Fast Growth
Kittle pushes an Indianapolis builder’s pipeline.
When Tom Herman, owner of Herman Associates in Indianapolis, was seeking a development and finance manager for the company that his father had started, he received a promising resume. The candidate had an undergraduate degree in history and political science, plus an MBA in finance and real estate from Indiana University. He also had internships and financial experience at the Indiana Housing Finance Authority, a quasi-governmental organization.
Herman wasn’t so sure about hiring someone who worked for the government. But after talking to the candidate, Jeffrey Kittle, he felt better. “After getting to know Jeff through the interview process and working with him, I thought, ‘This is a very intelligent, competent, able individual,'” he recalls.
The rest, as they say, is history. Kittle, now 35, worked for Herman for four years before becoming a partner in the firm, now called Herman & Kittle Properties. The company has gone through extraordinary growth the past five years, growing from 124 units in 2001 to an estimated 1,292 units in 2006. Kittle is responsible for much of that, says Herman. Now, the firm has stretched beyond just the Midwest and into the Gulf states, as part of the ongoing recovery effort following Hurricane Katrina.
In hindsight, however, Kittle’s career went exactly as he planned it–despite how his education looks on paper. His grandfather was in real estate, and Kittle remembers peppering him with questions. When he was at the finance agency in Indiana, he routinely interrogated Pat O’Connor, director of acquisitions for House Invest-ments, a regional equity syndication firm in Indianapolis. “He sought me out and was very interested in learning about the business and asking questions about what we do to put deals together,” O’Connor says. “He was very enthusiastic about it and asked good questions.”
And when Kittle started working for Herman, that curiosity didn’t go away. “Jeff hadn’t done development,” Herman says. “He worked with me to learn that. He had a desire to learn all phases of our company. Although he leads development and finance, he touches all departments.”
But he drives development. In fact, he’s steered the company onto the 2005 MFE Top 50 builders list, where it’s No. 45. “He is the beginning of the pipeline,” Herman says of his partner. “He was aggressive in getting deals in here that made financial sense. He was willing to do whatever it took to add more to our pipeline.”
As the company has grown, Kittle has built its development department and added new associates. Still, there’s a downside to the growth: He’s no longer on the front lines. “I do kind of miss the hunt and chase of the deals, which I used to do myself,” he says. “Other people here do it now.”
That’s not to say he’s not happy with the way his career is unfolding, though. “I love what I do,” Kittle says. “I thank God every morning that I love what I do. I have a passion for what I do. I’m working or thinking about work most of the time.”
