Property Management / Syndication Agreement

[Eric Weireter]

Ideas needed...

I've been working with a particular owner (a syndicator) for ~1 year managing his multi-tenant office portfolio of ~170k square feet (made up of 6 buildings across Raleigh and Durham in NC & Richmond, VA). He's got another 600k square feet under contract that would increase the building count in both Raleigh and Richmond, but also expand our reach to Atlanta, GA... 1/3 of that square feet is scheduled to close by year-end.

As we are discussing employee growth and bringing maintenance in-house, the conversation on Friday revolved around developing a partnership. While he doesn't want ownership in my Property Management entity, he does want to create some form of control/protection.

Does anybody have an idea of how a property management company and a syndicator should structure a longterm agreement? What are some scenarios you've witnessed/experienced? 

[AJ Shepard]

@Eric Weireter

Seems like you have been doing a great job already, what is the syndicator asking for?

We work with a couple larger clients and we allow them to participate in the hiring process for the employees that we are hiring for their properties. We’ve gone through several iterations of pricing, but under no circumstance do we give up a portion or control of our company that we’ve taken years to build. We do allow for our client to have a login to our PM software and more access to what we are doing than a normal owner. We also allow for them to talk directly with the onsite managers that they helped hire.

I would be hesitant giving up any portion of your company or brand. If they are wanting something like that maybe create a new company with them to manage their properties and share in costs and savings, and of course liability.