About Belle Oaks Marketplace - DealPoint Merrill
Belle Oaks Marketplace is transforming the former Richmond Town Square site into one of the Midwest's most ambitious mixed-use lifestyle districts: luxury residences, curated retail and dining, wellness and fitness, green space, and hospitality-grade amenities, all designed around a single idea: let’s move the pin on luxury living in Cleveland and build a city of its own.
Developed by DealPoint Merrill Belle Oaks is not conventional apartment marketing territory. Our reference points are hospitality and lifestyle brands: think Soho House, Equinox, and the best of experiential retail, not floor plans and move-in specials. We are building a brand for affluent, design-aware, experience-driven consumers across Cleveland, and the marketing has to live up to the architecture.
The Role
The Director of Marketing owns brand and demand marketing for Belle Oaks Marketplace: strategy through execution. You will build the annual marketing plan, run the content and social engine day to day, direct creative and paid media through your team, activate the physical place through events and partnerships, and drive qualified leasing traffic for both residential and retail.
This is a player-coach role by design. We have specialists for design execution and paid media management. We do not have, and do not want, a director who only delegates.
What You Will Own (Strategy and Leadership)
- Annual marketing strategy and budget across brand, content, social, events, partnerships, and leasing demand generation, with clear KPIs tied to lease-up velocity, retail traffic, and brand health
- Brand stewardship. Protect and evolve a hospitality-inspired, design-forward voice across every touchpoint: signage, web, social, email, on-site experience, and partner channels
- Creative direction. Brief and direct our in-house graphic designer; set the visual and editorial standards; approve nothing that looks like typical apartment marketing or real estate flyer
- Paid media oversight. Set audience, budget, creative strategy and produce content for our digital ads manager, who handles platform execution; you own the results and the reporting narrative to leadership
- Agency and vendor management where outside resources are needed (photography, video production, media buys, activations)
- Collaboration with Communications. Earned media, press releases, and executive thought leadership are owned by you and our corporate leadership; you will coordinate calendars, share assets, and keep brand and PR moving in the same direction
Where You Will Get Hands-On
- Social media content creation. You will personally write, produce, and publish content across Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Facebook: captions, short-form video, Stories, on-site capture during events and construction milestones. Our designer supports with graphics; the voice, the calendar, and most of the content are yours
- Content calendar ownership. Build it, maintain it, fill it
- Copywriting. Email campaigns, web copy, event promotion, social captions, and campaign concepts in a premium, culturally fluent voice
- Email marketing. Build and send resident, prospect, and VIP list campaigns; grow the list; report on performance
- Events and activations. Concept, plan, and run on-site activations, preview events, broker and influencer tours, and community moments; be present and visible at them
- Local partnerships and influencers. Personally build relationships with Cleveland creators, tastemakers, local businesses, and community organizations
- Traditional media buying and vendor relationships. Personally source, negotiate, and manage placements in magazines, newspapers, direct mail (postcards, mailers), outdoor, and local print and broadcast, along with the vendor relationships behind them (printers, mail houses, publications, production partners). Digital ad platforms are handled by our digital ads manager; everything offline runs through you
- Analytics and reporting. Pull your own numbers, build your own dashboards, and present performance to ownership monthly with recommendations, not just recaps
Who You Are
- 7+ years of progressive marketing experience with at least 2 years in a leadership role, ideally spanning real estate, hospitality, retail, lifestyle, or consumer brands
- Deep, demonstrable Cleveland market knowledge. You live in or near the Cleveland market and you know it cold: the East Side submarkets (Beachwood, Shaker Heights, Pepper Pike, Solon, Chagrin Falls and beyond), the competitive landscape, the local media and creator ecosystem, and what makes this market different from the coastal playbooks. Out-of-market candidates planning to learn Cleveland on the job will not be competitive for this role
- A portfolio of content you made yourself. Social accounts you ran, video you shot or directed, campaigns you wrote. We will ask to see it
- Proven lease-up, opening, or launch experience. You have taken a property, venue, store, hotel, or brand from pre-opening buzz through stabilized performance, and you can speak to the numbers
- Fluency in the modern stack. Meta Business Suite, TikTok, LinkedIn, a CRM or email platform (HubSpot, Mailchimp, or similar), Google Analytics, and enough comfort with a CMS to update a website without filing a ticket
- Budget ownership experience and the discipline to defend ROI line by line
- Bachelor's degree in marketing, communications, business, or a related field, or equivalent experience that shows up in the work
Preferred
- Multifamily lease-up or mixed-use development marketing experience
- Hospitality, private club, fitness, or luxury retail brand background
- Established relationships with Cleveland media, creators, and community organizations
- Event production experience at scale
- Experience marketing a physical place (district, center, venue, or destination) rather than only a product
Pay: $125,000.00 - $130,000.00 per year
Benefits:
- 401(k)
- 401(k) matching
- Dental insurance
- Health insurance
- Life insurance
- Paid time off
- Vision insurance
Work Location: In person
