You're only as good as your word and your team. (Or your pit crew, if you're at the Indy 500.) For multifamily projects old and new, this translates into their neighbors, location, and amenities. Here are three projects that know how to distinguish themselves from the pack:

ATLANTA: Tap Brand Equity

Armed with peanuts and Cracker Jacks, we got taken out to a Gwinnett Braves' ballgame for a glimpse of Brand Properties' upcoming 206-unit mixed-use project surrounding the minor league team's stadium. Brand's Brand Morgan (left, with colleague Jim Duggan) just broke ground on the third stadium-area apartment project, this one directly overlooking the ballpark. (Just build nets over the windows and list "free baseballs" as an amenity.) Already, Brand has developed and operates two other apartment complexes nearby—The Highlands and The Overlook. It has 1,000 units near the stadium, commanding some $1.10/SF in rents, and Brand tells us he think's they'll spur some retail.

DC: Jump Over High Barriers To Entry

Why is family-owned giant Bozzuto synonymous with multifamily? (The answer is not a clerical error at the Roget's Thesaurus office.) It finds opportunities where others throw in the towel. President Toby Bozzuto tells us the firm has two mixed-use projects on Wisconsin Avenue, a traditionally residential street with smaller commercial sites. So Bozzuto jumped on the rare chance to develop two grocery-anchored venues (almost $250M in development costs) in the “deep, existing, and mature neighborhoods.” Cathedral Commons in Cleveland Park (a JV with grocer Giant and Southside Investment Partners) will include 137 rental units. A Safeway-anchored site in Tenleytown is still in its infancy, and should break ground in 2016.

AUSTIN/SAN ANTONIO: Be A One-Stop Shop

EdenHill’s 500-resident senior living community has been in New Braunfels since 1956 (soon it’s gonna be older than its residents), but it's not resting on its laurels. The only continuing-care retirement community between San Antonio and Austin is completing a significant expansion to secure its place at the top, director of independent living Ann Whitis tells us. (We stumbled across one of its water aerobics classes, and they were pretty rowdy.) The faith-based not-for-profit just built The Pinnacle, its foray into upscale living, and it saw record lease-up. (People reserved units three years before the opening, and it reached 90% occupancy in seven months.)