- February 26, 2025
Former funeral home owners using same customer service philosophy.
The Lohmans, a long-time Ormond Beach family, continue to expand into their new venture, apartment buildings, using marketing and customer service philosophies they learned while operating the largest privately-owned funeral home business in Florida.
Lowell Lohman, his wife, Nancy, and son, Ty, recently purchased “The Reserve at Rosemont” apartments in Orlando for $9 million.
The Lohmans, who sold their funeral home and cemetery business in 2012 to Stonemor Partners, now own nine separate apartment complexes totaling 1,173 units. Eight are located in Volusia County.
“We’re not done,” Lowell Lohman said recently. “We’re going to expand.”
Lowell Lohman is the family member most involved with the apartments.
Nancy Lohman is in charge of acquisitions for Stonemor, and Ty is in charge of sales. Lowell’s brother, Victor, who started the funeral home business with him 20 years ago in Ormond Beach, is in charge of cemeteries for Stonemor.
They have been successful so far, according to Lohman. He said the apartments were 70-80% occupied when purchased, and now there is 98-100% occupancy.
“We’re good at marketing,” Lohman said. “The first thing you have to do is invest some money.”
For example, they recently purchased $50,000 worth of swing sets so that all of the apartments they own will have playgrounds. Every apartment they have purchased has a pool, and they are also replacing pool furniture at many locations.
They are also taking a lot of care with the landscaping, just as they always did at their funeral homes.
One advantage they have, Lohman said, is that they know how to work families and make sure they are satisfied, skills they learned in the funeral business.
“You can’t make a mistake in the funeral business,” he said. “Everything must be perfect.”
Lohman also pointed out that most apartment buildings in Florida are owned by out-of-state corporations, sort of an “absentee landlord” situation. The Lohmans are “taking advantage of that” by being close to their properties. They only plan to have apartments in the I-4 corridor between Daytona Beach and Orlando.
“I’m not driving more than three hours to any apartment,” Lohman said.
An important part of their marketing plan is to brand all of their apartments. The funeral homes were branded with the Lohman name, and the apartments are going to be branded Eagle Apartments.
A logo and signage for all of the apartments is currently being developed. For example, the apartment they own in New Smyrna Beach will be Eagle Briar. Others include Eagle Park in Holly Hill; Eagle Bay on Beach Street; and Eagle Oaks in South Daytona.
Lohman said the reason for their investment into apartments is that the family felt they had too much money in the stock market, after selling the funeral homes, and wanted to diversify.
“We are enjoying it,” he said.
The Lohmans have now invested over $32 million in apartments in the last year and a half.
However, the family has changed direction on a project that was announced last year. They had planned to build Eagle Landing, a 144-unit apartment complex on Clyde Morris Boulevard that would be used as housing by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students. They are presently in negotiations to sell the property to “a Georgia group” that specializes in student housing, Lohman said.
“We decided not to get into construction,” he said. “That’s not what we’re best at and we don’t have student housing. We decided to just buy existing apartments.”
