Swig Equities president Kent Swig added the 141-year-old building services company Helmsley-Spear to his portfolio in the beginning of last month. The company with a famous pedigree, which Swig purchased from the Schneider family for an undisclosed amount, provides building management services, investment sales consulting, and commercial and retail leasing services.
Swig is only the fourth owner of the company since it was founded by L.B. Goodale in 1866. Real estate titan Harry Helmsley owned it from 1955 until he died in 1997, and then the Schneider family won it from Harry’s widow, the late Leona Helmsley, in a legal tug-of-war.
In the future, Swig plans to expand Helmsley-Spear’s offerings to include project development, allowing its clients to access Swig Equities’ seven in-house architects, as well as Swig’s Falcon Pacific Construction LLC.
This wouldn’t be the first Helmsley-owned brokerage that Swig grabbed and reinvigorated. In 1995, Swig and a private investment company bought Brown Harris Stevens from Helmsley Equities.
As for the new company, “It is anticipated that we will at some point be acquiring properties under that name [Helmsley-Spear],” Swig said. “But we haven’t announced anything yet.”