Angie Mara was a senior property manager at Gables before she moved to the development side in 2008. Talk about poor timing. Soon after, the company’s development engine slowed, and Mara went back on-site as a senior community manager. “I knew all of the practices at the company,” she says.
On the acquisitions side, a good fit can often be found in asset management. “Anybody who is an acquisition analyst is perfect in asset management because they’ve been underwriting, and they understand how asset management works,” Adelman says.
Woodward has given his acquisitions folks work in special projects that utilize their skill sets. For instance, they’re integrating the company’s market surveys with their underwriting pro formas and overseeing the completion of management agreements. Ultimately, these redefinitions of roles can benefit an organization so long as it can afford to carry the overhead. “It’s really an opportunity for us to catch up on a lot of projects that we’ve had sitting on the half-ready to implement but haven’t had the bandwidth to complete,” Woodward says.
And some of those sidelined projects won’t take long to complete—which is a good way to prepare for a return to development or acquisition activity where the employee’s skills will be in demand once again. “These are all vice president-level people [we’re transferring],” Woodward says. “It doesn’t really work to say, ‘Now you’re going to run this department for six or nine months.’ The only way to use these guys effectively is to give them special project-oriented tasks—something with a beginning and an end.”
Potential Pitfalls
Despite the success stories of employees such as Jones, Churmusi, and Mara, many firms remain wary of shuffling their people, particularly to property management. For those moves to work, Bozzuto’s Smith says anyone moving into management has to show genuine interest. Otherwise, you risk that they will fly the coop and head back to their “passion” role the minute the economy shows any signs of renewal.
“Development and management are very different,” Smith says. “If someone is just interested in staying on payroll until there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, it won’t work. Management is a complicated business. It takes a lot of work to learn it.”
Michael Lynd, vice president of investments at Lynd Cos., a management firm based in San Antonio, Texas, with 34,000 units, thinks that developers generally don’t make good managers. “I am not sure that development personnel, who tend to be entrepreneurial, will be satisfied with this type of position over the longer term,” he says.
The move from acquisitions to property management can present similar challenges, according to executives who have tried the switch. “To move between property management and acquisitions requires totally different skill sets and personalities,” says Frank Apeseche, CEO of Boston-based multifamily owner Berkshire Property Advisors, which has approximately 25,400 units. “To move from acquisitions to processes [management] is demeaning for them. You’re forcing people into jobs that they don’t have a passion for, and they’ll only stay when they can’t find another job.”
Stuart of Legacy Partners concurs. “For the guys addicted to doing the next deal, the asset management role is tame,” he says. “They just don’t enjoy it.” Which is why he recommends that if you’re considering moving a developer or an acquisitions manager to a new role, that you make sure they can leave if they don’t like the job.
Steve Heimler, founder of Cirrus Asset Management, a Calabasas, Calif.-based multifamily and hospitality asset manager, has tried to shift two of his acquisition guys to asset management and has had limited success. One wanted to learn the nuts and bolts of asset management, but the other hasn’t seemed concerned with it so far.
