PACE Awards

2022 PACE Award Winners

See a list of the best apartment communities in the Washington metropolitan area.

About PACE

PACE enables property management professionals to “strut their stuff,” recognize their team members and show firsthand their management prowess.

PMA has established criteria that will only honor truly exceptional properties, and only one award will be presented in each category.

Property teams and management companies participating in PACE receive multiple benefits, including:

  • Teambuilding: Entering the PACE Awards provides a huge shot of adrenaline to your onsite team. It sends a message that you appreciate their efforts and believe that their performance is award-worthy. Few, if any, property management programs can boost morale and improve performance more than participating in PACE.
  • Increase occupancies: PMA will develop a case study of each winner that showcases why the community was honored. Winners’ profiles will appear on PMA’s website. Winners can also use profile in their advertising, social media and on their websites to help drive prospective residents to their communities.
  • Benchmarking excellence: PACE will establish benchmarks for excellence in property management that can be used by all participants to improve the quality of management service provided to residents and owners. If the minimum standard for an award category is not reached, an award is not be presented in that category.
PACE Categories

We take the following factors into consideration when categorizing entries to ensure that properties are competing with comparable assets:

  • Property Type:
    • Lease-Up (communities less than one year old or that have not stabilized yet)
    • Market Rate (stabilized communities assessing the prevailing monthly cost for rental housing within the free market for at least 75% of units)
    • Senior (55+ communities that are at least 75% senior, including affordable, market-rate and mixed-income communities)
    • Affordable (communities participating in a government funded, insured or otherwise sponsored program that results in rent that are below market-rate for at least 75% of units)
  • Year Built:
    • Vintage (properties constructed prior to 1990)
  • Location: DC, MD or VA (Note, PACE boundaries go as far north as Columbia, MD, as far south as Woodbridge, VA, as far east as Annapolis, MD and as far west as Leesburg, VA. Communities outside of the published borders, e.g., Baltimore, Frederick, etc., may apply, but acceptance is subject to receiving at least four entries in that sub-market.)
  • Average Rental Rate (as reported by the property during the application process)
Entry Fees

PMA Member companies pay $350 to $400 per entry, depending on the entry date. Entry fees are due within 30 days of receipt of invoice. Entries may be withdrawn, but entry fees will not be waived/refunded once the evaluation period has begun. Additionally, any community that is unavailable for evaluation after receipt of proper notice will forfeit the opportunity to participate in the competition, and entry fees will not be waived/refunded.

Tentative 2023 PACE Awards Timeline
  • November 1, 2022 - April 28, 2023: 2023 PACE Judge Recruitment
  • April 3 - May 19, 2023: PACE Entry Period
  • May 31, 2023: All Entry Materials Due
  • June 13 - September 1, 2023: PACE Evaluation Period. PACE evaluations will be conducted onsite with a SURPRISE visit from a pair of PACE judges. PACE visits take place Tuesday through Friday, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. PACE visits will not take place during the first seven days of the month.
  • November or December 2023: PMA's Awards Ceremony - Celebrating Excellence in Our Industry (PACE, Maintenance Professional, Leasing Professional, Marketing & Advertising Excellence and EPIC Awards Presented)
Additional Resources