Reading, PA

Growth Cycle

Kevin Timochenko wanted Wyomissing Gardens badly. He wanted the 156-unit property in Reading, Pa., so badly, in fact, that he offered the Department of Housing and Urban Development $2.2 million for the complex. But, after the agency made a last-minute request for $200,000 in back property taxes as a condition of the deal, Timochenko pulled out. Six months later, Timochenko got a second chance when HUD put the property up for auction. Timochenko joined the bidding from the beginning and, when the property hit $1.3 million, his competition bowed out. "I was thinking I would never get this place. Besides the birth of my children, that was the most exciting day in my life," says Timochenko, president and founder of Metropolitan Management Group, a Reading, Pa.-based company that buys and repositions properties.