News
NEW VENTURE LOOKS SOUTH
July 12, 2012
| Did you hear that? It was the sound of Chicago-based property management specialist US Urban Realty coming into being this wee—formed by joining two existing entities with a 7M SF residential and commercial portfolio between them (isn't that how Athena was born?). And the company knew where it wanted its geographic focus: the Midwest and Latin America. | ||
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| US Urban Realty was put together by Vasi Kutrumanes, Dean Kutrumanes, and Tony DiBiase (in the pic), along with Jim Whittington. Tony and Jim are old Latin America hands, having headed US Equities Realty's Latin American operations until striking out on their own to form Nove International a few years ago, specializing in investing and developing in Latin American real estate. (They assure us that the move had nothing to do with Chile being the fifth-largest wine producer on Earth.) "When we created a separate service company in Chile to manage properties for clients there, we agreed—with our partners in Chile—to open a Chicago office as well," Tony tells us. Rather than start the office from scratch, they combined forces with the Kutrumanes, owners of Chicago-based GNP Realty Partners. | ||
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| In both countries, Tony says, US Urban Realty will focus on inking deals with entrepreneurial owners who want hands-on property management. Chile, specifically Santiago, is a booming CRE market, he continues. The Chilean city is sprouting Class-A office buildings, and the new company already has contracts to manage some, such as the 313k SF Edificio Rosario Norte 100 (pictured). CRE growth in that part of the world will continue for a while, Tony predicts, with plenty of opportunities for service companies who already know their way around. | ||
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