Extended Family
Gaboury, who has piercing blue eyes and stands more than 6 feet tall, conveys quite the commanding presence. But talk to him for a few minutes and the CEO’s warm, easygoing personality quickly emerges from his tougher exterior. “I have a pretty good sense of humor, and I don’t get mad often, so that works out alright for most people,” Gaboury says. The strategy obviously works. Under Gaboury’s leadership, Shea Properties’ value has grown from about $147 million when he joined in 1984 to $1.7 billion today, with a goal of reaching $4.4 billion by 2010.
Gaboury joined the company two decades ago, just a few years after the company was formed under parent company J.F. Shea Co. Today, Shea Properties’ portfolio includes 7,500 apartment units in California, plus 4.5 million square feet of commercial space in California, Colorado, and Arizona.
As one of the fastest growing entities in the Shea family of companies, Shea Properties serves as a long-term investment vehicle for the parent company. “Our apartments tend to be our premier choice of product within Shea Properties, and we really want to continue to grow in supply-constrained markets and [the] markets that our sister company Shea Homes is involved in,” says Peter Shea Jr., who represents J.F. Shea’s fourth generation of management in his newly appointed position as president and CEO.
To grow, Shea Properties relies on the market smarts of its sister division Shea Homes, which builds all of the company’s for-sale housing, including condominiums. “Where developers always get in trouble is where they don’t have local knowledge,” says Gaboury. “That is part of the reason why we love to follow Shea Homes around. We get their benefits of their local knowledge.” In the near future, Gaboury expects to trail Shea Homes into the Florida and Washington markets.
Working so closely with a powerful sister division has its advantages, but there’s always the threat of sibling rivalry. Shea Properties often competes with Shea Homes for land, a desperately sought-after commodity in today’s marketplace. “We compete with them [Shea Homes], and as strong as housing has been over the last few years, they have been winning [the land deals] and building the condominiums versus [us building] apartments,” says Steve Gilmore, a vice president at Shea Properties.
While this constant battle for sites can be frustrating, Gaboury doesn’t let his co-workers get too unnerved. “He’s the one that’s taught us a little about the patience of the cycle: what goes up, comes down, and what goes down, comes back up,” says Don Gause, another senior vice president at Shea Properties.
And you can count on Gaboury to know when it’s time to make the next move. “When he approaches any business issue, he doesn’t overreact. He doesn’t jump too quickly,” says Geoffrey Stack, managing director of SARES?REGIS Group, an Irvine, Calif.-based developer. “He really takes the time to analyze the problem and determine the best approach to solving it.”