TUSTIN, CA-Mar West Real Estate founders Craig Stevens and April Buchner have built a substantial and growing business by specializing in a niche within the commercial real estate world that is little-known to many within the industry but is integral to the operation of literally tens of millions of square feet of commercial space. Mar West manages commercial property owners’ associations and operates as a property manager for those associations. The Tustin-based company and its Northern California affiliate Kocal work with 100 developers and manage 225 business parks with approximately 4,000 buildings/units/owners and 50 million square feet of space. To hear Stevens tell it, that’s a pretty good start. He and Buchner have set a goal of tripling the size of the company, and hence have brought in longtime industry veteran John Strockis as president to help shepherd that growth. Strockis calls his new position one of the best opportunities of his lifetime. Stevens, who is irrepressible on the topic of CPOAs (commercial property owners’ associations), talked with GlobeSt.com recently about the importance of good management for CPOAs, the pitfalls of poor CPOA management and Mar West’s ambitious growth plans.

GlobeSt.com: What is the difference between what Mar West does and what a traditional third-party property management company does?

Stevens: Our business sits squarely between something that most people are familiar with―residential homeowners’ associations―and commercial property management companies. What we do, which many people in the commercial real estate industry should be familiar with but are not, is a combination of the two. About 90% of our business is forming commercial property owners' associations with the original developers and their attorneys, bringing them to life and managing them in perpetuity. The other 10% is property management. It's a specialty niche that fits between those two industries, and requires an understanding of California association law as well as an understanding of property management. The reason there is a demand for our services is that HOA management companies don't know the commercial side of the business and commercial property management companies don't know association law. We have made it our business to know California association law cold.