Pick of the Litter
If you are looking to hire, today’s a good time to add talent.
Right now, Steve Heimler, founder of Cirrus Asset Management, a Calabasas, Calif.-based company, considers himself luckier than some in the industry these days. He started his company in 2007 to operate multifamily and hospitality assets in California, Arizona, and Hawaii—and his business is growing. This year, Heimler added 10 people to his corporate staff and another 60 folks at the property level.
“I brought on some acquisition folks and some asset management folks,” he says. “All of those guys were freed up. We were able to get available people at very reasonable pricing.”
In fact, in some cases, that talent comes at a steep discount. “I got one guy who was making a large salary for a big operation,” Heimler says. “Now, he gets benefits and is on a commission basis.”
Others in the industry are also finding that the hiring process is easier today. “The quality of the people coming into the business is great—probably the best we’ve had in as long as I can remember,” says Julie Smith, president of Greenbelt, Md.-based Bozzuto Management Co. “The people coming in are happy to have jobs, eager, and very excited about pursuing a career.”
In fact, Smith says Bozzuto is finding quality talent outside the industry as well. “You can get some great people from the hotel and hospitality industry,” she says. “These folks have work experience, work studies, and internships. They’ve really been trained on customer service. And they like [multifamily] because the hours are more favorable, and the money is comparable.”
Contravest did the same, moving one of its development/acquisition people into a regional property manager role. It shifted another acquisition person to buying apartment properties, instead of land.
The Bozzuto Group in Greenbelt, Md., an apartment owner and manager with approximately 28,500 units, made similar adjustments earlier this year. “We’ve taken one of our developers and put him in a business development role for the construction company,” says Julie Smith, president for Bozzuto Management Co. “We have taken another developer and put her in a new business role for the management company. We’ve taken one development associate and put him in an analyst role in management.”
At some firms, the entire development group has been decimated, leaving those in upper management (some of whom have an ownership stake in the company) to take on additional jobs. For instance, Spencer Stuart Jr., senior managing director with Dallas-based Legacy Partners Residential Development, a company that hasn’t had a single start since 2007, is a regional partner but is now taking on more of an asset management role.
“As a merchant builder, our goal is to build them and sell them,” Stuart says. “We weren’t holding them very long. There wasn’t that much required. Now [with properties not selling], there’s a lot more required.”
The shuffle-and-shift activity hasn’t been limited to developers, either. Dave Woodward, CEO of Laramar Communities, a Greenwood Village, Colo.-based owner and manager with around 30,000 units, moved acquisitions officers in his Chicago, South Florida, and Southern California locations over to asset management- and project-related functions. “We made the strategic decision to keep them in the company, even though it’s expensive, in order to be in a position to take advantage of acquisition opportunities when those start to materialize,” Woodward says.
