proving the property is built for modern living. And behind it all, operations run on a unified, reliable platform that keeps everything connected.
For the people who run The Maxwell, this isn’t just an upgrade — it’s personal. It’s the kind of building they’re proud to stand behind.The Maxwell isn’t just a beautiful building, it’s a frictionless one.
And for the people who run it, it’s personal.
“I love being here,” Tavares said. “I’m a New Yorker. Opening a new high‑rise has always been my goal, and I’m living it now through The Maxwell.”
For more information on how you can leverage mobile access control to improve NOI and resident experience while enhancing safety and security, click here. And to learn more about Zentra, visit zentra.co.
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