The company will manage the new properties under five new third-party apartment management contracts. According to Craig Rooney, regional vice president of business development for Western National Property Management, the five properties include the 512-unit Sevilla complex in Palm Desert, the 240-unit Rancho Monte Vista in Upland, the 176-unit Arlington Heights complex in Riverside, the 156-unit Austin Creek in Vallejo and the 128-unit Evergreen Apartments in Riverside.

The new management contracts continue an expansion of Western National's third-party management assignments that gained momentum in 2007, a year in which the company was hired to manage 17 third-party apartment communities totaling 3,649 units. With those deals, the company's total portfolio of properties under management increased to nearly 150 properties.

The 28,000 units that the company manages are located in the Western US. Western National also manages its own apartment buildings and is the second-largest owner of multifamily housing in Orange County, behind the Irvine Co.

Western National Property Management is one of three entities under the umbrella of Irvine-based Western National Group. The parent company is a 45-year-old, fully integrated multifamily acquisition, development, construction and property management firm.