Lee & Associates has opened a property management division at its Pasadena office.
The broker-owned firm based in Westlake Village launched the management subsidiary to help buyers and alleviate landlord stress in Los Angeles, Orange and San Bernardino counties, the Los Angeles Business Journal reported.
The new Lee & Associates Pasadena Commercial Property Management firm will be led by Christopher Larimore, its founding principal.
Larimore, a commercial building owner, said that he has dealt firsthand with grievances of third-party management, including managers not paying off mortgages and letting utility bills slide.
It was his experience, coupled with stories from clients, that inspired the new property management arm.
“We look at ourselves as advisers to our clients to help them grow their assets,” Larimore told the Business Journal. “One of the problems with people that I notice when I do commercial real estate is that, a lot of times, they sell their buildings out of frustration because they’re not happy with the management.”
Since its soft launch this fall, the firm has hired Tish Childs to serve as its new director of property management. She previously served as portfolio manager for Kape Property Management, based in Carthay.
It has also taken on four listings, with three more set for the first week of January, in multifamily, office, retail and industrial properties, from a 1,000-square-foot box to a Los Angeles skyscraper.
For now, Childs will be the direct contact for each property. As the number of listings increases, the goal is to expand the office.
Unlike other brokerages which operate under one umbrella, Lee & Associates functions as a collective group of independent broker-owned and operated companies.
Although the Pasadena office isn’t the first to open its own property management company, it is the first Lee & Associates property management firm to open west of the Mississippi, something both Larimore and Childs hope inspires other offices.
“The Lee & Associates Pasadena office has demonstrated exceptional growth and leadership in a highly competitive market,” Jeffrey Rinkov, CEO of Lee & Associates, said in a statement.
“The addition of a property management team to their talented broker roster further strengthens their stature as a best-in-class full-service commercial real estate resource.”
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South Florida
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